KU rallies late, escapes Indiana for first road win

By Henry Greenstein     Dec 16, 2023

article image AP Photo/Doug McSchooler
Kansas guard Jamari McDowell (11) makes a move along the baseline during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game against Indiana, Saturday, Dec. 16, 2023, in Bloomington, Ind.

Bloomington, Ind. — The offensive struggles that had hamstrung Kansas all afternoon subsided at the most convenient possible time for the Jayhawks.

KU went on a 16-5 run to claim its first lead of the game over Indiana on a Hunter Dickinson hook shot with 4:53 to go, Kevin McCullar Jr. drained a no-hesitation deep 3-pointer a minute and a half later and the red-hot Trey Galloway missed a potential go-ahead 3 with 23 seconds to go. The Jayhawks overcame a disjointed first 30 minutes of play Saturday and claimed their first-ever victory at Assembly Hall, 75-71.

“It was a hell of a team win,” KU coach Bill Self said. “It was a great environment. What a place to play.”

McCullar went down as the hero with a team-high 21 points, despite shooting just 3-for-11 from the field and playing much of the second half with four fouls. Dickinson had 17 (with 14 rebounds), KJ Adams 14 and Dajuan Harris Jr. 12 as they willed the Jayhawks to victory on a night when the team had only shot 12-for-34 (35%) in the first half.

“Early in the season, playing these games like this, especially on the road, is great for us, knowing what’s coming in the Big 12,” McCullar said.

Galloway posted a career-high 28 on 12-for-17 shooting before fouling out late, while Mackenzie Mgbako, Malik Reneau and Kel’el Ware all reached double figures in support.

“They gave us a game, they gave us a great shot, they shot it really well, they played really well inside, made it tough for us defensively, especially in the first half,” Dickinson said. “It was a battle. Two blue bloods out there.”

KU got off to a poor shooting start and the Hoosiers made the Jayhawks pay at the other end, as Ware stole a pass from KJ Adams to set up a reverse layup in transition by Galloway. That forced an early timeout by Self with KU trailing 8-2.

The Jayhawks drew as close as 12-11 on a McCullar 3 and a nice feed inside from Elmarko Jackson to Adams before IU scored six straight, highlighted by a hard-fought layup by Mgbako through a McCullar foul. A pair of turnovers in transition, however, prevented the Hoosiers from widening their advantage to double digits.

“Indiana had a couple of opportunities that got away from them because of our good fortune, not because of our good play,” Self said.

The fouls started to pile up for KU, as Adams and McCullar spent unusually lengthy stretches on the bench with two each midway through the first half, forcing the Jayhawks into some awkward lineup combinations. For one stretch they had Johnny Furphy, Nick Timberlake and Parker Braun on the floor at once and missed three 3-pointers in rapid succession. Again, though, IU couldn’t pull away as it went five minutes and 22 seconds without a field goal.

At that point, though, the Hoosiers restored some energy to the Assembly Hall crowd with a putback dunk by Ware and a transition 3 by Mgbako. IU led 34-22 at a timeout with four minutes to go in the half.

The Jayhawks were able to save some face before the break thanks to a 3-point play and some free throws by McCullar, but missed a chance to draw even closer when a Dickinson layup went in and out and Galloway made a floater at the other end. Adams was able to make a free throw before the break to set the halftime deficit at eight points.

Early in the second half, Jackson made a 3-pointer that seemed poised to give his team some momentum, but the teams combined to miss their next eight shots, including a layup attempt by Adams, before Mgbako drained a 3 of his own. A McCullar turnover set up Galloway to connect from deep again, putting IU back up 48-37 in short order.

“Really good player,” McCullar said of Galloway. “He’s improved a lot from last year. He was getting downhill, hitting 3s, played a really great game. Hats off to him.”

Jamari McDowell hit a 3 and Dickinson put back a miss in transition as part of a 9-2 run that prompted an IU timeout, with the Hoosiers’ lead cut to 58-55.

“Sometimes (McDowell) wants to do too much, but he made a great pass in the first half, of course sticks that big 3, guards pretty well … I’m getting more and more confidence in him,” Self said.

After a long and sloppy sequence, IU left Harris completely uncovered in transition. He drained a 3 at the same moment that Galloway got called for a foul under the basket, but McDowell stepped out of bounds before KU could get an opportunity to claim the lead.

The Jayhawks took their first lead of the game on a Dickinson hook shot with 4:53 to go before the teams began trading buckets. Harris gave KU a brief five-point advantage with an off-balance bank shot, but Galloway added to his career-best showing with a 3 to make it 71-69.

McCullar missed the front end of a one-and-one, but Ware touched the ball on its way out of bounds, a call that got upheld on review.

Given another chance, McCullar made a pair of free throws, then two more with 7.6 seconds left to seal the result.

“I told him to send us home,” Harris said. “That’s all I said to him. I trusted him. Everybody on our coaching staff, our bench, trusted him.”

KU (10-1) will host Yale on Friday.

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Written By Henry Greenstein

Henry is the sports editor at the Lawrence Journal-World and KUsports.com, and serves as the KU beat writer while managing day-to-day sports coverage. He previously worked as a sports reporter at The Bakersfield Californian and is a graduate of Washington University in St. Louis (B.A., Linguistics) and Arizona State University (M.A., Sports Journalism). Though a native of Los Angeles, he has frequently been told he does not give off "California vibes," whatever that means.