Wilson shines as No. 5 Kansas beats No. 8 Creighton

LAWRENCE, Kan. — Jalen Wilson remained composed when he needed to hit the go-ahead 3-pointer for Kansas in the closing seconds.

He was equally stoic watching No. 8 Creighton try to match him.

The redshirt freshman calmly hit the go-ahead 3-pointer with 42 seconds left Tuesday night, only to foul the Bluejays’ Marcus Zegarowski attempting a tying 3 at the other end. But as Wilson watched, the preseason Big East player of the year missed the last of three foul shots, allowing the fifthranked Jayhawks to escape with a 73-72 win.

“I just had a lot of confidence in myself. My team has a lot of confidence in me,” said Wilson, who missed most of last season with an injury. “We told each other, ‘We’re going to win this game. We’re going to win this game.’”

Wilson finished with 23 points and 10 rebounds, his role of hero solidified thanks to Zegarowski’s miss. Christian Braun added 14 points, missing a foul shot that could have clinched the game with 12.5 seconds to go, while David McCormack contributed 13 points as the Jayhawks (5-1) won their fifth straight against the Bluejays.

“To have their best player miss one late, yeah, we were fortunate. Very fortunate,” Kansas coach Bill Self said. “But the game should have never been in that situation, even though it was a great game and either team could have won. We had a chance to put ourselves in a position where that wouldn’t happen and we screwed it up.”

Denzel Mahoney gave Creighton (3-1) a chance down the stretch. He hit a 3-pointer with 1:22 left to get the Bluejays within 70-68, then picked the pocket of Bryce Thompson and coasted for the tying layup with just over a minute to go.

That’s when Wilson drilled his 3 off a nifty kick-out from McCormack, and Zegarowski missed an answering 3 as Braun gathered the rebound and was fouled. But the sharpshooter missed the front end of a one-and-one, giving Creighton a chance to tie. Zegarowski unloaded his attempt and Wilson got the slightest bit of arm.

Zegarowski hit the first free throw. And the second. The third clanked off the rim.

“It was a hell of a college basketball game an kind of unfortunate that somebody had to lose. Really unfortunate that it was us,” Creighton coach Greg McDermott said. “Really proud of our team, proud of how we competed.”

Zegarowski finished with 16 points, though he was hounded all night by defensive whiz Marcus Garrett and was 5 of 14 from the floor. Mahoney led the Bluejays with 19 points while Christian Bishop and Damien Jefferson had 13 apiece.