photo by: Justin Mohling/The Basketball Tournament

JHX Hoops' Zeke Mayo tries to dribble through the Purple Reign defense on Monday, July 21, 2025, in Kansas City, Mo.

Kansas City, Mo. — The first official matchup between Kansas and Kansas State alumni teams featured a fittingly dramatic conclusion.

After the KU alumni erased a double-digit third-quarter deficit, led by Zeke Mayo and player/general manager Tyshawn Taylor, Purple Reign managed to even the score at 50 entering The Basketball Tournament’s signature Elam Ending.

The K-State alumni got within one point of victory before allowing JHX Hoops to rally for a 57-57 tie. Purple Reign then botched three possible opportunities to get the last point it needed — including missing a pair of free throws — before a game-deciding steal and transition layup by Lagerald Vick, his only points of the game, gave JHX the victory, 59-57, at Municipal Auditorium on Monday night.

Mayo led all JHX players with 14 points, matched by former Jayhawk Cam Martin, who was playing for Purple Reign. JHX’s returning David McCormack tallied nine points and 10 rebounds.

The KU alumni will advance to face No. 1 seed Heartfire, the team that eliminated them in 2023, on Wednesday at 6 p.m.

Martin, after being booed in opening introductions, scored the first two baskets of the game for the K-State alumni. JHX Hoops took more than three minutes to get on the board, which it did with a short-range jump shot by Marcus Bell.

Both teams struggled to score in a chaotic, foul-laden stretch that consumed most of the first quarter. The former Jayhawks went ahead 9-8 on a dunk by McCormack — who did not play in the first game of TBT — and added a pair of free throws by Kevin Young, who then missed a buzzer-beating 3-point attempt from the corner.

Diarra broke Purple Reign’s lengthy drought with a left-wing 3 to tie the game early in the second quarter, which kicked off a 10-0 run. The K-State alumni only needed three minutes to exceed their point total from the entire first period.

A series of missed free throws prevented JHX from cutting much into Purple Reign’s lead. The KU alumni went into the break trailing 27-22 after shooting 8-for-15 from the free-throw line, with no individual JHX player having scored more than five points. Billy Preston got on the board with five after Purple Reign held him scoreless in the first. The former Jayhawks also committed 10 turnovers and went 0-for-10 from beyond the arc.

They made their first 3-pointer of the game early in the second half, but a three-point play by Austin Trice gave the K-State alumni their largest lead at 10 points.

JHX strung together a rally with a pair of buckets inside by Bell, then a rattled-in floater by Taylor off Bell’s rebound. Taylor provided a spark off the bench after sitting out most of the previous three halves.

The KU alumni cut it to two points when Mayo scored in transition before Taylor came around a screen by McCormack for the game-tying layup with a minute left in the third quarter. Preston’s block on Emmanuel Egbuta set up a go-ahead 3-pointer by Mayo, and Diarra missed his own attempt as the former Jayhawks entered the final period with a 43-40 lead.

JHX’s 19-5 run came to an end when Martin banked in an off-balanced shot to make it 44-42, and then Martin responded to a drive by Jacob Hanna with a 3-pointer to cut the margin to one point.

Purple Reign’s first-round hero Shaun Williams tied the game with a second-chance 3, and the teams traded two points apiece ahead of the Elam Ending.

JHX scored the first three points on free throws before allowing a run of seven straight. Williams missed a potential game-winning layup, and a pair of additional fouls allowed the KU alumni to get within three points of the target score at 57-55. Williams couldn’t close it out with his own free throws before Vick played the hero.