In the Sunflower Showdown, Kansas used a buzzer-beating lay-up to defeat Big 12 basketball rival Kansas State, 90-88.
Both teams, Kansas and Kansas State, entered this game at 12-1 and in the end, the impact of the home crowd at Allen Fieldhouse, along with a buzzer beater by Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk is what proved to be the difference.
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Led by Josh Jackson’s 22 points and the entire Jayhawk starting lineup scoring in double figures, third ranked Kansas was able to defeat their rivals, the Kansas State Wildcats. The second leading scorer for Kansas was Landen Lucas, who had 18 points on 8-of-10 shooting, while also collecting 12 rebounds.
Like Kansas, K-State’s starting lineup all scored in double figures, with 20 points from Dean Wade. And despite this scoring, it was the three-point shooting of Kansas State that came back to haunt them. They only shot 7-of-21 (33.3 percent) from three and that is just not enough to knock off the No. 3 team in the country on the road.
In what was an extremely close battle throughout, the game ended on a controversial buzzer-beating layup by Mykhailiuk, who ended the game with 11 points. With just 5.6 seconds on the clock, Kansas inbounded the ball and eventually got the ball in the hands of Mykhailiuk, who was just inside the mid-court line at the time. He then proceeded towards the rim in what looked like a travel, but the whistle was never blown.
And because a traveling violation is not a reviewable offense, Mykhailiuk’s buzzer-beating layup still counted, resulting in the two-point victory for Kansas.
What this game did do for Kansas State, despite the loss, is simple: it proved that K-State is the real deal. Even though the Wildcats started the year 12-1 before this game, they were not getting much in terms of national love. This might go down as just another number in the loss column, but the closeness of this game is an indication of what Bruce Weber has done with this program to this point in the season.
As for Kansas, this win marked their 50th consecutive win at home. They will also remain as one of the top teams in the country and a likely one seed until they come out on the losing end in a game. Their next outing comes against Texas Tech, who just knocked off No. 7 West Virginia.
K-State comes back home after this loss to face off against the Oklahoma Sooners, who are in the midst of a down season looking for a quick turnaround in conference play. If the Wildcats want to keep their tournament hopes high, then they have to be able to win their home games, especially the ones against the lower end of the conference.
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With how close this game was, it shows that despite the high rankings, Kansas is vulnerable this season. Will we see another team take home the Big 12 crown? Baylor, perhaps? We will have to wait to find out.