photo by: Sarah Buchanan/Special to the Journal-World

Kansas center Hunter Dickinson pumps up the crowd during the game against North Carolina on Friday, Nov. 8, 2024, in Lawrence.

Kansas led North Carolina by 15 at halftime on Friday night at Allen Fieldhouse.

The Jayhawks had trailed by that same amount at halftime the previous time the two powerhouse programs met, in the 2022 national title game. What happened next became the stuff of legend: Bill Self asked his team, “Which would be harder, being down nine with two minutes left or being down 15 with 20?”, and they all agreed the 2008 championship scenario was much harder, before ultimately erasing the deficit and winning the title.

Whatever UNC coach Hubert Davis told his team at halftime Friday — albeit in a much lower-stakes environment — had much the same effect, as the Tar Heels only needed 13 minutes to erase KU’s lead altogether.

The only difference was that they couldn’t hold on.

KU’s Hunter Dickinson broke an 89-89 tie with a layup with 1:17 to go and Jalen Washington and Elliot Cadeau missed late 3-point attempts, as the Jayhawks won 92-89.

“Another blue-blood matchup,” said point guard Dajuan Harris Jr., who also played in the 2022 championship game. “Y’all already know how those go. We knew they was going to bring it in the second half, but we just had to keep our composure (in) late-game situations.”

The 7-foot-2 Dickinson found himself on the perimeter defending the Tar Heels’ agile point guard Cadeau with the game on the line in the final moments.

“I was just like, ‘Man, I got to give it my all on this play,'” Dickinson said. “‘I can’t let my teammates down.’ Fortunately for us, he missed the open look and we came out there with a win. I feel like there was some Phog Allen magic with that one.”

Self added, somewhat facetiously: “Hunt actually, on that last possession, actually screwed up because he showed us that he can actually get out there and guard. We should probably expect that moving forward.”

Zeke Mayo led KU with 21 points, while Dickinson posted a 20-point, 10-rebound double-double. Seth Trimble and RJ Davis had 19 and 16 points, respectively, for UNC.

Self tied Phog Allen as the all-time winningest coach in KU men’s basketball history, with 590 victories.

“I’m proud, but he’s still the greatest coach and the best innovator this school will ever know,” Self said. “We don’t need to get carried away.”

With Allen Fieldhouse packed to the gills and generating in-arena noise of at least 128 decibels, per the venue’s new video board, the Jayhawks scored first but trailed in the early stages until Rylan Griffen tied the game at 7-7 with a 3-pointer. The Jayhawks jumped as far ahead as 15-10 on Griffen’s second triple before a contested bank shot in the post by Drake Powell helped UNC stem the tide.

Both teams set a frenetic pace in the early going that did not abate with substitutions or defensive stops. At one point, David Coit found AJ Storr for an alley-oop from just past halfcourt, only for Cadeau to score on a layup 12 seconds later. Thanks to a string of five successful shots in a row, though, KU entered the under-12 timeout up 27-20. By then, KJ Adams already had 10 points.

The Jayhawks started to rack up the fouls, none more critical than Hunter Dickinson’s second, which he incurred while going for a rebound shortly after the timeout, forcing extended playing time for freshman Flory Bidunga. But it didn’t deter KU in the early going, as Mayo hit back-to-back 3s, including a deep one in transition from AJ Storr, to extend the Jayhawks’ lead to 11 points.

“He’s the best shooter on our team and we need him to do that,” Harris said, adding that former Jayhawk Devonte’ Graham, who was in attendance, told him to encourage Mayo to keep shooting. “You know, today showed why he (is) probably one of the best players on our team.”

In fact, Bidunga found his own ways to make his presence felt with six early rebounds, including a putback, and another that led to a second-chance jumper for Storr.

“One thing that we did see tonight: When AJ Storr plays downhill, he’s pretty good,” Self said.

KU started to build even more momentum late in the first half when Storr and a newly returned Dickinson connected for a pick-and-roll and Dickinson laid the ball in through a foul. Then Griffen leapt into the air for an emphatic block on Tyzhaun Claude, and the Jayhawks forced a five-second violation, shot-clock violation and two offensive fouls.

UNC went scoreless for five minutes and KU led by 20 before Trimble made a pair of free throws with 1:30 to go. Thanks to a late series of fouls — UNC went 13-for-14 at the line before halftime — and a buzzer-beating putback by James Brown, the halftime deficit was just 53-38.

The Tar Heels crept inside of double digits early in the second half on a three-point play by Davis, and the under-16 timeout did not bring KU’s poor stretch to an end. The Jayhawks turned the tide briefly on a 3-pointer by Mayo and fast-break dunk by Storr but immediately gave up another three-point play to Cadeau.

UNC’s offense continued to fire on all cylinders, and only through the hot shooting of Mayo did KU preserve its lead. Harris stole the ball and went all the way for a fast-break dunk, but he got called for his fourth foul moments later. The Tar Heels went on a 9-0 run and cut the lead to 77-75 on a corner 3 by Jae’Lyn Withers before Self called timeout, then took the lead outright shortly afterward.

The Jayhawks became virtually unable to hit a shot in the late stages of the game, with Mayo in particular losing his touch from 3-point range. But then he hit a pair of free throws to tie the game once, before doing so again on a contested attempt in the paint.

“I tried to draw RJ on the foul, so I put up a pump fake,” Mayo said. “He didn’t fall for it, I just put it up … just played through contact, put it up there and God did the rest.”

The Jayhawks will travel to Atlanta to face Michigan State in the Champions Classic on Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. Central Time.

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