That only lasted until the Jayhawks seemingly fed off of the home crowd and climbed back into the thick of things as well with Wayne Selden an Frank Mason III really getting things going alongside Ellis. After the turnover, Woodard fouled out and Kansas retook the lead and never relinquished it.
Advertisement
This was the second 1 vs. 2 matchup to go three overtimes. It was the most viewed college hoops game on WatchESPN in both unique visitors (295,000) and total minutes viewed (11.6 million). Kansas head coach Bill Self said.
“This was the toughest game I’ve played”, senior forward Perry Ellis, who led the Jayhawks (13-1, 2-0 Big 12 Conference) with 27 points and 13 rebounds, told ESPN after the game. I’m sticking with the greatest game in the land, one in which the top-tier talent still gives us a highly-skilled game with back-and-forth drama and the type of uncontrolled emotion the National Basketball Association doesn’t see until May, if at all.
Hield finished 13 of 23 from the field, hitting eight three-pointers.
After the Sooners called a timeout, Hield threw the ball away on the ensuing inbounds pass, and Mason added two more free throws with 8.6 seconds left for the final margin.
“Right before the play started, I took a step closer (to the boundary) and I went into an all-out deny and got a deflection”, Mason said. Oklahoma was inbounding the ball with just over 38 seconds left and got a good look at a potential game-winning shot that missed.
“I just hate losing”.
The difference between Kansas and Oklahoma comes beyond the starting five. Hield’s 46 points tied for the most in Allen Fieldhouse history for a Kansas opponent. But Lattin hit the back-end of the rim on his first attempt and the game went into overtime.
The game between the nation’s No. 1 Kansas Jayhawks and No. 2 Oklahoma Sooners was as good as advertised.
Instead, Ellis perfectly described how the Jayhawks pulled it out: “Just heart”.
Kansas shot 53.7 percent overall and nailed 11 of 19 3-pointers. Landen Lucas scored five of KU’s eight points in the second overtime, but neither team scored over the last 2:18, sending the game to a third OT at 94-all.
Jaysean Paige scored 20 points, Tarik Phillip adding 18 and Daxter Miles pitched in 14 as the Mountaineers overcame a seven-point, second-half deficit and massive foul trouble to stave off the host Frogs in Fort Worth, Texas.
Jordan Woodard hit 6 three-pointers and had 27 points for the Sooners, who were trying to extend their best start in 28 yards. No. 1 and No. 2 have met 40 times previously in college basketball. It’s the first loss of the season for Oklahoma (12-1), while Kansas improves to 13-1. The order was reversed in the coaches’ poll released earlier Monday with Oklahoma No. 1 and KU No. 2.
No. 23 CT was ranked in the preseason Top 25 and for the first two weeks of the regular season.
The season of random non-conference tournaments and cupcake games are over, and we have now officially reached the point in the college basketball season where, for major conference teams, every game is a test.
Advertisement
Kansas were six-point favorites in the game, which they failed to cover on Monday night.
