Kevin McCullar Jr. scored 13 of his team-high 21 points as No. 2 Kansas came back from a 13-point second-half deficit to defeat host Indiana 75-71 on Saturday in Bloomington, Ind.
Kansas won for the first time in four attempts in Assembly Hall, which opened in 1971, in this matchup of two of the 10 winningest programs in college basketball history.
The Jayhawks (10-1) got 17 points from Hunter Dickinson, 14 from KJ Adams Jr. and 12 from Dajuan Harris Jr. Dickinson also pulled down 14 rebounds.
The Hoosiers (7-3) got a career-high 28 points from Trey Galloway. Mackenzie Mgbako added 14, Malik Reneau had 13 and Kel’el Ware had 12. Ware added 15 rebounds.
After Kansas cut its deficit to 42-37 early in the second half, Indiana hit back-to-back 3-pointers and a layup by Galloway to open up the biggest lead of the day at 50-37 with 15:07 remaining in regulation.
But then the Jayhawks started their comeback.
Kansas trimmed it to a six-point deficit at the midway point of the second half and then to 58-55 with 8:48 left.
Harris hit a 3-pointer with 7:11 left to cut it to 59-58. When Dickinson hit a jump hook in the lane with 4:53 left, the Jayhawks had their first lead of the game at 62-61.
Galloway tied it at 64-all with a free throw before McCullar hit a 3-pointer to give Kansas its largest lead. Dickinson followed with another jump hook to extend it to 69-64.
Galloway’s 3-pointer with 54 seconds left drew the Hoosiers within 71-69. He missed a 3-pointer that could have given them the lead with 23 seconds left.
McCullar hit a pair of free throws with 17.9 seconds left to give Kansas a two-possession lead. Ware tipped in a miss to make it 73-71, but McCullar hit two charities to ice the game.
Indiana jumped out to a quick 8-2 run, forcing Kansas coach Bill Self to burn a timeout with a little more than 2 minutes gone in the game. Kansas got within 12-11 before the Hoosiers scored six straight points. Indiana led by as many as 12 before heading into the locker room up 40-32.
Kansas, which came into the game leading the nation in field-goal percentage at 52.7 percent, shot just 35.3 percent (12 of 34) in the first half.
Dickinson led the Jayhawks with nine points in the first half, followed by McCullar (eight) and Adams (seven). Galloway led all scorers with 13 first-half points for the Hoosiers. Mgbako added 11 and Reneau had eight.
–Field Level Media