KC Replay: This was a sports week of comebacks, high-scoring heroes and clutch moments
The Chiefs needed a miracle. Nothing short of that would do. Let’s be upfront here.
They trailed by three with 13 seconds left and a lot of green grass between the line of scrimmage and the Arrowhead Stadium end zone. Around the Truman Sports Complex and throughout living rooms across town, heads were shaking at what surely had all the makings of a season-ending defeat to the Buffalo Bills in the AFC Divisional Round of the NFL playoffs.
Nope. We all know what happened next.
Never count out this team
It wasn’t just the final seconds, either. The final few minutes of last Sunday’s Chiefs-Bills game were ridiculously entertaining.
Start with the end of regulation: 25 points combined in the last two minutes. Lead change upon lead change. Two star quarterbacks, KC’s Patrick Mahomes and Buffalo’s Josh Allen, hitting throw after throw in a game where each was his team’s leading ... rusher. Yeah, this one was off-the-charts bonkers.
When the dust settled (or cleared, or whatever it is that dust eventually does), the Chiefs were celebrating, the Bills and their fans were muttering a collective welp and another game was being scheduled for the Chiefs at Arrowhead.
Incredible stuff. Tell your grandkids about it someday.
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Lighting up the scoreboard I
K-State’s Ayoka Lee, a 6-foot-6 junior center, poured in a jaw-dropping 61 points as the Wildcats beat No. 14 Oklahoma 94-65 at Bramlage Coliseum last Sunday.
Ex-squeeze me? Sixty-one!? That’s the most ever by a Division I women’s player. And it was no fluke: Earlier this season, she threw down 43.
The previous NCAA record was 60 by Cindy Brown of Long Beach State in 1987. Lee also broke Brittney Griner’s Big 12 record of 50, set in a 2013 victory over K-State.
Lighting up the scoreboard II
It wasn’t 61 points, but Ochai Agbaji wasn’t going to let the Kansas Jayhawks get swept by Texas Tech this season. No way, not after watching his hometown Chiefs beat the Bills in a thriller the day before.
The Oak Park High product poured in a career-best 37 points Monday night in Lawrence as KU beat back the Red Raiders 94-91 in double-overtime. It was the second straight high-output game for the KU senior: a couple days earlier, he helped the Jayhawks to a 78-75 comeback victory at K-State.
“When we went to overtime (against Tech), I was like, ‘This is like the Chiefs game. They won at all costs. We have to do the same thing,’” Agbaji said.
Welcome home to this pitcher
The Royals signed former KU Jayhawks hurler Sam Freeman to a minor-league contract on Thursday.
The Texas native is attempting to come back from his second Tommy John surgery as a pro. Now 34, Freeman made his major-league debut in 2012 and pitched in parts of nine seasons in the bigs before sitting out last year (he was recovering from elbow surgery).
He was originally a 32nd-round draft pick of the St. Louis Cardinals (2008).
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Comets hold court downtown
We’ve been writing occasionally for a couple of months now about the MASL match at the T-Mobile Center in downtown Kansas City.
Well, it went off without a hitch last weekend. In fact, it featured nine goals for the host KC Comets and just two for the visiting Tacoma Stars.
Moreover, Comets player/coach Leo Gibson scored not one, two or three goals, but four — his 200th goal and 400th point in a distinguished Major Arena Soccer League career. Gibson and the Comets put on quite a show for their appreciative fans.