LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — Darryn Peterson scored 18 points in 20 minutes and No. 14 Kansas beat No. 13 BYU 90-82 on Saturday in the 1,000th game played at historic Allen Fieldhouse.
Bryson Tiller had career-high 21 points and seven rebounds for Kansas (16-5, 6-2 Big 12).
Although the Jayhawks led by as many as 21 points, BYU stayed within striking distance in the second half, cutting the lead to six as the clock ticked under two minutes to go. Kansas outscored the Cougars 8-4 in the final minute to withstand the late rally.
Richie Saunders scored a career-high 33 for BYU (17-4, 5-3). His six three-pointers tied a career-high.
Kansas carried a 20-point lead into halftime, shooting 64.3% from the field. That included 18 points from Peterson and the Jayhawks made 9 of 12 from beyond the arc.
BYU freshman AJ Dybantsa, who entered the game averaging a nation-leading 23.6 points, went without a shot until the 11:24 mark in the first half. Dybantsa scored his first basket with 7:22 left in the period, ending a 13-0 run by the Jayhawks with a 3-pointer. He finished with 17 points.
Excitement about the matchup between top prospects Peterson and Dybantsa fizzled when Peterson exited the game a little more than 3 1/2 minutes into the second half. He missed Kansas’ previous game with an ankle sprain and has been limited to just 11 appearances, battling hamstring and calf injuries.
Kansas: Plays Monday at No.11 Texas Tech.
BYU: Visits Oklahoma State on Wednesday.
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Kansas guard Darryn Peterson (22) reacts after scoring a three-point basket during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game against BYU, Saturday, Jan. 31, 2026, in Lawrence, Kan. (AP Photo/Colin E. Braley)
Democrats Christian Menefee and Amanda Edwards are competing Saturday for a vacant U.S. House seat from Houston, a special election that will narrow the GOP's already slim House majority.
Voters are deciding a runoff between Menefee, the Harris County attorney, and Edwards, a former Houston City Council member. The winner will replace the late Democratic Rep. Sylvester Turner for the rest of his term, which ends when a new Congress is sworn in to office in January 2027.
Turner died in March 2025, but the first, all-parties primary for the special election didn’t occur until November under a schedule set by GOP Gov. Greg Abbott. Because no candidate won more than 50% of the vote, the contest moved to Saturday's runoff between the top two vote-getters.
Abbott argued that Houston officials needed the six months between Turner’s death and the first round of voting to prepare for the special election, but Democrats criticized the long wait as a move designed to give the GOP a slightly bigger cushion in the House for difficult votes. The 18th District is safely Democratic with minority residents making up most of the voters.
Edwards, 44, referenced the long vacancy in a video she posted to social media while campaigning Saturday, saying voters have gone too long without a voice in Washington.
“Today marks the day where you're finally going to get your voice back,” she said.
Menefee, 37, was endorsed by several prominent Texas Democrats including former congressman Beto O’Rourke and Rep. Jasmine Crockett. He was joined Saturday by Crockett, who is running for the U.S. Senate.
“I”m looking to bring a fight to Washington, D.C., and I need your help to do it," he said as he stood beside Crockett in a social media video.
Menefee ousted an incumbent in 2020 to become Harris County’s first Black county attorney, representing it in civil cases, and he has joined legal challenges of President Donald Trump’s executive orders on immigration.
Edwards served four years on the Houston City Council starting in 2016. She ran for U.S. Senate in 2020 but finished fifth in a 12-person primary. She unsuccessfully challenged U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee in the 2024 primary, and when Lee died that July, local Democrats narrowly nominated Turner over Edwards as Lee’s replacement.
Menefee finished ahead of Edwards in the primary, but Edwards picked up the endorsement of the third-place finisher, state Rep. Jolanda Jones, who said Edwards had skills “best suited to go against Trump.”
After Saturday, yet another election lies ahead in little over a month. Both Menefee and Edwards are on the ballot again on March 3, when they will face Democratic Rep. Al Green in another election — this one a Democratic primary in a newly drawn 18th congressional district, for the full term that starts in 2027.
GOP lawmakers who control Texas state government drew a new map last summer for this year’s midterms, pushed by Trump to create five more winnable seats for Republicans to help preserve their majority.
Winter weather added to voters' confusion, forcing local officials to cancel two days of advance voting this week, prompting civil rights group to go to court to win a two-day extension, into Thursday. Polls were set to stay open Saturday for 12 hours, until 7 p.m. Central.
Texas Congressional Candidate Amanda Edwards waves at a voter at a polling location at Acres Homes MultiService Center on Election Day, in Houston, Saturday, Jan. 31, 2026. (AP Photo/ Karen Warren)
Texas Congressional Candidate Christian D. Menefee holds up one of his flyers as a voter passes by in a car while he visited a polling location at Acres Homes MultiService Center on Election Day, in Houston, Saturday, Jan. 31, 2026. (AP Photo/ Karen Warren)
Texas Congressional Candidate Amanda Edwards waves at a voter at a polling location at Acres Homes MultiService Center on Election Day, in Houston, Saturday, Jan. 31, 2026. (AP Photo/ Karen Warren)
Texas Congressional Candidate Christian D. Menefee gets a photo with poll worker, Jessica Barraza, as he visited a polling location at Acres Homes MultiService Center on Election Day, in Houston, Saturday, Jan. 31, 2026. (AP Photo/ Karen Warren)
Texas Congressional Candidate Christian D. Menefee shakes hands with Patrick Edge, a poll worker for Amanda Edwards, as he visited a polling location at Acres Homes MultiService Center on Election Day, in Houston, Saturday, Jan. 31, 2026. (AP Photo/ Karen Warren)
