Kansas tops Creighton in top-10 matchup after late three-pointer, missed free throw
Kansas freshman Jalen Wilson accepted a crisp pass from big man David McCormack, and without hesitation, drained the biggest shot of Tuesday’s 73-72 victory over Creighton in Allen Fieldhouse.
“He has no fear,” KU coach Bill Self said a few moments after Wilson’s three from the corner with 42 seconds to play busted a 70-70 tie.
“I didn’t think he had it (fear), but until you’ve actually coached him, once we started playing (games) … I mean this dude’s got no fear. He likes the moment. I look for him to continue to improve and give us more and more as we move on,” Self added.
The 6-foot-8 Wilson, who tied a career scoring high with 23 points on 8-of-12 shooting (4 of 6 from three) credited the 6-10 McCormack (13 points, seven rebounds) for finding him open.
“I was only open,” Wilson said, “because David rolled to the basket so hard. He forced help. I was able to knock the shot down. If not for that hard roll by Dave, I would not have had the shot so open.”
Wilson was involved in the final possession of the game. Creighton’s Marcus Zegarowski, who scored 16 points on 3-of-8 three-point shooting, launched a possible overtime-inducing three from the side with 1.1 seconds left.
Wilson was called for a foul on the play.
All-America candidate Zegarowski made the first two free throws and missed the third, the clock running out on No. 5-ranked KU’s fifth win against one loss. No. 8 Creighton fell to 3-1.
“I wasn’t supposed to foul obviously,” Wilson said. “I was trying to pressure him up. He had been hitting the whole game. I feel like I kind of hit him a little bit. (But) he kicked his feet out to me. Fortunately he didn’t hit all his free throws and we won the game. That’s really it,” Wilson added.
McCormack, who was 5-of-12 shooting and 3 of 4 from the line on the day and played a season-high 28 minutes, watched with interest as the guard headed to the stripe.
“I hope he doesn’t make ‘em all,” McCormack said of his feelings as the guard shot his free throws. “I don’t know if we were lucky,” he added. “Some crack under pressure. Some don’t. We put them under pressure (and) they folded. It was a great win overall.”
Self said after the game he hadn’t yet seen a replay of Wilson’s late foul.
“Their best player missed one late. We were very fortunate,” Self said. “The game should never have been in that situation. We were pretty lucky.”
KU was 11 of 17 from the line with a big miss by Christian Braun (14 points, six assists, four rebounds) with 12.5 seconds left and KU up three. Creighton hit 9 of 18 free throws.
Wilson was 3 of 5 from the stripe.
“He’s a good player, man. He’s a really good player,” Self said of Denton, Texas native Wilson.
Wilson was fired up playing before 2,500 fans. No fans had been allowed for KU’s first two home games.
“The intensity was crazy,” Wilson said. “We didn’t have 16,000 but it felt like everybody was there. The energy we had coming into the game. We were locked in. This is a Top 10 team coming in our house. We can’t lose here. We’ve got to represent everybody in the city. We came out with a lot of emotion, energy and came out with the win.”
“It felt like an NCAA Tournament game,” Self said, “because there were obviously fans from both sides, call it like it is. Creighton brought 500, 700 fans. Even at 2,500 I thought it didn’t have the full homecourt (advantage).
“I’d much rather have fans from both schools than no fans at all. I was happy about that. I was a little disappointed, take this for what it is worth, nobody probably cares.
“if our fans can’t come to games don’t sell them (tickets) on the secondary market. Give them to a Jayhawk fan, sell them to a Jayhawk fan. Call the ticket office and let us pay you back for them. Hell, I’ll pay you back. I’ll personally pay you back for your tickets if you cannot come and give them to a Kansas fan. That was the only thing about today that was remotely negative even though it was still great we had people in the building,” he added.
Marcus Garrett had nine points and four assists and Bryce Thompson eight points on a day Ochai Agbaji had zero points on 0-for-6 shooting. He did have five boards and four assists.
Creighton was led by Denzel Mahoney, who had 19 points. Eudora native Mitch Ballock hit two early threes and finished with six points on 2-of-8 three-point shooting with five assists.
KU will next meet Omaha of the Summit League at 6 p.m. Friday in Allen.
This story was originally published December 8, 2020 at 6:09 PM.
