LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — The last time Kansas had to overcome a 15-point deficit was on the biggest podium in college basketball.
The Jayhawks certainly wouldn’t be intimidated by anyone in Allen Fieldhouse.
With another boisterous home crowd behind them, the nation’s No. 4 team quickly destroyed the large lead that Oklahoma State had struggled to build. And when KJ Adams scored the go-ahead basket with 4.8 seconds left, the Jayhawks twice stopped the Cowboys on the other side to clinch a 69-67 win in Saturday’s Big 12 opener for both teams.
“There are no 15-point plays,” said Jalen Wilson, who was instrumental in helping the Jayhawks rally from the same hole to beat North Carolina for the national title, “so the most important thing was to play every 4 minutes. win and that’s what we did.”
Wilson finished with 20 points and Adams had 14 to lead the Jayhawks (12-0), who trailed 45-30 at the break before a 22-5 run wiped the deficit to take them to their 32nd straight victory at the conference led.
“It could have gone to 20 very quickly or we could have taken it to 10,” said Wilson. “We all came together, shook off the first half, understood that we are home. Fifteen points may seem like a lot, but it’s not.”
The Cowboys (8-5) did not give up after the comeback and took the lead again in the closing minutes.
Kansas took it back on Kevin McCullar Jr.’s 3-pointer. with 45 seconds left, and Wilson added two free throws moments later to extend the lead to 67-64. But the Cowboys’ Bryce Thompson, who began his career at Kansas and tied a career high with 23 points, drilled his own 3-pointer with 14.8 seconds left to tie the game at 67.
The Jayhawks rushed onto the field, got the ball to Adams, and he made a nifty lay-in to retake the lead.
“We always do plays where I screen and roll out very quickly,” said Adams. “It just was.”
Oklahoma State lost the ball at the other end trying to score in transition, and with 1.1 seconds left on the clock, the Cowboys got the inbound pass to Thompson, whose shot was hit from behind. A last incoming pass was knocked away.
Thompson hit seven 3-pointers, but faced foul trouble in the second half for the Cowboys, who have lost four in a row and nine of their last 10 to the Jayhawks. John-Michael Wright also had four threes to finish with 19 points.
“We gave ourselves a chance until the end,” said Cowboys coach Mike Boynton, “but there are no moral victories.”
The last instruction Oklahoma State received before a tip-off was written on an employee’s whiteboard: “Alert The Lob Backdoor.” The Cowboys shut that down and just about everything else.
McCullar had three turnovers in the first 5 minutes and four in the half. Adams also had four in the half. And one of the two three-pointers Gradey Dick hit was a desperation bench high over the glass.
Oklahoma State, on the other hand, capitalized, taking advantage of wide-open skip passes for their own easy 3s. Thompson hit four in the first 15 minutes, and two more tries were halfway through before bouncing out. Wright’s fall-away 3 with 1:56 left forced Kansas to timeout, and his buzzer-beater gave Oklahoma State a 45–30 lead at halftime.
The Cowboys were 9 of 18 out of the arc in the first half. Kansas had 11 turnovers.
Then came the comeback.
It started when DaJuan Harris Jr. drilled a 3 for the Kansas bench. It went on for 11 consecutive runs after Thompson hit 3 more. And by the time Wilson hit a 3-pointer with 10:54 left, the Jayhawks had driven a 22-5 lead to not only clear their halftime deficit, but also take their first lead since the first minutes.
However, Kansas was unable to withdraw. And that made for a hectic last 10 minutes.
“It’s exactly like the national championship,” said Jayhawks coach Bill Self. “You flip it over, tie it up sooner than you ever expect and then it becomes a basketball game.”
BIG PHOTO
Oklahoma state. The pressure from Allen Fieldhouse was evident in the second half. The Cowboys’ first three possessions ended with a missed shot, another miss when the shot clock sounded, and a shot clock violation. By the time they finally got their legs under them, Kansas had wiped out their advantage and put on a tense finish.
Kansas: Even during the Jayhawks’ 22-5 run in the second half, when they went scoreless on three straight possessions, their defense kept Oklahoma State from getting back on track. It helped that they only flipped it once after rest.
NEXT ONE
Oklahoma State: Plays number 24 West Virginia on Monday nights.
Kansas: Goes to Texas Tech Tuesday night.
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