With 10:26 remaining in the second half of Tuesday night's highly anticipated showdown between No. 1 Kansas (6-0) and No. 11 Duke (4-2), Hunter Dickinson was hit with a Flagrant 2 Foul after kicking Maliq Brown above the shoulders with his right foot.
By definition, a Flagrant Foul 2 (FF2) Foul is considered both unnecessary and excessive and involves contact that is deemed more severe. This type of foul typically results in the ejection of the player committing the foul from the game.
Kansas, with 10:26 left in the game, led Duke by just two points, 57-55, when it was announced that Dickinson had been ejected from the game. During the final 10 minutes of the second half, Kansas and Duke traded blows like two prized fighters poised to deliver the knockout blow.
Following the Dickinson ejection, Maliq Brown stepped to the free-throw line and knocked down the first attempt, but his second attempt, which would have tied the game, came up short.
With 9:53 remaining on the clock, Flory Bidunga, the 6-foot-9, 220-pound forward from Kokomo (IN) High School, was fouled and calmly converted both free-throw attempts.
Tied at 61-61 with 8:59 left on the clock, Zeke Mayo gave Kansas a two-point lead after he was fouled and made both free throws. Leading by four points, 65-61, at the 8:28 mark, Kansas found itself tied with Duke with 6:52 left in the game.
The outcome looked somewhat bleak when Cooper Flagg put Duke up by two points with 5:53 remaining in the game, but it would be the final lead of the game for the Blue Devils.
However, Rylan Griffen, at the 5:32 mark of the second half, made one of the biggest plays of the game for Bill Self’s squad.
With Kansas down by two points, Griffen dialed up a shot from behind the arc and, in doing so, gave the Jayhawks a one-point lead with under six minutes left on the clock. As big as his three-point make was, it wasn't the final time that Griffen would make a game-changing play late in the contest.
Leading by just one point with 3:33 remaining in the game, Kansas saw its lead grow to three points after Griffen converted a second-chance layup after pulling down a rebound on the offensive end of the court.
Tied at 71-71 with 2:29 left in the game, Kansas took the lead for good at the 1:57 mark of the second half following a made jumper by Zeke Mayo.
Late in the game, Duke pulled to within one point of Kansas, and ultimately had a chance to tie the game, but Kon Knueppel, while close to sending the game into overtime, misfired on his deep three.
As the final buzzer sounded inside T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nev., No. 1 Kansas emerged victorious over No. 11 Duke, 75-72.
Minutes after Kansas slipped past Duke, Dajuan Harris, who scored 14 points, pulled down three rebounds, dished out nine assists, committed just two turnovers, and was credited with three steals, talked about playing the role of underdogs against the Blue Devils.
“We talked about it a lot,” said Harris late on Tuesday night. “We saw everything. We had a great pregame speech, thanks to Coach Rob (Norm Roberts). He got us going to start the game off. I don’t know why they did that, but it was a great game against Duke.
“They’ve got some talent, and we’ll probably see them again down the road,” he added. “We’ve got to learn from this, and we can get better. We really did it for our big man (Hunter Dickinson). He was out for half the second half, so we just wanted to get that tough win for him.”
At one point in the first half, it looked like Kansas was determined to make an early season statement against Duke with a national audience watching. Self’s squad, with 12:01 remaining in the first half, had built a 13-point lead, 23-10, over the Blue Devils and, at the time, appeared to be in complete control.
As impressive as Kansas was early on, a made three-pointer by Tyrese Proctor to close out the first half pulled Duke to within two points, 41-39, of KU.
In the second half, Kansas extended its lead over Duke to nine points, 57-48, with 13:31 left in the clock, but it didn’t take long for the Blue Devils to tie the game, 61-61, with 8:59 left in the game.
With Hunter Dickinson watching from the locker room, Kansas, in the final 10:26 of the game, never trailed by more than two points. In fact, Duke, with 5:53 remaining in the game, took a two-point lead following a dunk by Cooper Flagg, but Kansas guard Rylan Griffen quickly erased that deficit when his three-point attempt splashed through the net inside T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nev.
Duke, at the 2:29 mark of the second half, tied the game at 71-71 but would get no closer. Zeke Mayo gave Kansas the lead for good with under two minutes left on the clock.
In moving to 6-0 on the season, Kansas, on Tuesday night, was led by Dajuan Harris (14), Zeke Mayo (12), Hunter Dickinson (11), and AJ Storr (11). In all, KJ Adams (8), Rylan Griffen (8), Flory Bidunga (6), David Coit (3), and Rakease Passmore (2) scored for the Jayhawks.
Harris led the way with nine assists, while Bidunga pulled down eight rebounds in 16 minutes of action.
Self, while addressing the media after the game, talked about the incident involving Hunter Dickinson.
“I saw it on the screen,” said Self. “I couldn’t find the score anywhere the whole night, but I was able to see that on the screen. I thought it was a good call. I thought the Flagrant 2 may have been a little severe. I thought it was definitely a Flagrant 1. It’s a good lesson to learn.
“The best thing about Hunter not being in the game was that Flory was, so we’re going to look at it as a positive,” he added. “But I didn’t think at the moment, nor now, did I feel like it warranted a level 2, but I do think it needed to be called. In my opinion, it's probably a coin flip whether it's a level 1 or level 2.