March 12, 2026; Kansas City, Missouri, USA; Arizona Wildcats guard Brayden Burris (5) and UCF Knights guard Chris Johnson (22) grab a rebound in the second half at the T-Mobile Center. Mandatory Credit: William Purnell-Imagn Image Brayden Burries scored 21 points and top-seeded Arizona never trailed in an 81-59 win over eighth-seeded UCF on Thursday afternoon in Kansas City to advance to the Big 12 Tournament semifinals.
Tobe Awaka had 12 points and 12 rebounds in the quarterfinals, and Koa Pitt also had 12 points for the Wildcats (30-2). Ivan Kharchenkov added 10 points for Arizona.
Themus Fulks had 14 points for the Knights (21-11), who are expected to earn an at-large berth in the NCAA Tournament. Jordan Burks and Chris Johnson added 10 points each for UCF.
Arizona will face fifth-seeded Iowa State in the first semifinal Friday night.
5th place Houston 73, BYU 66
Kingston Flemings led four players in double figures to help Houston pull away from BYU.
Emanuel Sharp added 13 points, Joseph Tugler had 12 points and a team-high eight rebounds and Chris Cenak Jr. had 10 points on 5-of-6 shooting for second-seeded Houston (27-5), which has won four straight for the third time in as many years in the league and is back in the Big 12 semifinals.
Freshman sensation AJ Dybantsa had a game-high 26 points for his 13th straight game of 20, while Robert Wright III had 15 points and a game-high five assists for 10th-seeded BYU (23-11).
No. 7 Iowa State University 75, No. 16 Texas Tech 53
Tamin Lipsey scored 20 points to help the fifth-seeded Cyclones crush the fourth-seeded Red Raiders.
Joshua Jefferson added 18 points, 13 rebounds and six assists as the Cyclones overcame an early 12-point deficit in the quarterfinals. Dominykas Pleta added 11 points off the bench as Iowa State (27-6) notched its second big performance in two days.
LeJuan Watts had 12 points and seven rebounds and Christian Anderson had 10 points for Texas Tech (22-10). The Red Raiders fell to 3-3 after losing star big man JT Toppin to a season-ending ACL injury.
No. 14 Kansas 78, TCU 73
Darryn Peterson scored 16 of his 24 points after halftime to help the Jayhawks survive a hard-fought win over the Horned Frogs.
Peterson was inefficient, going 5-for-17 from the floor, but made up for it by hitting 13 of 16 free throws in 37 minutes. He added eight rebounds and three steals for third-seeded Kansas (23-9), which faces second-seeded and fifth-seeded Houston in the semifinals later Friday.
David Punch led sixth-ranked TCU (22-11) with 24 points (18 of them in the second half) and 10 rebounds. Liutauras Lelevicius added 14 points and Jayden Pierre had 11 points with a team-high three 3-pointers for the Horned Frogs, who had their six-game winning streak snapped.
–Field level media
