Inside the crucial final moments of KU basketball’s comeback win over TCU
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Peterson hit three clutch free throws to force OT and finish with 30+ points.
- KU erased a 16-point deficit late, marking a top comeback in Self era.
- Coach Self credited a late switch and crowd energy after poor early defense.
Kansas senior Melvin Council Jr. elected to stay quiet. He refrained from approaching freshman sensation Darryn Peterson, who stepped to the free throw line with one second left in regulation, the Jayhawks trailing TCU by three in a thrilling Big 12 men’s basketball contest at Allen Fieldhouse.
Peterson — he exited the game with 2:25 left because of the onset of cramps — asked back into the contest with five seconds left and KU needing a 3 to force overtime against a TCU team that had once led by as many as 16 points.
Peterson, who did indeed return to the court, was hacked on an off-balance 3 with one second to play. He calmly swished all three free throws to tie the score as the Jayhawks went on to prevail, 104-100 in overtime.
“No, no,” Council said, amazed that any media member would ask if he had any words of wisdom for the 6-foot-6 point guard. “He’s ice cold, cold blooded. He got it. He got it.”
Council scored nine of KU’s 17 points in overtime, 18 overall in the Jayhawks’ come-from-behind win.
Peterson nearly pulled off the most clutch five-second performance in school history.
After hitting the three free throws, TCU threw an inbounds pass out of bounds with one second left. KU inbounded to Peterson, who missed a possible game-winning 3 from the corner in front of KU’s bench.
“We didn’t execute it great, but didn’t execute it bad and he got the three free throws,” coach Bill Self said of Peterson drawing the foul after accepting a pass from Flory Bidunga with two ticks left. “Even after he made the free throws, he said, ‘OK, get me out,’ and he wouldn’t have come out obviously unless he had to. But I think for five seconds he could suck it up.”
Self said it was Peterson’s decision to exit the game at 2:25, but Peterson also nodded in the direction of Self, saying he could reenter to try to hit a game-tying trey at 0:05. Peterson did not play in the OT.
“Was I thinking if we were down three when he went out, I could have put him back in? Yes,” Self said. “But the bottom line is he started the cramping — or he felt it coming on — and so that was his decision to come out.”
Peterson’s 30-plus point scoring output (on 8-of-18 shooting, 3-of-8 from 3, 13-15 from line) helped make possible a crazy comeback victory.
KU (11-4, 1-1) trailed TCU (11-4, 1-1) by 16 points with 11:32 to play.
KU also trailed by 15 points with 4:20 remaining, 11 points with 3:44 left, 10 points at 3:10, nine points with 1:14 left and five points with just 12 ticks remaining.
It was the 13th time in the history of Division I basketball that a team rallied from 15 or more down with under five minutes left. The record is a 20-point comeback under the five-minute mark by SE Louisiana vs. Campbell in 2022.
KU’s 16-point comeback victory was sixth-best in the 23-year Self era. KU trailed Missouri by 19 points in a classic 2012 win. KU also trailed Florida (Dec. 15, 2014) and West Virginia (March 3, 2015) by 18 points and Baylor (Feb. 18, 2023) and Kansas State (Jan. 22, 2022) by 17 in Jayhawk come-from-behind wins.
“He’s a special talent,” Self said of Peterson (32 points), “but we don’t know how to play with him yet and he doesn’t know how to play with the others yet.”
KU coach Self, whose Jayhawks avoided digging an 0-2 hole in league play with a game at West Virginia on tap Saturday, said he would leave the fieldhouse Tuesday, “very, very thankful, knowing that we caught a break tonight.”
The Jayhawks won despite TCU torching the KU defense for 15 made 3s on 35 attempts. KU hit 8 of 20 3s.
Council, who said he felt the game turned after he had words with Bidunda in the huddle with KU down eight points, finished with 18 points, eight assists and six rebounds, while Tre White had 22 points, five rebounds and two steals. Bidunga had 16 points and nine rebounds.
TCU’s David Punch, who suffered from cramps during the game, scored 20 points with nine rebounds and five blocks. Liutauras Lelevicius had 23 points.
“TCU was better than us tonight for 35 minutes, and then for 10 minutes we were actually quite a bit better than them, but they played great,” Self said. “They only shoot 23 3s a game and average eight (makes), and they make 15 on us and shot 20 the first half. So our defense was awful. We were soft and we didn’t rebound and not very competitive, not a lot of things.
“Pouty. Body language (stunk). Then for some reason the switch flipped, and then down the stretch a couple of good things happened. Next thing you know, crowd feels it a little bit and guys start playing (with) reckless abandon and play great.
“It was as good and exciting a win as we’ve had. I think the probability of a win tonight was probably less than the West Virginia game (when KU was down 18) even several years ago because that team was a one seed and won the league. ... This team is unproven, and for them to stick it out and do it the way they did it was pretty cool. So the best thing that potentially happened tonight was we became a team. That’s the best thing that potentially happened.”
Self and the Jayhawks dedicated the win to former team academic adviser Scott “Scooter” Ward, who died Saturday at the age of 59. Ward’s wife and mom and other family members attended the game and were introduced during a timeout. The Jayhawks’ jerseys for the rest of the season will have a patch (”SW”) on them.
“Scooter, he was with us the whole night. He was definitely with us,” Council said.
“I mean, whatever the announced attendance was tonight, we had plus one. And I think that probably had as much to do with it as anything, is that maybe our number one fan for the last quarter-century was looking down on us.,” Self said.
This story was originally published January 7, 2026 at 12:58 AM.
