KU rises past UConn in fight of past 2 champs
LAWRENCE, Kan.– Students started camping at Allen Fieldhouse more than 2 days early, and by Friday night the line for the remainder of the fans to enter the historic building for this UConn-Kansas face-off snaked its way for what seemed like a mile.The match between the past 2 national champs lived up to expectations.In a back-and-forth game that became part of the Huge
East-Big 12 Fight, the No. 5 Jayhawks allowed a big early advantage to escape, then roared pull back the stretch. Kevin McCullar Jr. buried back-to-back 3-pointers to offer Kansas the lead once again in the closing minutes, and KJ Adams Jr. made 2 totally free tosses in the final seconds to hold off the fourth-ranked Huskies 69-65.”That’s big-time college basketball,”said McCullar, who completed with 21 points.”We’ve remained in these minutes multiple times. We just wanted to remain composed. We understood they were going to make a run, and the last couple of minutes, we made our push. “Kansas (7-1 )might have taken a few of the drama out of the last minute, when the Huskies (7-1) were forced to foul, however Adams and Dajuan Harris Jr. had the ability to make just one of their four complimentary throws, which provided UConn a chance.The defending NCAA champs raced down the flooring and Camera Spencer got an excellent take a look at a
potential go-ahead 3, however his shot lost and Adams grabbed the rebound. He was fouled, and this time Adams– whose mom, Yvonne, died 2 weeks ago– made both foul shots with 2.4 seconds delegated clinch the win. “He was playing for a lot more than Kansas tonight,” Jayhawks coach Bill Self stated.” I believed KJ was excellent.
“Hunter Dickinson had 15 points and 9 rebounds, and Adams finished with 18 indicate assist the Jayhawks end the Huskies’
13-game win streak and their remarkable run of 24 consecutive nonconference victories by double digits– a Department I record.Tristen Newton hit a career-high 6 threes and scored 31 points for the Huskies, but got little aid from the rest of their offense. Donovan Clingan, who banged with fellow 7-foot-2 center Dickinson all night, was held to 8 points and 7 boards. “Just like Kansas, at UConn we do not do the moral success or silver linings,”Huskies coach Dan Hurley stated.”Tristen carried us this evening. That was a virtuoso efficiency.
I thought the program and our guys revealed a champ’s heart by putting ourselves in position to have a 3 to steal it, and get out of here with a win.” Hardly ever do blue-blood programs play each other in nonconference games on campus nowadays, and that was a huge factor for the fevered pitch before tipoff. Even kept in mind Kansas fan Jason Sudeikis was
in the stands.Kansas raced to a 16-5 lead by the time the game was 5 minutes old, ratcheting up what already was a deafening roar inside the Phog. And every time the Huskies– or more precisely, Newton– made a 3-pointer to cut into the lead, the Jayhawks had the ability to enter into shift versus one of the nation’s leading scoring groups for another simple basket.”I do not believe the crowd really impacted us, “Newton said later.”We simply came out flat.”Kansas had possibilities to deliver a knockout blow, leading by as many as 12 with the ball, however couldn’t rather land it.
Newton capitalized, scoring the final five points of the very first half to cut the Jayhawks ‘advantage to 38-31 at
the break.UConn kept coming, scoring the first five of the 2nd half and setting up the heavyweight battle everybody expected.The Huskies took their first lead when Newton beat the shot clock with a 3-pointer with 10 1/2 minutes to go, then he drilled another one on their next trip down the floor.
Kansas answered when Adams got a floater to go in the lane, then McCullar struck his back-to-back threes and Dickinson among his own to give the Jayhawks a 61-54 lead with less than 4 minutes to go.Alex Karaban offered the Huskies hope with a 3-pointer, only to nasty out moments later. That forced him to see, like more than 16,000 fans loaded to the rafters, as 2 of college basketball’s titans went shot-for-shot over the last number of minutes.” We’ll get low after this one,”Hurley said.” We’re not accustomed to losing where we have the program at. Our expectation of tonight’s game– it was going to be truly, actually hard. There’s very few teams in the nation in this sort of face-off.”