No worries: Jayhawks ‘expect’ to make crunch-time plays

Kansas guard Brannen Greene (14) flexes toward his teammates following the Jayhawks' 63-60 win over Utah on Saturday, Dec. 13, 2014 at Sprint Center. Greene hit four free throws down the stretch to give the Jayhawks the win.

• Box score

Kansas City, Mo. ? Kansas University’s basketball players saw a 21-point lead vanish and actually turn into a two-point deficit late in Saturday’s non-conference clash against Utah before a shell-shocked crowd of 17,627 fans in Sprint Center.

Time for panic?

Or at least for some nail-biting?

From some of the spectators, for sure … not from the No. 10-ranked Jayhawks, who made a batch of big plays during crunch time to survive the No. 13-rated Utes, 63-60.

“The most important thing is the guys expect to win. That’s the best quality a team can have is they expect somehow, somebody makes a play. That’s what happened so far,” coach Bill Self said after the cardiac (8-1) Jayhawks won their fourth straight game by six points or less.

KU, which led, 42-21, with 19:49 left, actually trailed, 55-53, at 4:34.

“I will say this about our team … we can screw up a good time about as well as anybody I’ve ever seen,” said Self, whose Jayhawks hit 60 percent of their first-half shots (five of eight from three) in threatening to run the Utes out of the building.

That didn’t happen, and in fact, KU until the final minutes looked like a team about to blow the biggest lead in a loss in school history. KU squandered a 20-point lead in a 17-point loss to Arizona in 2003 in Allen Fieldhouse.

However, Frank Mason III (10 points, five assists, 36 minutes) hit two free throws to tie it at 55 with 2:46 left. Then Perry Ellis (14 points, six rebounds) spun through the lane and hit a floater at 1:52, to bust the tie and actually put KU ahead for good.

“We were doing a dribble weave and just trying to drive it, to see if there was an opening in the lane,” Ellis said. “It was open, I just drove it and shot a floater.”

He made something out of nothing.

“We didn’t have any offense,” Self stated. “There’s really no lanes to drive. We tried to get Jamari (Traylor, 13 points, five boards) and Brannen (Greene) out of the way and let those three guys (Mason, Ellis, Wayne Selden Jr.) drive it. It worked out perfectly in that particular situation.”

Traylor calmly iced two free throws at :39 to make it 59-55.

“Not nervous at all. I just get down there and do my routine and knock ’em down,” Traylor said on a day KU hit 21 of 23 free throws to Utah’s 14 of 17. “Guys really made the difference at the line today. I feel we didn’t miss any. Credit to the guys stepping up to the line and making shots,” Traylor added.

Cue KU sophomore Greene.

He was sent to the line with :20.4 left and KU up, 59-58, following a Dakarai Tucker three. Greene, who scored 19 points in Wednesday’s win at Georgetown, made both free throws to give the Jayhawks a 61-58 advantage. He returned to the line at :13.7 after a Utah layup. And again Greene made both, KU leading, 63-60.

“He’s a confident shooter. We wanted him at the line at that time,” Ellis said of Greene.

“He was great last game and made the free throws today to give us a chance to win the game,” Self added of the Juliette, Georgia sophomore.

It still wasn’t over. Utah’s 7-foot freshman, Jakob Poeltl (eight points, 11 boards) hoisted a potential game-tying three from the right-side corner that hit the side of the backboard and plopped safely into Traylor’s hands as the final horn sounded and dropped Utah of the Pac-12 to 7-2 on the season.

“It worked out well. We didn’t want to give up a three, but if you are going to give up a three I guess Poeltl would be the one you would want to give it up to,” Self said. “We actually did guard ’em pretty well the last three to four minutes.”

Aside from scaring the heck out of some fans who would have lit victory cigars early in the second half had smoking been allowed in Sprint Center, the Jayhawks accomplished what they set out to do — beat a tough Utah team.

“If you are going to blow a 21-point lead, yeah, I guess I like how we responded,” Self said of his team, which will next meet Lafayette at 2 p.m., Saturday, in Allen Fieldhouse at the conclusion of final exams. “We played pretty well the first half. We guarded them, made shots (Ellis had 11 the first half, Selden eight and Kelly Oubre Jr. seven). Tale of two halves. They were better than us the second half, obviously.”

KU survived a 23-point performance from senior guard Delon Wright, who hit nine of 13 shots and five of seven free throws with five rebounds and four assists in 39 minutes.

“He was the best player in the game by far,” Self said. “He has size. He has vision. He doesn’t shoot it great, but is very very deceivingly explosive. He’ll play in the league. He’s a really nice player.”