Kansas men’s basketball continues to win games played on the big stage.
The No 6-ranked Jayhawks (3-0), who rolled to six victories in the 2022 NCAA Tournament — including one against North Carolina in the national championship game — downed No. 7 Duke, 69-64, in Tuesday night’s Champions Classic contested at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.
This huge victory came in large part because of the late-game performance of freshman Gradey Dick, who scored seven straight points in crunch time (including a 3 with 2:20 left to turn a one-point deficit into a 61-59 lead).
Dick followed that 3 with a two-hand layup to give KU a 63-62 advantage, and then hit a left-handed inside shot to make it 65-62 at 1:01.
After a Dick rebound, KJ Adams scored to make it 67-62 in the final 30 seconds of the contest. Dick finished with 14 points on 6-of-11 shooting.
The Jayhawks were led by Jalen Wilson, who scored a career-high 25 points on 11-of-26 shooting with 11 rebounds and five assists.
Kevin McCullar scored 12 points and grabbed six rebounds as KU, which trailed by as many as six in the second half, won its third Champions Classic game in a row and sixth in the past seven seasons.
KU has won four of its past five and five of seven overall against the Blue Devils.
Senior Duke guard Jeremy Roach scored 16 points and big man Kyle Filipowski had 17 points and 14 boards for Duke, which was playing its first game against a fellow blue blood in the new Jon Scheyer era.
KU improved to 3-0 under active coach Norm Roberts, who will coach one more game (Friday vs. Southern Utah) before coach Bill Self returns to the bench.
The Jayhawks, who started no player taller than 6-foot-8 against a Duke lineup that included 6-foot-10 Ryan Young and 7-foot Kyle Filipowski, raced to an early 17-6 lead.
McCullar hit two early 3s for the Jayhawks, who made 7 of their first 11 shots. However that 11-point advantage dipped all the way down to four points (33-29) at halftime.
Yes, KU led by just four despite making 45% of their shots and only 2 of 13 attempts from 3. Duke shot 31% in the first half and made only one shot from long range on 11 tries.
Wilson led the way for KU in both halves. He scored 10 points on 5-of-10 shooting in the first period, adding six rebounds and three assists. McCullar and Dick combined for 15 more points in the half. That trio totaled 51 of Kansas’ 69 points for the game.
The Jayhawks got four total points from their bench, though two of them did come from freshman big man Zuby Ejiofor, who had five rebounds and two blocks in 10 minutes.
Fellow freshman center Ernest Udeh added four blocks for a Jayhawk defense that was physical all game. In fact, Duke committed six offensive fouls in the first half, with the Jayhawks willing to stand in and take charges. Adams and McCullar each added two more blocked shots defensively.
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