KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) - Less than a week after meeting in a regular season finale the Kansas Jayhawks and Arizona Wildcats met again. This time, Arizona was able to come out with a win, defeating Kansas 88-77.

“Arizona clearly wanted it more,” senior guard Dajuan Harris said after the loss.

Senior guard Zeke Mayo took over the game for a brief stretch in the second half with a stretch of contested, stepback 3-pointers that provided some significant juice in the crowd at the T-Mobile Center. Harris also got in on the Kansas 3-point brigade, knocking in several 3-pointers as the Jayhawks shot 51.6% from the floor in the second half.

Still, the Wildcats were able to take the Jayhawks’ punch and respond, forcing Kansas into several turnovers late in the second half. After a Hunter Dickinson layup cut the Arizona lead to 70-69 with 5:43 remaining, the Wildcats closed the game on a 18-8 run to win by double-figures.

“I don’t think you can blame fatigue,” said Dickinson, who played 30 minutes a night after playing 39 minutes in an overtime win over UCF. “In this NIL era we’re paid to play so we’ve got to be professionals out there. We have to take a professional approach.”

For the second night in a row, senior center Hunter Dickinson produced another double-double with 19 points and 12 rebounds. But Arizona center Henri Veesaar responded with a layup through Dickinson’s contact, giving the Wildcats back a 73-69 lead. Down the stretch, Dickinson was beat multiple times by Veesaar, who finished with 19 points for the Wildcats.

Dickinson’s final points came on the aforementioned layup and in the game’s closing 15 minutes he failed to secure a rebound.

“It starts with me. I have to be better for my team, give more energy,” Dickinson said. “I feel like I let them down especially on the defensive end.”

Kansas seemingly couldn’t make a shot inside the arc for the entirety of the first half. Despite getting plenty of attempts inside, Kansas was 4-for-18 on 2-point shots in the first half, including 2-for-7 on layups and dunks.

After Kansas got a season-high 19 points out of junior wing AJ Storr on Wednesday night against UCF, Storr was largely a non-factor against Arizona. Off the bench, Kansas’ production came from David Coit. The transfer from Northern Illinois had 9 of Kansas’ 13 bench points.

First Team All-Big 12 guard Caleb Love had just 11 points but the Wildcats got enough contributions from throughout their roster to overwhelm the KU defense. All eight Wildcats who played scored and Arizona shot 53.4% from the floor.

“The bottomline is we didn’t make them play bad,” Self said on, “and in order for us to be a good team -- and when we played our best -- we made our opponents play bad. That to me is the biggest thing. Scoring 77 points should be enough.”

The Wildcats had an advantage in that area, getting 45 points off the bench and a team-high tying 19 points for both KJ Lewis and Veesaar, who both did not start.

Zeke Mayo finished with a Kansas-leading 20 points. Dajuan Harris had 16 points and was 4-for-4 from 3-point range. The Jayhawks’ 14 makes from 3-point range tied a season high.

The Wildcats advance to play Texas Tech, which beat Baylor 76-74 earlier Thursday in their quarterfinal matchup. That semifinal game will tip off at 8:30 p.m. CT Friday night.

“The league is really good,” Self said. “It would be hard to win four games in four days while basically playing five guys or six guys. I’m OK with that.”

The Jayhawks will await their Selection Sunday fate and see where they head for the NCAA Tournament. With a 21-12 record, KU will likely break its two-decade long streak of being a 4 seed or better when the bracket is revealed.

“We need a couple of days to rest,” said Self. “Because we’ve got a tired team. We’ve been grinding the starters -- or at least four of them -- hard for a long time. We could use a little rest. Now, I’d rather play tomorrow and not have rest but it could work out to be an advantage for us in the next week.”

In the other Big 12 Tournament semifinal, BYU will play Houston at 6 p.m. CT.