Duane Harris Jr. scored 14 points and nine assists, while Zeke Mayo added 12 points to lead No. 1 Kansas to a 75-72 win over No. 11 Duke on Tuesday night.
Rylan Griffin answered an emphatic go-ahead slam from Duke’s Cooper Flagg by hitting a go-ahead three-pointer to put Kansas ahead 68-67 with 5:32 to go. Flagg tied the score again at 71 before Mayo put the Jayhawks ahead for good with 1:57 remaining.
Duke scored just one point in the final 2:29, and Kon Knueppel’s three-point attempt rang out at the buzzer.
Flagg, the Blue Devils’ freshman star, finished with 13 points on 5-of-9 shooting after being held to just two points on two shot attempts in the first half.
Kansas’ Hunter Dickinson was ejected on a Flagrant-2 foul when the Jayhawks led by two with 10:26 to go. Referees ruled he intentionally kicked Duke’s Maliq Brown in the head during a tangle on the ground.
Dickinson scored 11 points on 4-for-11 shooting and anchored an impressive defensive effort before being ejected. Teammate AJ Storr added 11 points on 4-for-7 shooting.
Duke’s Tyrese Proctor finished with a team-high 15 points on 5-for-7 shooting, while Knueppel added 11 points on 4-for-11 success from the field despite missing all eight of his three-point attempts.
Trailing by two at halftime, the Blue Devils took a 42-41 lead 57 seconds after the break on a jumper from Knueppel, their first lead since leading 3-2 in the opening moments of the game. Kansas responded with an immediate 9-0 run.
As a team, the Jayhawks shot 49.1% from the field and made eight of their 17 three-point attempts (47.1%). Duke finished the game with 24 field goals on 48 attempts (50%), including 11 of their 26 attempts from beyond the arc (42.3%).
Kansas started the game on an emphatic 16-3 run as it gave away five straight field goals between Duke’s first and second baskets. Sion James hit a 3-pointer that gave the Blue Devils a brief reprieve, but Storr answered with a thunderous dunk at the other end to give Kansas an 18-6 lead.
A 16-4 Duke surge late in the half helped the Blue Devils get within 41-39 entering the break.