No. 1 Kansas outlasts No. 11 Duke, 75-72, without Hunter Dickinson

With 10:26 left in the second half of Tuesday night’s highly anticipated showdown between No. 1 Kansas (6-0) and Duke (4-2), Hunter Dickinson was hit with a Flagrant 2 foul after kicking Maliq Brown upstairs had the shoulders with his right foot.

By definition, a Flagrant Foul 2 (FF2) is considered unnecessary and excessive and involves contact that is considered more serious. This type of foul usually results in the player who committed the foul being ejected from the game.

Kansas, with 10:26 left in the game, was leading Duke by just two points, 57-55, when it was announced that Dickinson had been ejected from the game. In the final 10 minutes of the second half, Kansas and Duke traded blows like two prized fighters ready to deliver the knockout blow.

After Dickinson’s ejection, Maliq Brown stepped to the free throw line and knocked down the first attempt, but his second attempt, which would have tied the game, failed.

With 9:53 left, Flory Bidunga, the 6-foot, 220-pound forward from Kokomo (IN) High School, was fouled and calmly converted both free throw attempts.

Zeke Mayo tied the game at 61-61 with 8:59 left, giving Kansas a two-point lead after he was fouled and made both free throws. With a four-point lead (65-61) at 8:28, Kansas was tied with Duke with 6:52 left in the game.

The result looked a little bleak as Cooper Flagg put Duke ahead by two points with 5:53 to play, but it would be the final lead of the game for the Blue Devils.

However, at 5:32 of the second half, Rylan Griffen scored one of the biggest plays of the game for Bill Self’s team.

With Kansas trailing by two points, Griffen fired a shot from behind the arc to give the Jayhawks a one-point lead with under six minutes left. As big as his three-point lead was, it wouldn’t be the last time Griffen made a game-changing play late in the contest.

Leading by just one point with 3:33 to play, Kansas extended its lead to three points after Griffen converted a second-chance layup after grabbing a rebound on the offensive end of the court.

With the score tied 71-71 and 2:29 left in the game, Kansas took the lead for good at 1:57 of the second half after Zeke Mayo made a jump shot.

Late in the game, Duke pulled within a point of Kansas and finally had a chance to tie the game, but Kon Knüppel, on the verge of sending the game into overtime, missed his high three-pointer.

When the final buzzer sounded at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, No. 1 Kansas emerged victorious over No. 11 Duke 75-72.

Minutes after Kansas got past Duke, Dajuan Harris, who scored 14 points, grabbed three rebounds, had nine assists, had just two turnovers and had three steals, talked about playing the underdog role against the Blue Devils.

“We talked about it a lot,” Harris said late Tuesday night. “We have seen everything. Thanks to coach Rob (Norm Roberts), we had a great pre-game speech. He got us started the game. I don’t know why they did that, but it was a great game against Duke.

“They have some talent and we will probably see them again later,” he added. “We have to learn from it and get better. We really did it for our big man (Hunter Dickinson). He was out for half of the second half, so we just wanted to get the tough win for him.”

At one point in the first half, it looked like Kansas was determined to make a statement in front of a national audience early in the season against Duke. Self’s team had built a 13-point lead (23-10) over the Blue Devils with 12:01 left in the first half and appeared to be in full control at that point.

As impressive as Kansas was early, a three-pointer from Tyrese Proctor to end the first half brought Duke within two points of KU, 41-39.

In the second half, Kansas extended its lead over Duke to nine points, 57-48, with 13:31 left, but it didn’t take long for the Blue Devils to tie the game at 61-61, 8:59 still in the game.

As Hunter Dickinson watched from the locker room, Kansas never trailed by more than two points in the final 10:26 of the game. In fact, Duke took a two-point lead with 5:53 left in the game after a Cooper Flagg dunk, but Kansas guard Rylan Griffen quickly erased that deficit when his three-point attempt went through the T-Mobile net Flew Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Duke tied the game at 71-71 at the 2:29 mark of the second half, but couldn’t get any closer. With less than two minutes left, Zeke Mayo gave Kansas the lead for good.

At 6-0 this season, Kansas was led by Dajuan Harris (14), Zeke Mayo (12), Hunter Dickinson (11) and AJ Storr (11) entering Tuesday night. Overall, KJ Adams (8), Rylan Griffen (8), Flory Bidunga (6), David Coit (3) and Rakease Passmore (2) scored for the Jayhawks.

Harris led the way with nine assists, while Bidunga grabbed eight rebounds in 16 minutes of play.

When Self addressed the media after the game, he spoke about the incident with Hunter Dickinson.

“I saw it on the screen,” Self said. “I couldn’t find the score anywhere all night, but I could see it on the screen. I thought it was a good call. I thought the Flagrant 2 might have been a little harsh. I thought it was definitely a Flagrant 1. It’s a good lesson to learn.

“The best thing about Hunter not being in the game was that Flory was there, so we look at it as a positive,” he added. “But I didn’t think at the moment or now that it would warrant a Level 2, but I think it had to be called. In my opinion it’s probably a coin toss whether it’s level 1 or level 2.