Kansas Clinches Big 12 Tie

No. 4 Kansas clinched a tie for the Big 12 championship with an 81-72 victory over Colorado at Boulder, Colo.

Foul-plagued Raef LaFrentz had with 13 points, and Billy Thomas had 16 for Kansas, 28-3 overall and 12-1 in the Big 12. The Jayhawks beat Colorado for the 18th consecutive time and improved to 7-0 since LaFrentz returned from a broken right hand. Backup center Eric Chenowith had 15 points.

Kenny Price had 23 points to lead Colorado (12-11, 6-7). The Buffaloes haven’t beaten Kansas since Feb. 20. 1991. The Jayhawks clinched a share of their second consecutive Big 12 championship and their seventh conference title in eight years.

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In other top 25 games: Mike Jones scored 24 points and Malcolm Johnson added 21 to lead No. 19 Texas Christian (23-4, 12-0) to a 79-70 Western Athletic Conference victory over Southern Methodist (16-8, 5-7) at Fort Worth, Texas. . . . Greg Jones scored 24 points and No. 20 West Virginia (21-5) overcame the absence of leading scorer Damian Owens with a 71-58 victory over cross-state rival Marshall (10-12) at Charleston, W.Va. Owens is sidelined with a back injury . . . Ryan Blackwell had a career-high 23 points as No. 21 Syracuse (20-5, 9-4) beat Villanova (10-14, 7-8), 69-64, at Philadelphia to stay alone in first place in the Big East 7 division. . . . Gary Lumpkin scored a career-high 31 points as Xavier (17-6, 9-4) got the best of a physical game with No. 24 George Washington (17-6, 9-4) and rallied from a 10-point deficit to a 96-86 Atlantic 10 victory at Cincinnati.

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Texas A&M; Coach Tony Barone will be dismissed after this season. Barone, 75-116 at Texas A&M;, will depart with only one winning record in seven seasons. Texas A&M; is 6-16 overall and 0-12 in the Big 12 this season.