Naadir Tharpe connected on a short jumper in the lane with 16.5 seconds to go in the second overtime, lifting No. 9 Kansas to a 68-67 win over No. 14 Oklahoma State on Wednesday night in Stillwater, Okla.
Travis Releford scored 18 points and Jeff Withey had three double-overtime free throws among his 17 points for the Jayhawks (22-4 overall, 10-4 Big 12 Conference), who are tied with No. 13 Kansas State for the conference lead with five games to go. Kansas has won at least a share of the Big 12 regular-season title for each of the past eight years.
Markel Brown scored 20 points to lead Oklahoma State (19-6, 9-4), which had won seven straight — including snapping the Jayhawks’ 33-game home winning streak at Allen Fieldhouse earlier this month.
Star freshman Marcus Smart fouled out midway through the second overtime after 16 points for OSU.
On the winning play, Tharpe isolated against Phil Forte and wiggled his way into the lane before popping in a jumper from the right side.
Brown missed a jumper from the left wing with about 7 seconds to go, and Releford dove along the sideline in front of Oklahoma State’s bench to prevent the rebound from going out of bounds and instead let the final seconds tick off the clock.
Defense ruled the day, as the Jayhawks used the nation’s best defense to limit Oklahoma State to a season-low 32.8 percent shooting.
Neither team led by more than six points.
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