The environment wasn’t the friendliest for Kansas guard Kevin McCullar in the Jayhawks’ 75-72 gauntlet victory over Texas Tech on Tuesday night. McCullar, who transferred from the Red Raiders program during the offseason, was slated for a bitter-sweet homecoming to Lubbock.

It only seemed fitting that after an evening of exposure to boos, screams, and negatively written signage from the crowd at United Supermarkets Arena, McCullar found teammate KJ Adams Jr. for a game-sealing dunk. Texas Tech climbed back within a one-possession game with 2:13 left after trailing Kansas (13-1, 2-2 Big 12) by as much as 12 in the second half.

McCullar, finishing the night with seven points through 27 minutes, recalled that last play after he scooped up a loose ball with nine seconds to go.

“I just got the ball, knew they were going to try and foul, so I tried to get it out of my hands, and I saw KJ (Adams) sprint hard – I threw it to him and he took flight,” McCullar said.

His target, Adams, is one of four Jayhawks who dipped into double-digit figures on Tuesday night. Adams scored 14 of Kansas’ 75 and pulled down five rebounds on the night. Leading the KU scoring was Dajuan Harris with a career-high 18 points, including a perfect 5 of 5 from three-point land.

Kansas, after trailing by 8 early on, finished shooting 31 of 63 (49%) with 22 points scored off a game-high 15 turnovers by the Red Raiders. Not earning much help from the free-throw line, the Jayhawks made just two trips to the stripe (2-4).

“Every night, we got a different guy that can step up,” McCullar said. “That’s what great teams got to have to make a long run in this thing. We all been around the game for a while and played a lot of college ball and there’s going to be tough road games you’ve got to pull out in the Big 12 and this was one of those.”

Texas Tech forward Kevin Obanor turned it on for McCullar’s return, scoring a game-high 26 points, including 4 of 8 from three-point range. Behind Obanor, the Red Raiders finished the night shooting 26 of 55 (47%) and 10 of 12 from the free-point stripe.

Despite just six personal fouls by Tech, Kansas coach Bill Self expected a physical game.

“They do such a good job of forcing you to be a player,” Self said. “They get on your side and force you to drive it and the help’s always there. If you play off two feet, you have a chance to beat you got a chance to beat it.”

Kansas entered the game backing up McCullar in a similar way to how Columbia-native Harris did when the Jayhawks visited Missouri on Dec. 10 (KU 95-67). Harris, asked about McCullar’s approach to Tech after the win, felt McCullar played much smarter basketball after exiting the game with two personal fouls in the first half.

McCullar felt the surrounding atmosphere didn’t get to him, either.

“Life’s too short to let some boos and some yelling and stuff like that get to me,” McCullar said. “I just went out there, stayed with my brothers, they had my back and we pulled out a W.”

More from Bill Self on McCullar's return to Lubbock:

"I thought he did fine. The two fouls early. Kevin liked it here. I mean, he loved it here. Both parents went to school here. His dad was a football player here. And he loves Coach Adams. He loves the staff. He loves those guys. The welcome he got was exactly the way it should be, and he knows that. So if it messed with him, then he's had 10 months to prepare for that, because he knew that was coming, and it would mess with anybody. But he knew that was coming.

I think that Kevin played pretty well. I thought he was aggressive. He didn't make shots, but he made the biggest shot of the game. And he didn't do a ton, but he got the biggest steal of the game. So we wouldn't have won the game without Kevin in the last 30 seconds or 40 seconds."