It might be the third-place game at the Maui Invitational in Honolulu, but the Wednesday contest will feature two highly rated teams as the No. 1 Kansas Jayhawks take on the No. 7 Tennessee Volunteers.
Tennessee (4-1) fell 71-67 to No. 2 Purdue in a physical battle that went down to the final seconds. The Volunteers hit only one of their last seven shots and went almost three minutes before getting scoring until Dalton Knecht sank a 3-pointer to cut the deficit to 70-67 with 14 seconds left.
The Boilermakers added a free throw to seal the win.
Knecht led the Volunteers with 16 points and seven rebounds.
“Really hard-fought game. We knew it was gonna be a physical basketball game,” Tennessee coach Rick Barnes said. “We’ve been in those games before. We’re built for it. Just wish we could have made a couple more shots.”
Arguably the biggest storyline from the game was the physicality and how the game was officiated, as 52 total fouls were called.
“We really knew it was gonna be a game like that. They’re a tough team, we’re a tough team,” Barnes said. “We’re resilient, and I think we showed that today. Toughness-wise, we did everything we could.”
Kansas (4-1) wasn’t able to put up as much of a fight in its Maui semifinal, losing 73-59 to No. 4 Marquette. The Jayhawks committed 18 turnovers and shot just 9-for-16 from the free-throw line.
Kevin McCullar Jr. led the Jayhawks with 24 points, Hunter Dickinson scored 13 and both players had eight rebounds. They were the only Jayhawks to hit double figures in scoring.
It was just the third time in 13 games that Shaka Smart beat a Bill Self-led Kansas team, and the two coaches got into a verbal argument late in the first half after McCullar sank a 3-pointer and then made comments to the Marquette bench.
“I doubt it was accurate, whatever (Shaka) said,” Self said. “I’m not going to get into it.”
As for the contest as a whole, Self said, “We got behind and played catch-up the whole game. But I actually thought we played better than the score. You miss all your free throws and botch many opportunities as we did and a lot of times botched opportunities lead to points on the other end. But they were definitely the much better team tonight.”
The Volunteers are led in scoring by Knecht with 18.4 points per game. James Josiah-Jordan leads with 7.4 rebounds, and Zakai Zeigler is averaging 3.2 assists through five games on the season.
Dickinson leads the Jayhawks with averages of 22 points and 11.2 rebounds per game this season, with McCullar contributing 19 points per contest. Dajuan Harris Jr. notches 6.6 assists per game.
Tennessee is 3-4 against Kansas dating back to 2009, with the most recent matchup coming Nov. 25, 2022, a 64-50 win for the Volunteers at Paradise Island, Bahamas.
Wednesday is final day of the three-day tournament, which was moved from Maui to Honolulu due to the wildfire recovery efforts. The loser will end up 1-2 in the tourney and miss an opportunity at a resume-building win.
–Field Level Media