Kansas Jayhawks Basketball vs Kansas State Wildcats Recap

A back-and-forth game all night long tuned into nip-and-tuck late, and the Kansas Jayhawks edged their in-state rivals from Kansas State, 90-88, on a buzzer-beater layup by Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk.

Recap

As has become typical, KU struck first, with Jackson dunking after a Graham missed three. However, K-State would control the first portion of the game. Barry Brown from K-State broke an 11-all tie, and K-State built leads of 18-13 and 24-15. A 9-0 Kansas run tied it back up, and Kansas finally re-took the lead at 34-32 on a Jack Jackson 3-pointer with 5:48 to go until the break. It was all KU as the Jayhawks dominated the last five minutes of the first half en route to a 52-42 halftime lead.

That lead was short-lived, however, as K-State clawed their way back in. By the 16:47 mark, KU’s lead was down to four points at 59-55. Kansas would take leads of 62-57, 73-64, and 81-75, but couldn’t put the Wildcats away. KSU finally tied it at 84-all on a Barry Brown layup with 1:48 to play.

When K-State’s DJ Johnson fouled out with 1:02 remaining, Landen Lucas sank both free throws to give the Jayhawks an 88-86 lead. Wesley Iwundu answered with a slop shot on a drive, but Frank Mason couldn’t answer on the other end, giving KSU the ball with a chance to take the lead with just 36 seconds left. Dean Wade would miss a wide open three at the top of the key with 11 seconds left, and the rebound bounced off several Wildcats before becoming KU’s possession under the K-State basket with 5.6 second to play.

K-State guarded full-court on the in-bounds pass, and the second pass found it’s way to Svi Mykhailiuk, who went all Tyus Edney on the Wildcats and bounced home a layup as the buzzer sounded. The review upheld the call, and Kansas held on for a much tougher-than-expected matchup, prevailing by the 90-88 final.

This and That

K-State’s last lead was 32-31 with 5:48 to play in the first half. They never led in the second half.

Josh Jackson picked up his third technical foul of the season early in the second half.

The officiating was questionable at best, with some... interesting calls going both ways.

Landen Lucas had his second straight double-double, with 18 points on 8-10 shooting to go along with 12 rebounds.

Josh Jackson nearly had a double-double, getting 22 points to lead all scorers (16 in the first half) on 9-15 shooting and 9 rebounds.

As a team, Kansas shot 11-22 (50.0%) from behind the arc, while K-State only hit 7-21 (33.3%).

However, KU only hit 13-20 (65.0%) free throws compared to K-State’s 19-23 (82.6%).

K-State was credited with 9 steals on the night; KU just two.

Overall, both teams shot over 50% from the floor: KU 53.2%, KSU 50.8%.

Did Svi travel before the game-winning layup?

Yes. Yes, he did.

Up Next

Kansas will host Texas Tech on Saturday, January 7, at 6:15 PM inside Allen Fieldhouse, on ESPN2.

We’ll have more on the K-State game in the next day or two, but for now, the comments section is yours.