No. 1 Kansas men beat No. 2 Oklahoma in triple overtime

“You really just throw that one in the trash and try to get focused for the next game”, Baylor guard Lester Medford said. I’m sticking with the greatest game in the land, one in which the top-tier talent still gives us a highly-skilled game with back-and-forth drama and the type of uncontrolled emotion the National Basketball Association doesn’t see until May, if at all.

The Sooners (12-1, 1-1) had a crack at tying the game at the end of the third overtime, but a contested 3-point attempt by Hield missed badly.

It was the first 30-point, 20-rebound game in North Carolina history and it was the first 20-20 game for a Tar Heel since Tyler Zeller had 20 points and 22 rebounds against OH in the 2012 NCAA Tournament.

Self and Oklahoma coach Lon Kruger, who have coached 1,668 combined games, struggled to come up with a better game they’ve witnessed or participated in. “It was just terrific”.

Asked which was the most memorable game he played in at “The Phog”, Turgeon seemed stumped.

GREENWOOD, Miss. – Marcus Romain scored 20 points and Mississippi Valley State (1-14, 1-0 Southwestern Athletic Conference) won its first game of the season defeating Arkansas Pine Bluff (2-13, 0-1) on Monday night.

Wayne Selden Jr., and Graham joined Ellis with over 20 points on Monday night.

It’s the eighth time teams from the same conference have met in a No. 1 vs. No. 2 matchup in the regular season, with the second-ranked team winning five of the previous seven (and four straight, including in 1990 when No. 2 Missouri beat No. 1 Kansas).

Woodard’s final 3-pointer gave the Sooners a 106-104 lead, and they still led 106-105 when Hield was stripped by Frank Mason with 17 seconds left. Mason then batted away the ensuing Oklahoma inbound pass, stole the ball and sank a pair of free throws with less than eight seconds left to provide the game’s final margin.

“I wish I had one more overtime”, said Hield, who hit eight threes and finished 13 of 23 from the field.

Khadeem Lattin went to the line at the other end with two seconds left, but the 52-percent foul shooter clanked the front end of a one-and-one off the iron to force overtime.

There was not much Kansas could do to stop him at the rim… “If we’d have lost the game, I would have walked into the locker room and said, ‘You’ll never forget this one'”.

Hield has the explosive scoring ability to win the Wooden Award as national player of the year.

In the end, KU simply held off a dog-tired Sooner team, perhaps aided by the raucous crowd in Kansas, and took home the 109-106 thriller they’ll be talking about for years. We kept fighting and we were excited about the win. That foul would come back to haunt Woodard, who fouled out with 16 seconds left in triple overtime.

Phillip finished with 18 points, while Jonathan Holton had 15 for the Mountaineers. It resulted in a four-point halftime lead for Oklahoma.

Oklahoma Sooners (12-1): The road loss to Kansas might be more impressive than their victories over the likes of Villanova and Iowa State.

“Jan. 4 is too early for a game like this”, said KU’s Bill Self once the game was over.