Dajuan Harris explains how Kansas overcame off night from Jalen Wilson to beat Texas

As Kansas forward Jalen Wilson struggled Monday night against Texas, the Jayhawks leaned on others to come away with an 88-80 victory. Guard Dajuan Harris was one of those players, finishing with 17 points, five assists and a team-high four steals.

But it wasn’t just him. In a postgame interview with ESPN’s Kris Budden, Harris made sure to shout out teammates Gradey Dick and Kevin McCullar for their performances as well.

“We’ve got a team full of players,” he said. “Anybody can step up at any time of the day. Today I stepped up, Kev stepped up and G stepped up and did what he did tonight. It was just a team effort.”

No. 5 Texas clearly made it a point to limit the opportunities for Wilson, who entered the game as KU’s leading scorer with 21.5 points per game. Their game plan worked, as he finished just 1-of-7 shooting for a season-low two points.

Dick led the team with 21 points, while McCullar got to the free throw line 13 times and chipped in 16. The No. 9 Jayhawks also got a big performance from Joseph Yesufu, who scored 14 points off the bench.

Kansas entered halftime with a 42-35 advantage, but quickly found itself in trouble to start the second half as Texas opened with an 8-1 run to tie the game at 43. The Longhorns were unable to get over the hump and take the lead, however, as KU buckled down to hold on for the win. The Jayhawks did not trail the entire game.

The Jayhawks saw their lead grow as large as 13 in the second half on their way to victory. They forced 15 turnovers on the evening, scoring 18 points as a result of those miscues.

“We listened to the scouting report today at shootaround,” Harris said. “We knew we needed this win. It’s a big win for us and we just wanted to come out and play hard.”

With the win, Kansas improved to 19-5 (7-4 Big 12) and now finds themselves just one game behind the Longhorns for first place in the conference. They look to continue to climb up the league standings when they take on Oklahoma at noon CT on Saturday in Norman.