photo by: Kansas Athletics

Dajuan Harris Jr. tries to make a contested layup during the game between Kansas and the Bahamas in Puerto Rico on Aug. 7, 2023.

Given another chance at the Kansas men’s basketball team Monday in Puerto Rico, the Bahamian national team accomplished what it could not two days earlier and finished off the Jayhawks.

With KU trailing 82-80 in the final minutes, Hunter Dickinson and Kevin McCullar Jr. misfired once apiece and Nick Timberlake got called for a foul going for a key defensive rebound. Then forward Travis Munnings of the Bahamas hit the dagger, pulling up for 3 in the face of KJ Adams Jr. to put his country back up two possessions and seal the result.

The Bahamas claimed an 87-81 victory, maintaining its halftime margin even as its NBA star guards Buddy Hield and Eric Gordon sat out the fourth quarter, and without center Deandre Ayton taking the floor at all. Hield connected on four 3-pointers in the third quarter alone, helping to nullify a 9-2 run that had put KU back in the lead, and finished with 19 points in his three quarters of action.

“You can’t do nothing about that,” KU point guard Dajuan Harris Jr. said on the postgame broadcast. “He’s a pro for a reason. Kev played great defense on him, but that’s what pros do, they make tough shots all day.”

Gordon added 12 points, as did Florida Gulf Coast’s Franco Miller Jr., and AJ Storr and David Nesbitt also reached double digits.

That team effort tempered a dramatic bounce-back performance for KU point guard Dajuan Harris Jr., who had scored just 2 points in each of the Jayhawks’ first two games in Puerto Rico but exploded for 23 — exceeding his regular-season career high — on 10-of-14 shooting, to go with five steals. Harris said after the game that KU coach Bill Self wanted him to shoot at least five 3s or risk getting taken out of the game. He added that the team may need him to fit in that mold throughout the season.

“Just me being aggressive, shooting the 3-ball more, because I know that’s what we’re going to need for this team,” Harris said.

Harris put back a missed transition layup from McCullar to bring KU within one point late at 81-80, but that ended up as the Jayhawks’ final successful field goal.

McCullar filled up the stat sheet with 19 points, eight rebounds and seven assists, but shot just 1-for-6 from beyond the arc. Dickinson added 16 points and nine rebounds, and Timberlake had 13 points and six rebounds as Arterio Morris sat out Monday following a minor injury Saturday. Adams was limited by a sore knee, Self said after the game.

“I actually think that we did some good things,” Self said. “You know, obviously we can play better … We didn’t execute down the stretch as well as we could have on both ends, and certainly, God, we couldn’t get the ball to go in the basket.”

In contrast to their slow start on Saturday, the Jayhawks had led 24-17 following the first quarter, but were outscored by 13 points in the second period to enter the half trailing 46-40. Their ultimate downfall came when they shot just 4-for-14 in the fourth quarter. They actually improved from the line in the final period with an 8-for-9 showing but that only boosted their free-throw percentage to 61% (14-for-23).

The result was quite a few points left on the floor in a matchup decided by a razor-thin margin, which ultimately went down as the first exhibition loss for KU since a pair of defeats to French professionals 11 years ago. The Jayhawks had won 35 straight exhibitions in the interim.

They finish the Puerto Rico trip 2-1 and will look ahead to more preseason action in October, with freshman forward Johnny Furphy joining the squad.

BOX SCORE:

The Bahamas 17 29 23 18 – 87

Kansas 24 16 25 16 – 81

The Bahamas (87): Hield 7-13, 0-0, 19; Gordon 5-11, 0-0, 12; Miller 3-7, 5-6, 12; Storr 5-11, 0-0, 11; Nesbitt 3-7, 4-4, 10; Burrows 3-6, 3-4, 9; Munnings 2-5, 2-2, 7; Smith 2-4, 0-0, 5; Nairn 1-1, 0-0, 2. Totals: 31-69, 14-16, 87.

Kansas (81): Harris 10-14, 0-1, 23; McCullar 7-16, 4-7, 19; Dickinson 6-14, 4-5, 16; Timberlake 4-12, 2-2, 13; Jackson 2-7, 3-4, 7; Adams 1-2, 1-2, 3. Totals: 30-68, 14-23, 81.

3FGs: The Bahamas 11-35 (Hield 5, Gordon 2, Miller 1, Munnings 1, Smith 1, Storr 1); Kansas 7-26 (Harris 3, Timberlake 3, McCullar 1). TOs: The Bahamas 16; Kansas 14. Fouled out: none.

photo by: Kansas Athletics

Kevin McCullar Jr. goes in for a dunk during the game between Kansas and the Bahamas in Puerto Rico on Aug. 7, 2023.