Kansas guard Dajuan Harris Jr. (3) looks to pass while defended by Arizona guard Jaden Bradley (0) during the first half on Saturday, March 8, 2025 at Allen Fieldhouse. Photo by Nick Krug during the Senior Day ceremony prior to tipoff against Arizona on Saturday, March 8, 2025 at Allen Fieldhouse. Photo by Nick Krug

In the lead-up to Saturday’s senior-night battle with Arizona, Kansas coach Bill Self said center Hunter Dickinson had a chance to cement his legacy at KU by carrying the Jayhawks down the stretch.

He told Dickinson as much in a team meeting at McCarthy Hall on Friday.

“I told him last night in front of the team, ‘You’ve done a lot of good things since you’ve been here, but I haven’t seen you put a team on your back and carry us over an extended period of time,'” Self said. “And today was a pretty good start, because he definitely did that.”

In his final game at Allen Fieldhouse, Dickinson matched a career high with 33 points on 15-for-23 shooting, and fellow senior Zeke Mayo added 20 more, including a series of clutch 3-pointers and free throws in the second half.

“He’s one of our leaders and I think we’re going to see a lot of a different Hunter these (last) couple games,” teammate KJ Adams said, “and I think you should expect a lot more of that from Hunter.”

Adams himself scored 12, including two on a critical alley-oop from Dajuan Harris Jr. in the final minutes, and the Jayhawks finished off the 24th-ranked Wildcats, 83-76.

“Just wanted to send KJ and Juan out right,” Dickinson said. “They did so much for this school, this university, this program. They deserve to go out like that in their final game.”

“For me, it kind of means everything to me,” Adams added. “This place has kind of been my whole life for a good amount, and this game I’ll remember for the rest of my life, so I’m just glad that it ended like this.”

In winning, KU ensured it would preserve its senior-night streak of more than four decades, while also earning a key victory for its postseason resume heading into the Big 12 tournament.

“That was about as well as I can remember seniors playing on senior night,” Self said. “They carried us. It was nice. We needed that bad.”

The Jayhawks surrendered a 14-point lead but never trailed by more than two. They finished off a late-game sequence far more effectively than when they had missed significant chances in recent consecutive losses to Texas Tech and Houston.

Arizona got an efficient 21 points from guard Jaden Bradley and 16 more from Caleb Love, but forced just five turnovers on defense and lost the rebounding battle.

“I thought we actually defended them OK,” Self said. “I didn’t think we did an unbelievable job on them. I thought as a team we played decent defense, but I thought today our offense was actually better than our defense.”

After honoring its seven seniors prior to the game — Adams, Dickinson, Harris and Mayo, plus Shakeel Moore and walk-ons Patrick Cassidy and Dillon Wilhite — KU leapt ahead 5-0 before allowing a putback to Tobe Awaka. Three early dunks by one of those seniors, Adams, and two fouls and two turnovers by Arizona — compared to zero of either for KU — helped the Jayhawks grab an 11-4 lead at the first media timeout.

In a similar spot against Tech the prior weekend, KU had immediately allowed 11 straight points. On this occasion the Jayhawks’ decline wasn’t as dramatic, but they still went scoreless for about five minutes. In the meantime, Mayo incurred two fouls, one of which resulted in a free throw that allowed KJ Lewis to tie the game at 13.

The teams stayed close down the stretch for much of the first half, before Dickinson scored four times as part of a 12-3 run, with a 3-pointer by Love — Arizona’s first 3 of the game — keeping the Wildcats afloat.

Trey Townsend cut into the margin with a 3 of his own, but the Jayhawks were undaunted, getting an immediate response from Mayo and scoring seven straight to take their largest lead at 39-25.

KU’s fortunes took a turn in the final minute, with Dickinson missing a pair of free throws and Rylan Griffen fouling Carter Bryant on an attempt from beyond the arc. Bryant made all three of his attempts from the stripe. Then David Coit got blocked on a contested 3 and Bradley went all the way for a layup with two seconds to go, setting the halftime margin at 39-30 in the Jayhawks’ favor.

Dickinson had 16 points by halftime on 8-for-9 shooting, while no single Wildcat had scored more than seven.

A wild loose-ball sequence with KU leading by 10 early in the second half saw the ball squirt out to Anthony Dell’Orso, who rose and fired from the left wing without hesitation for the Wildcats’ third 3 of the game. After another key pair of missed free throws, this time by Griffen, a corner 3 by Townsend cut the Jayhawks’ lead to 48-44 and forced a timeout by Self.

Dickinson connected on just his 10th 3 of the season, but Arizona’s offense continued to pick up speed.

With 13:23 to go, the long-dormant Love came around a screen on a baseline inbounds play and hit a go-ahead 3-pointer to make it 54-53, prompting another timeout and “U of A” chants from the Arizona fans who made the trip to Allen Fieldhouse.

Mayo came through as the second half drew on, driving to the basket and drawing a pair of shooting fouls as he crossed 2,000 career points before draining a corner 3 in transition to make it 64-59.

Arizona tied the game again and even went ahead 68-66, only for the Jayhawks to respond with seven straight points capped off by another 3-pointer from Mayo.

With two minutes to go, Love missed a 3-pointer, and a second-chance alley-oop dunk by Adams briefly stretched the margin to seven points.

“When you play with the same point guard for four years we kind of have the same tendencies,” Adams said, “and when he looks up, I know when to jump up again, and that’s kind of our thing for the past four years.”

A blocking foul by Mayo led to two more free throws for Bradley, but Mayo and Griffen finished the victory off at the line.

“Even though this game isn’t a big game on a scale of what goes into a successful season or not, but this was probably a bigger game than I can remember having as a last game just because we’ve labored so much,” Self said. “I said this afterwards: I still think there’s enough gas in the tank that we can play our best, still, moving forward, and I think today was a big step in that direction. We need the confidence from the way the game went.”

KU, which improved to 20-11 and 11-9 in league games, will play its first Big 12 tournament game on Wednesday with the time and opponent yet to be determined. The time is dependent on whether KU is seeded No. 6 on No. 7, based on the result of Saturday night’s game between Baylor and Houston.

“We strongly believe that we can (go on a run),” Mayo said. “All it takes is a few games in the Big 12 tournament and that momentum can shift drastically going into the NCAA for sure.”

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