Men's Basketball Falls 73-72 at #5 Kansas

LAWRENCE, Kan. -- A tie-breaking three-pointer by Jalen Wilson with 42.1 seconds left helped No. 5 Kansas hold on to beat No. 8 Creighton, 73-72, on Tuesday afternoon as part of the Big 12 - BIG EAST Battle at Allen Fieldhouse in Lawrence, Kan.

Down three with 1.1 seconds left, Creighton (3-1) had a chance to tie it but Marcus Zegarowski missed his final free throw attempt after being fouled on a three-pointer. The rebound was batted out of bounds as time expired as KU escaped with its second one-point win in a row over Creighton, and first since 1974.

Creighton got out of the gates quickly, holding the Jayhawks without a field goal over a three minute stretch as part of a 12-2 run to move ahead 14-8 and prompt a Kansas timeout. Eudora, Kan., native Mitch Ballock had six points and Kansas City area product Christian Bishop added five in the game's first five minutes for the visitors. Kansas quickly answered with an 11-0 run to move ahead 21-16. after eight minutes.

The teams were deadlocked at 33 late in the first half before a three-pointer and three-point play by Wilson matched KU's largest lead at 39-33. CU answered with a bucket inside from Bishop, and the Bluejays went into the break trailing 39-35.

Bishop led CU with nine points and four rebounds at the break, while Ballock had four assists. Kansas was paced by 13 points from Wilson and a dozen by David McCormack. KU's leading scorer, Ochai Agbaji (16.2 ppg.) was scoreless at the break.

A pair of three-pointers by Zegarowski and a lay-up by Denzel Mahoney helped CU move ahead 43-42, but a long triple by Wilson returned the lead to the hosts. It was part of a span where the redshirt freshman scored 12 straight points for the Jayhawks.

With the game even at 50 Kansas embarked on an 8-0 run that included a pair of three-pointers by Christian Braun before a Bishop free throw ended the spurt with 10:44 to go. The Bluejays held KU scoreless for nearly three minutes, but could only get within four points in that time. CU tied the game at 59 a short time later on a corner three-pointer by Mahoney with 7:10 to play.

Kansas pulled ahead 64-59 with five minutes to play after two buckets and a free throw as CU missed four straight tries from three-point range, then extended the margin to 67-61 on Braun's third trey of the half. But CU answered with just its third offensive rebound of the game, a putback from Damien Jefferson with 3:12 to go to slice KU's lead to 67-63.

A 7-2 run, including a steal and score, by Denzel Mahoney helped CU tied the game at 70-all with 1:07 left as KU called another timeout with 1:03 remaining. Wilson came up big after the timeout, draining a three-pointer from the right wing with 42.1 seconds left. Zegarowski missed an open look at a game-tying shot with 15 seconds left and CU was forced to foul Braun with 12.5 left. He missed the free throw to give the visitors one final chance, but Creighton, which missed just eight free throws in its first three games, missed its final attempt to close the day 9-of-18 at the foul stripe.

Mahoney led Creighton with 19 points and was joined in double-figures by Zegarowski (16), Jefferson (13) and Bishop (13). Bishop finished one rebound shy of his first career double-double as he hauled in a team-best nine rebounds.

KU was paced by 23 points and 10 rebounds by Wilson, while Braun added 14. McCormack was held to one point after intermission and finished with 13. Agbaji was scoreless, missing all six shots in 24 minutes of action. KU won the rebound battle 41-33 and held an 11-3 edge in second chance points.

Creighton returns to the court on Friday at 6 p.m. when it hosts Nebraska at CHI Health Center Omaha. That game will air on BTN.

NOTES: With six points today, Mitch Ballock moved from 40th to 38th on Creighton's all-time scoring list with 1,028 points. He passed Rod Mason (1,023) and P'Allen Stinnett (1,024) ... Creighton has now made a three-pointer in 886 consecutive games, which moves it out of a tie with Cornell for the nation's 15th-longest active streak ... The Bluejays have also made a three-pointer before halftime in 257 games in a row ... The game was Creighton's first regular-season appearance on ESPN since a Feb. 23, 2013 game at Saint Mary's ... Creighton's four-game win streak vs. top-10 opponents and five-game win streak vs. top-25 foes was snapped ... Creighton is now 0-2 all-time in match-ups involving top-10 teams ... Kansas won its 11th straight home game ... Creighton fell to 1-1 all-time at Allen Fieldhouse, having beaten Kansas State there in 1968 .. Creighton fell to 1-1 all-time in the Big 12 - BIG EAST battle, having beaten Oklahoma last season. The Big 12 leads this year's series 3-1 after last season saw the BIG EAST win 8-2 ... Creighton fell to 39-148 all-time against top-25 teams and 10-78 in true road games ...Despite the loss, Creighton's three top-10 road wins since the start of the 2018-19 season is still tied for the national lead with Michigan State ... Bill Self improved to 267-14 all-time in home games as Kansas head coach ... Creighton had been 25-1 since the start of last season when making eight or more three-pointers.

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Team Stats

Denzel Mahoney

Marcus Zegarowski

Christian Bishop

Damien Jefferson

Players Mentioned

Mitch Ballock

Christian Bishop

Damien Jefferson

Denzel Mahoney

Marcus Zegarowski

Players Mentioned

Mitch Ballock

Christian Bishop

Damien Jefferson

Denzel Mahoney

Marcus Zegarowski