Hunter Dickinson made a tiebreaking layup with 1:17 left and No. 1 Kansas beat No. 9 North Carolina 92-89 in Lawrence, Kan., on Friday despite blowing a 20-point lead.
After Dickinson split a pair of free throws with 12.1 seconds left, the Tar Heels’ Elliot Cadeau had his 3-point attempt from the right wing hit the front of the rim as time expired.
This was the teams’ first matchup since Kansas rallied from a 15-point halftime deficit to beat North Carolina in the 2022 national championship.
The Tar Heels (1-1) nearly turned the tables on Friday in front of a raucous crowd that watched its team’s 51-31 lead late in the first half dissolve into an 87-83 deficit with 3:28 left.
The Jayhawks (2-0) recovered in large part due to Dickinson, who played the final 3:28 with four fouls. Dickinson finished with 20 points and 10 rebounds. Zeke Mayo scored a game-high 21 points for the Jayhawks, while KJ Adams Jr. had 14 points, AJ Storr 13 and Dajuan Harris Jr. 10.
Seth Trimble paced North Carolina with 19 points. RJ Davis added 16 points, and Cadeau, who shot 3-for-11, had 12 points and seven assists. Jae’Lyn Withers racked up 11 points and nine rebounds, while Ian Jackson and Ven-Allen Lubin scored 10 points apiece.
North Carolina whittled a 15-point halftime deficit down to 59-53 in the first five minutes of the second half. After Dickinson made a jumper to push Kansas’ lead to 17 in the opening seconds of the half, North Carolina ripped off a 15-4 run keyed by its defense and punctuated by Jalen Washington’s putback slam.
The Tar Heels eventually pulled ahead 80-79 on Withers’ driving layup with 7:09 left. Withers scored the final eight points of the 14-2 run, swishing a pair of 3-pointers before giving the Heels their first lead since 10-9.
Kansas led big at halftime after shooting 59.5 percent (22-for-37) and limiting North Carolina to 35.5 percent (11-for-31). Overall on the night, the Jayhawks shot 48.7 percent (37-for-76) to the Tar Heels’ 42.9 percent (27-for-63).
–Field Level Media
