How Melvin Council Jr. scored 4 points in 9 seconds to help seal KU’s latest win
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- Melvin Council Jr. scored four points in about a minute and swung momentum.
- Kansas won 75-69 as Council finished with 18 points, seven rebounds, three assists.
- Colorado coach Tad Boyle cited the sequence as the decisive momentum shift.
No doubt Melvin Council Jr.’s four-point scoring spree in a span of nine seconds proved pivotal in Kansas’ 75-69 men’s basketball victory over Colorado on Tuesday night at the CU Events Center in Boulder.
The 6-foot-4, 180-pound Rochester, New York native’s first of two hoops in crunch time came after KU forward Bryson Tiller blocked an inside shot by Alon Michaeli with 5:10 to play and KU nursing a 60-59 lead.
Council took off with the defensive rebound and motored all the way for a layup that gave the Jayhawks a three-point advantage with 5:07 to go.
Next came a play that enraged Buffs fans who believed an alert Council was standing out of bounds when he swiped an inbounds pass from Sebastian Rancik. Council — in one of the highlight-reel plays of the season — spun around and hit another layup off the in-bounds steal, extending Kansas’ lead to 64-59 at 4:08.
“I was trying to get back but something happened. My hands were up and I got the ball. That’s really what it was. I wasn’t even thinking about stealing it or anything,” Council said after scoring 18 points with seven rebounds and three assists in 35 minutes.
The fired-up Jayhawks extended their lead all the way to 11 points with 51 seconds left, leaving folks to wonder if Council’s steal saved the day.
“I feel like that kind of won the game for us. Kind of set the energy and, yeah, that’s Melvin,” said senior guard Tre White, who grabbed a career-high 15 rebounds to go with his 17 points.
The Buffs discussed Council’s steal after falling to 12-7 overall and 2-4 in the Big 12. KU improved to 14-5, 4-2 heading into Saturday’s 7 p.m. game at Kansas State.
“Melvin Council Jr. made a good play defensively. The ref didn’t call it. It was a great play for him and he finished the layup. It happens,” said CU guard Isaiah Johnson, who scored a game-high 19 points.
“It’s tough. We had the momentum,” Johnson added. “We had a swing coming. With those plays happening (the two buckets by Council), it takes a toll on your mental, but we have to learn how to keep fighting and bounce back.”
Noted CU guard Barrington Hargress, who finished with 17 points: “Tad (Boyle, CU coach) is never going to look at us and ask the refs for any type of mercy. Whatever happens in between those lines is what happens and we have to find a way to win the game in between there. I saw the play. I thought it wasn’t allowed. At the end of the day, whatever happens between those lines we have to get the job done.”
Boyle said the four-point sequence, “was the deciding factor of the game. Part of it is, we didn’t finish our transition. KU was the better transition team on offense and defense. We got numbers. We got an advantage break and we didn’t score. They got an advantage break and they did score.
“That play that you refer to happens, and that’s a big turning point, a momentum shift, and we never quite recovered from that. I’ll learn more as I watch the film. That was a big turning point in the game, and really frustrating, the kid (Darryn Peterson) banks a 3 (with 2:11 left to give KU a 69-60 lead) when we’re making another comeback. We just couldn’t get over the hump. Sometimes the breaks go your way, and sometimes they don’t, and this year they haven’t, so far, not in these close, close games.”
KU grad Boyle’s Buffs dropped their fourth league game in a row after opening 2-0.
“Tough loss for the Buffaloes,” Boyle noted. “Kansas was better tonight. Obviously, they out-rebounded us (45-33). I love the fight of our guys. I love the fight of this team, and we cannot lose that, and we will not lose that. You know, it starts with me, but I love our team. I love our guys. I love our fight. We’re not catching many breaks, and that’s just the way it is.
“Honor Huff banks in a 3 at West Virginia when we’re up six with a couple of minutes to go. And tonight, Darryn Peterson does it. We had our chances, you know, I thought we had some really good looks offensively in the second half, but hey, we got to play better. We got to play better.”
Of Council, Boyle said: “He is a good defender. I think they have got multiple guys that can guard, and their bigs do a good job. And with Elijah (Malone, played seven minutes total after getting injured early) out, they were able to switch a lot in the second half, and that was effective for them. We worked on that because we knew they were doing that. Our guards got to do a better job of attacking their bigs, and then our bigs got to do a better job of scoring on their guards and taking advantage of those mismatches. But we didn’t do enough of that tonight.”
This story was originally published January 21, 2026 at 4:17 PM.
