Ames, Iowa — The Hilton Hex is history.
Kansas senior Jeff Boschee swished a three-point shot his fourth in four attempts with 36 seconds left, busting an 81-all tie and pacing No. 2 Kansas past gritty Iowa State, 88-81, on Wednesday night at Hilton Coliseum.
It was KU's first win at Hilton in four seasons and snapped a five-game overall losing streak to the Cyclones.
Iowans Kirk Hinrich and Nick Collison won their first game against the Cyclones in five tries thanks in large part to Boschee, who accepted a pass from Hinrich and buried the pivotal trey three minutes after turning down an open three and committing a turnover with KU down, 78-77.
"It's always a backbreaker to hit a three with that amount of time left," said Boschee, who was freed when Drew Gooden set an effective screen on ISU guard Jake Sullivan.
"The first option is to go down low. Nobody was open, Drew buried Jake on a screen, Kirk got it to me and I hit it," Boschee explained. "I was a little too hesitant earlier. Coach came in the locker room and told me he wanted me to shoot it the time before."
KU coach Roy Williams shook his head in disbelief when Boschee declined the three with 3:26 to play and KU down one. Boschee, after all, was the only Jayhawk to hit a three on a night Iowa State's Sullivan hit five of seven and scored 27 points.
"We ran a double screen for him. I was surprised he didn't shoot it," Williams said. "He turned it over throwing it inside. I told him, 'It's a set play, take the shot.'''
Gooden probably was lucky to be on the court at the time he set his key screen.
Williams yanked Gooden after the junior forward missed a three and allowed a Tyray Pearson slam on the other end with 8:52 left and KU up, 66-65.
"It's the reason I took him out," Williams said of Gooden, who finished with 23 points and 11 rebounds. "He took a bad shot, a three, and on the other end didn't guard anybody at all. I took him out and said, 'You can sit and think about it.'
"He is so much more mature. A few years ago if he did that he might not have been in it mentally on the bench. He was still in the game mentally. He came in and we went to him."
Gooden returned at 5:04 with KU down 74-71.
He immediately scored four points and played the rest of the way, setting the screen for Boschee on the big hoop, which, by the way, came right after Iowa State's Pearson missed two big free throws with the score tied at 81 at :57.7.
"I was focused and head-hunted Boschee's man," Gooden said. "We had tried to get it into Nick before and he wasn't open so I knew I had to head-hunt Boschee's man."
Gooden grabbed Boschee after the basket.
"I said, 'Good shot, man,''' Gooden said.
Hinrich had the assist on Boschee's three.
"You look inside first. They did a good job. You have to be patient to know he (Boschee) will come off the screen. It was big. I knew it was big," Hinrich said.
Hinrich stuck the dagger in the Cyclones after a Sullivan miss and Gooden rebound. Fouled at :20.7, Hinrich swished two free throws for an impossible-to-overcome 86-81 lead.
Keith Langford, who hit a big driving layup at 2:49 to erase a 78-77 Cyclone lead, completed the scoring with two free throws at :05.8.
"It felt good," Hinrich said of the free throws and his first win against Iowa State. "I wanted to step up, concentrate and shoot them the way I can."
KU could not shake ISU because of Sullivan, the man who burned KU for 22 points in Ames last season. He hit five of seven threes and six of six free throws.
"Jake Sullivan was unbelievable," said Williams, who used Boschee, Hinrich, Aaron Miles and Langford on Sullivan at different times. "Monday and yesterday the whole focus of practice was making sure to do a good job on Jake, get a hand in the face. It didn't make a difference."
Sullivan picked up where he left off last year, scoring 14 points in the first half on 4-of-6 three-point shooting.
Pearson also tallied 10 points the first half, but the Cyclone duo couldn't match KU's firepower.
Gooden scored 11 points and Collison eight as the Jayhawks, despite foul problems, hit 17 of 29 shots and led, 46-41, at halftime.
Iowa State hit 15 of 31 shots, including five of 10 threes. Boschee did manage to knock home a pair of threes to offset some of ISU's long-range firepower the first half.
ISU came to play, with coach Larry Eustachy being called for a technical foul after Pearson was called for a charge at 18:41. Screaming at the refs, Eustachy also drifted way out of the coaching box as he landed the technical.
Boschee hit the two 'T' shots to give KU a 5-2 lead.
The Jayhawks led 16-9 and 26-19 at 10:42. ISU went on a 15-6 run to grab a 34-32 lead at 5:41. Sullivan had eight points in the surge, while Pearson had four.
KU went on a 7-0 burst behind two points from Wayne Simien, three from Boschee and two from Hinrich to lead 39-34 at 4:16.
Shane Power hit a three and Omar Bynum a two to tie to the score at 39.
KU finished the half on a 7-2 run behind four points from Jeff Carey, who was playing because of three fouls to Simien and two to Collison and Gooden. Also, Boschee contributed a three in the half-ending spurt that gave KU a 46-41 margin.
KU led by a game-high 12 points 62-50 with just over 14 minutes left.
"We feel good for Nick and Kirk more than anything and their families more than anything," Williams said after KU improved to 16-2 overall and 5-0 in the league.
ISU fell to 9-11, 1-5. KU will meet Texas A&M at 3:05 p.m. Saturday in College Station, Texas.
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