St. Louis ? Kirk Hinrich sat on a training table in an Edward Jones Dome locker room, his swollen left ankle encased in ice with an electrical stem contraption connected to his skin.

“It happened. It sucks. But I’m trying to keep in good spirits because we gutted it out and won the game,” Hinrich said while receiving treatment for a severe ankle sprain after the No. 1-seeded Jayhawks barely escaped No. 16-seeded Holy Cross, 70-59, in a Midwest Regional opener on Thursday night.

As KU's players huddle, Kansas' Kirk Hinrich sits on the bench. Hinrich suffered a sprained ankle just before halftime in KU's 70-59 NCAA Tournament victory over Holy Cross on Thursday in St. Louis.

“I’m not feeling sorry for myself at all,” noted Hinrich, who suffered a Grade 2 ankle sprain (Grade 3 is the worst) after stepping on another player’s foot after hitting an inside shot just before halftime. “I’ll get treatment and hope I can get out there Saturday.”

KU will face Stanford in the second round at 7:05 p.m. Saturday.

Hinrich, who rode a golf cart to the X-ray room, had no broken bones in the ankle. X-rays proved negative, KU doctor Larry Magee indicated.

“It’s the worst sprain I’ve ever had,” said Hinrich, who sat the final 10 minutes of the game at the end of KU’s bench, his foot propped on a chair. “I came down on somebody’s foot. I knew it was hurt bad right away. I heard it pop. Drew (Gooden) said, ‘Is it bad? Is it bad?’ I said, ‘Yeah,’ while he was trying to help me up.

“I couldn’t get up right away. Two bones on the inside hit each other. It really hurts right now.”

Hinrich, who scored nine points and had three assists the first half as the Jayhawks trailed 37-35 at the break, will not practice today.

He’ll receive constant stem and ice treatments in an attempt to play Saturday.

“We don’t have a status report yet,” Magee said, asked if it was safe to call Hinrich doubtful. “We’ll wait and see how it looks overnight, how sore it is in the morning, reevaluate it Saturday and make a decision then.”

The odds of Hinrich playing?

“I’m not an oddsmaker,” Magee said. “We’ll do our best to get him back.”

“This is temporary,” Hinrich said. “I will try my best to get ready to play. It’s basically all I can do. I am hoping for a miracle kind of thing.”

For a long time Thursday, it looked as if unheralded Holy Cross might pull off a miracle.

Kansas coach Roy Williams shows his frustration after Nick Collison picked up his fourth foul.

The Crusaders, who were vying to become the first No. 16 seed to beat a No. 1, led, 49-48, after Nick Collison picked up his fourth foul with 8:48 left.

KU, however, went on an 8-1 run without Collison and Hinrich and led, 56-50, at 7:11.

Holy Cross cut the gap to 56-55 at 6:00. The Jayhawks, however, closed the game on a 14-4 burst.

Gooden fed freshman Wayne Simien for a violent slam to open the run, then Gooden hit a layup off a feed from Jeff Boschee. Gooden followed with two free throws at 2:35, following a Holy Cross bucket and KU led 62-57 2:35.

Aaron Miles hit a shot after KU committed two turnovers, and Hinrich broke out in a big smile on the bench as KU finally led comfortably, 64-57 at :55.

“I’m really proud of my kids,” KU coach Roy Williams said after the Jayhawks survived a game in which KU hit 46.2 percent of its shots to the Crusaders’ 33.3 percent. “I know you (writers) are going to say, ‘You suck,’ or whatever. That’s your prerogative. But last Sunday we had a tough tough loss. Down the stretch we didn’t play the way Kansas usually plays. We took bad shots, didn’t score the last 3 1/2 minutes and turned it over.

Kansas' Drew Gooden (0) soars over a Holy Cross defender. Gooden finished with 19 points and 13 rebounds in the Jayhawks' 70-59 NCAA Tournament victory Thursday in St. Louis.

“Today the best thing that happened was Drew Gooden. I love that youngster like anybody I’ve ever coached,” Williams added of the junior who finished with 19 points and 13 boards. “Last game he took bad shots down the stretch. Today Wayne Simien had two big dunks because Drew drew the double-team to him and gave it up.”

Williams was taken aback when Hinrich went down before half.

“Kirk has turned his ankles several times. It’s the first time I’ve ever seen him stay down. He usually bounces back up,” Williams said.

The coach and KU players were excited and relieved that the Jayhawks were able to bounce back down the stretch and survive Holy Cross, a team that lost by four points to Kentucky in a first-round NCAA game last year.

“We didn’t want to have to fight the second half,” Nick Collison said, “but we played some of our best basketball in that situation. People won’t be talking about us after this game, they’ll be talking about Holy Cross or how bad we were, but it’s a major positive we were able to win.

“We didn’t think we’d play that poorly. It’s the worst game I’ve ever played, but we were able to stare down defeat. It definitely feels like we dodged a bullet, but with Kirk hurt, it’s wait and see. If anybody can come back from something like that, it’s him.”