No. 5 Houston’s hopes for a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament, or even a favorable spot in the Big 12 tournament, are likely over.

The Cougars blew an early lead Monday night and couldn’t keep up with No. 14 Kansas at Allen Fieldhouse. The Jayhawks rolled to a dominant 69-56 win, marking the program’s 41st straight home win on ESPN’s “Big Monday” under head coach Bill Self. It also came on the heels of a bad double-digit loss to Cincinnati last week and gave the Jayhawks their third win over a top-five opponent.

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Houston has lost three straight games, all to the top tier of the Big 12. The Cougars fell at Iowa State by three points early last week, and then couldn’t keep up with Arizona on Saturday. This is the program’s first three-game losing skid since January 2017.

The Cougars opened the game on an 11-3 run. The Jayhawks shot 2-of-13 from the field over the first 10 minutes and only stayed in it with seven quick free throws.

Tre White got the Jayhawks back to even with about 90 seconds left in the half. He drilled a 3-pointer from the wing, just the third bucket from behind the arc all night. Kansas ended up closing the half on an 11-0 run to take a four-point lead at the break. Darryn Peterson hit a floater right at the buzzer, giving him eight points in the first half.

That continued well into the second period. Kansas used a 13-0 run over a nearly six-minute span to break open the game. That gave Kansas a 14-point lead, the Cougars’ largest deficit of the season.

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Pretty quickly, the lead hit 18 after White drilled a wide-open 3-pointer in the corner. That sent Allen Fieldhouse into a frenzy and was more than enough to lift the Jayhawks to the win.

White led the way with 23 points and five rebounds in the win for Kansas on his three 3-pointers. Peterson added 14 points, and Bryson Tiller finished with 11 points and 10 rebounds. Peterson appeared to play normally throughout the contest, playing 30 minutes. The projected NBA lottery pick has drawn significant criticism after being repeatedly unavailable due to various injuries, and he asked to come out early in a win over Oklahoma State due to cramping.

Those issues with their star player and having to play without him for 11 full games, Self said, may have been a good thing.

“I think our guys have gotten so much better since the start,” Self said on ESPN. “And even playing without DP so much, I think in many ways it’s forced our other guys to grow up. So our ceiling is still well in front of us.”

Kansas now sits 21-7 on the season. The Jayhawks have won just two of their last four after a 16-point home loss to Cincinnati on Saturday and a near-20-point blowout at Iowa State. But Monday’s win, especially with Peterson seemingly back to normal, set them up for a statement opportunity at Arizona on Saturday that can completely shake up the Big 12 race.

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Kingston Flemings led Houston with 16 points, though he went just 6-of-18 from the field and was the only Cougar to hit double figures. The Cougars went 5-of-24 from the 3-point line and reached the free-throw line only nine times compared to 20 for Kansas.

Thankfully for Houston, the tough part of its schedule is over. The Cougars will take on Colorado, Baylor and Oklahoma State to end the regular season, all of which they should handle and use to bounce back before the conference tournament in Kansas City.

Though this losing skid is bad, Houston is still undoubtedly a legitimate team capable of making a run in the NCAA tournament. It’ll just have to figure out things — and fast. And, a top seed in the tournament is almost certainly no longer in the cards.