Source: AP Exchange
Kansas had already gone through a tough loss this season, falling in overtime to Indiana in Honolulu.
On Tuesday night the Jayhawks went from looking like easy winners to facing another excruciating loss. But a short jumper by Frank Mason III with 1.8 seconds to go gave the Jayhawks a 77-75 victory over top-ranked Duke in the State Farm Champions Classic at Madison Square Garden.
“The play was to iso (isolate) me, and my teammates did a good job of spacing the floor,” Mason said. “It felt good when it left my hand. ”
A long 3 at the buzzer by Duke’s Frank Jackson was off line.
The Jayhawks (1-1) beat a top-ranked team for the eighth time.
“This was more of a must win for us than it was for Duke. Not that there’s must win this time of year, but I think it will do something for us because for the first time we won a game where we shot it like crap,” Kansas coach Bill Self said. “So hopefully we learned some lessons and know that you cannot be great offensively and still win if you do little things and play aggressively. So I think it should bode well for us moving forward. ”
Self was all smiles talking about his senior point guard.
“He’s made a lot of big plays for us,” Self said of Mason. “I don’t know if he’s made any game-winners but he’s made plays to put us in overtime. Yeah he’s a stud.”
“Mason made a big-time play and it was well guarded,” Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. “He just made a big-time play.’
Kansas was ahead 62-50 with 8 minutes to play but the Blue Devils (2-1), despite a terrible shooting game by Grayson Allen, the leading vote-getter on The Associated Press’ preseason All-America team, managed to suddenly start hitting shots and they tied the game at 75 with 15 seconds left on a 3-pointer by Jackson..
Kansas called a timeout with 8.2 seconds left and set up the game-winner.
“That was quite a play we called, just get out of his way,” Self said.
“I just took advantage of the separation I created and I just shot the ball,” Mason said. “It felt good when it left my hand and I just thank God that it went in.”
Mason, who had a career-high 30 in the loss to Indiana, led Kansas with 21 points, freshman Josh Jackson added 15 and Devonte’ Graham had 13.
Luke Kennard led five Duke players in double figures with 22 points. Allen finished with 12 points on 4-for-15 shooting.
“I think Grayson had a very frustrating game,” Krzyzewski said of Allen who started the game by making 1 of 12 from the field. “I think you can’t expect to get a foul. I think he’s going to a point where he makes a move and it’s a good move and he expects a foul. I’m not saying they’re not calling fouls. You can’t do that. That can’t be what you’re doing. The last few minutes, he moved well. He’s playing hard when he gets the ball and he needs to play harder when he doesn’t have the ball. It’s what he did in the last few minutes.”
