photo by: Associated Press

Eastern Washington forward Tanner Groves (35) is pressured by Kansas guard Christian Braun, left, and Kansas guard Bryce Thompson (24) as he goes up for a shot during the second half of a first-round game in the NCAA college basketball tournament at Farmers Coliseum in Indianapolis, Saturday, March 20, 2021. (AP Photo/AJ Mast)

Indianapolis — After coming off the floor for the final time during third-seeded Kansas’ 93-84 first-round victory over No. 14 seed Eastern Washington, KU junior David McCormack climbed every step of the risers near the bench to hand out high-fives to each teammate, coach and manager.

And he spent a little extra time with trainer Bill Cowgill, who’d been monitoring him for the better part of the week as he worked his way back from a COVID-19-induced lull.

Since McCormack had just rejoined the team on Friday after battling the virus for the past two weeks, nobody knew exactly how much he’d be able to play. And the Jayhawks likely didn’t expect his 25 monster minutes — with 22 points on 9-of-15 shooting, nine rebounds and two steals — in Saturday’s win that sent Kansas (21-8) to Monday’s second round.

After the victory, Kansas coach Bill Self said he had not planned on playing the 6-foot-10 junior as much as he did. But it was evident early on that Kansas needed McCormack, both as an option on offense and to provide some resistance down low against Eastern Washington big man Tanner Groves, who scored a game-high 35 points and had his way with the five or six other Kansas players who tried to stop him.

So McCormack gutted it out, did as much as he could and proved to be the difference between KU moving on and going home early.

His offense might have taken a while to arrive, but McCormack showed early on that he was willing to do whatever it took to help KU advance.

Midway through the first half, with KU still climbing uphill, he dived out of bounds to save a ball that he had ripped free, landing at the feet of Bill Self while his teammate raced up the floor for an easy bucket.

“Getting our big man back was huge for us,” KU senior Marcus Garrett said. “His presence means a lot to us. He definitely brought us energy. From the time he arrived (Friday), we felt his energy, we felt his presence. He was just happy to be with us and he was happy to be back on the court.”

There were times when McCormack labored. His lift, both as a rim protector and in the post, appeared to be affected by fatigue. But a lot of that went away in the second half, when the junior from Norfolk, Va., scored 20 of his 22 points, calling for the ball on every possession and attacking the rim like the season was on the line.

“After the way he started the game, I didn’t think that he was going to give us much offensively or defensively,” Self said. “But he kind of got his legs under him, and he was really, really good the second half. I mean really good.”

Although he didn’t fully participate in KU’s practice in Indianapolis on Friday — his first with the team in nearly two weeks — all of the signs pointed to McCormack being OK to play.

“We hooked him up to a heart monitor, we evaluated him during our practice. He looked good,” Self said. “We took him out, we sat him, all these things. We had a pretty good gauge of his fatigue.”

After going through warmups with his usual gusto, McCormack started Saturday’s game on the bench. It was there that he watched Eastern Washington (16-8) race out to a 9-0 lead as the Jayhawks missed their first four shots and looked a little flat-footed defensively.

Two minutes into the game, he checked in for starting forward Mitch Lightfoot.

The move didn’t immediately pay dividends, but it did change the way Kansas played and helped Kansas claim control midway through the first half.

The Jayhawks’ first lead came on a tip by Garrett at the 14:08 mark, and KU went up by as many as seven — on a 3-pointer by Garrett — before Eastern Washington revisited what worked early.

From there, the Eagles ripped off a 27-12 run to close the half and led 46-38 at the break.

Despite the deficit, Garrett (20 points, eight rebounds, three assists) said everyone in the Kansas locker room remained calm.

“We know what type of team we are,” he said. “We know if we lock in and defend, that we can cut the lead and come back, and I feel like when we locked in defensively, we were able to do that.”

McCormack and Harris, who scored 13 points on 5-of-8 shooting and added four assists and zero turnovers, started the second half for Kansas, and their defensive presence and offensive production helped Kansas overcome a 10-point deficit (52-42) in the game’s final 18 minutes.

“That’s when panic could set in, and it didn’t,” Self said.

KU did not get all the way over the hump until Harris drilled a wide-open 3-pointer with 9:48 to play that put the Jayhawks ahead, 64-63.

The teams then traded buckets and entered the final 9 minutes tied at 66. That’s when McCormack took over, scoring 12 of his 22 points to make sure Kansas was the last team standing. He scored back-to-back buckets in the paint on KU’s next two possessions and then added a pair of free throws to extend the Jayhawks’ lead to 75-68 with 6:06 to play.

Moments later, after two 3-pointers by Garrett, McCormack delivered the knockout blow, hitting a jump hook just below the free throw line that put Kansas up 85-73 with 3:26 remaining.

After saving his energy for the glass (nine rebounds, five offensive) and the defensive end for most of the day, McCormack let loose with a wild celebration as the whistle blew.

He missed the free throw that followed, but the damage had been done and the message had been sent. The Eagles never came closer than 7 points after that, which gave Self a sense of relief and pride.

“We’re just thrilled that we won,” he said. “It was a great game to win in the tournament. It’s great to advance. But we got outplayed for the majority of the game today. They were better than us. And somehow we just kind of hung in there and made some plays at the right time.”

Garrett, who said everyone in the Kansas locker room remained calm and focused during the halftime break, tossed some of the credit for that to his head coach.

“It’s coach Self,” he said. “He was telling us every time out, ‘It’s a long game; just stay with it. Keep chipping away at the lead, and we’ll get it where what we want it.'”

Even though it wasn’t their best outing, that was exactly the way it played out, and the Jayhawks embraced the grind and survived to compete another day.

“I think the staff was probably more panicked than the players were,” Self said. “These guys, you know, they play at Kansas and they play a lot of big games. … These guys are used to it. It’s not anything that we do, specifically, to make them confident in (tough) situations, it’s just a ‘been-there-done-it’ type attitude with most of these guys.”

Saturday’s win moved the Jayhawks into the Round of 32, where they’ll meet the winner of today’s 6-11 matchup between USC and Drake at a time and place that have yet to be determined.