Columbia, Mo. ? Kansas may yet win the Big Eight’s final basketball championship.
Not with a perfect record, however.
Missouri, the last team to storm through the Big Eight unbeaten, handed KU its first league loss, 77-73, on Saturday at Hearnes Center.
“I was never thinking about going undefeated, but I was thinking about playing better than we did today,” KU coach Roy Williams said after Mizzou shot a blistering 54.2 percent against KU’s proud defense.
“Today it was a complete and total breakdown,” Williams added after the loss, KU’s first in eight Big Eight games. It marked the Jayhawks’ second loss in 21 overall contests and snapped a 12-game win streak.
KU’s coach also used the word “breakdown” to describe the key possession of the game.
Down 75-73, the Jayhawks called time out with 12.2 seconds left. Paul Pierce inbounded to point guard Jacque Vaughn, who fired a pass to shooting guard Jerod Haase in a far corner.
Electing to pass instead of launching a possible tie-breaking three, Haase threw inside to … nobody, except MU’s Simeon Haley, who was immediately fouled after swiping the pass with 2.9 seconds left.
Haley swished two free throws and closed out MU’s 15th win against eight losses and fifth in nine Big Eight games.
The turnover by Haase was his first of the game.
“We had the option of Jerod in the corner, Raef on the near-side block and Paul trailing. We had a breakdown and it didn’t work,” Williams said.
“He was trying to throw it to Scot (Pollard), but it wasn’t supposed to be one of his options,” Williams added. “Give Jason Sutherland some credit for being there.”
Sutherland, who scored a game-high 18 points, shadowed Haase in the corner and convinced him to not shoot a three.
“I felt someone on my hip. I thought we could have gotten a higher percentage shot. I tried to get the ball to Scot,” said Haase, who hit 1 of 8 shots and scored three points, making 1 of 5 threes.
“I didn’t want to force it. The bottom line is it was a poor decision, a poor play,” added Haase, visibly shaken after the game.
Pollard, who had five points while playing just 21 minutes because of foul problems, realizes Haase was looking for him.
“We missed communications,” Pollard said. “Haley was on me and I didn’t finish coming across. It’s a miscommunication.”
KU point guard Jacque Vaughn was confident the play would work.
“We’ve run it 100 times and will run it again,” said Vaughn, who had 17 points and six assists. “The first option is I could try to beat my man with initial penetration, the second was throwing it to Jerod coming off a screen on the baseline, the third is throwing to the man who set the screen rolling to the basket. I’m confident in the option I took. Jerod is a competitor and will be back. The next time I’ll throw it to him again.”
Haase said his shooting problems didn’t influence his decision to shoot, just the desire to get a good shot. Yet it might have been tough to pull the trigger on another rough shooting night. He’s hit four of his 19 threes.
“There probably is some lack of confidence now. It’s something he’s got to fight through,” Williams said.
The Jayhawks, who led, 38-36, at halftime, led 55-49, with 12:52 left. Danny Allouche scored five points during an 8-0 run that gave the Tigers a 57-55 advantage at 10:53.
KU trailed 65-64 following a Ryan Robertson three with 6:33 left. However, he then missed two free throws and following two missed charities by Pierce, MU went on a 6-0 blitz and led, 71-64, at 4:02.
Robertson atoned by hitting a three in a 6-1 run that cut the gap to 72-70, at 2:57. It was close the rest of the way until the critical turnover in the late seconds.
“I’d like to congratulate Missouri. They shot 54 percent (to KU’s 40.7),” Williams said. “We’ve always been proud of what we do on the defensive end and Missouri made us seem like we’re not a very good defensive team at all.”
KU’s Raef LaFrentz hit 3 of 10 shots and scored 13 points with 10 rebounds. Pierce hit 5 of 12 shots and scored 11 points on a day MU’s defense ruled.
“With both Haleys and Monte (Hardge), those are three big guys,” Williams said. “They are good defensively and hard to shoot over. They are very good.”
KU will next meet Colorado at 7:05 p.m. Wednesday at Allen Fieldhouse.
