photo by: AP Photo/Eric Gay

Kansas guard Tre White (3) looks to shoot past Syracuse forward William Kyle III (42) during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game in the Players Era tournament in Las Vegas, Tuesday, Nov. 25, 2025.

Las Vegas — When Syracuse started hitting 3s after previously struggling to shoot, it could have spelled disaster for Kansas.

When Tyler Betsey connected from deep with six minutes remaining to cut KU’s lead to 52-50, it brought the Orange the closest they had been since the opening minutes — and the Jayhawks had nothing going on offense.

Then Tre White made something out of nothing.

The senior transfer from Dallas finished an underhand layup at the rim through a foul and converted a three-point play, then drew a foul on Nate Kingz beyond the arc as the shot clock ran out and made all three attempts from the line.

“Just because I know that they’re an aggressive team, so you know they try and deny all switches, contest all shots, and with the shot clock running down with an aggressive defender, I’m pretty sure he’s going to try to contest,” White said. “He’s been playing good, so just tried to get him off his feet, a couple steps ahead — that was it.”

That was the central component of an 11-0 run that helped the Jayhawks finish off the Orange for a 71-60 win at MGM Grand Garden Arena on Tuesday, the second day of the Players Era tournament.

“We had kind of screwed it up,” KU coach Bill Self said. “We haven’t finished games very strong, or halves, like I think we should. But we did have that good stretch after that, and that was good to see because when you win, you like to be stressed, and that stress (will) probably be good for us moving forward.”

Flory Bidunga stood out on the stat sheet with a 13-point, 14-rebound double-double, but he also committed seven turnovers and was largely contained after his opening shift. White scored 15 and grabbed 10 boards himself. Melvin Council Jr. put up 14 and provided strong free-throw shooting in the final minutes.

Betsey led the Orange with 12 points on four 3s, but he shot 4-for-13 overall. As a team, Syracuse shot 20-for-63 (31.7%) and 7-for-30 (23.3%) from beyond the arc.

The Orange’s struggles at the charity stripe continued after essentially costing them a game against Houston on Monday, as they went 13-for-23 to KU’s 18-for-20.

Jamari McDowell (career-high nine points, four rebounds) entered the starting lineup in place of struggling freshman Kohl Rosario. It was the first career start for the redshirt sophomore, who played in 31 games during the 2023-24 season.

Bidunga continued his strong form from Monday as he scored the Jayhawks’ first seven points and grabbed a pair of offensive rebounds, and McDowell made an early 3-pointer. However, a turnover by Bidunga allowed Syracuse to get out and run for a transition bucket by Kingz at a time when the Orange’s offense was struggling.

By the time Bidunga went to the bench after nearly seven minutes of action, he had scored 11 points and the Jayhawks led 16-8.

KU did not put much distance between itself and Syracuse in the following minutes, largely because the Orange tightened up on defense and threw off KU a couple times with a full-court press. The Jayhawks went up nine at one point on a transition 3-pointer by Rosario, but then fell silent for nearly three minutes until an elegant fast-break give-and-go between Rosario and Council culminated in Rosario finishing a lob to make it 23-15.

With Nginyu Ngala giving Council a breather in his first minutes of the Players Era, the Jayhawks still managed to function smoothly at both ends. McDowell finished an impressive drive at the rim and Bryson Tiller put back his own miss to force a timeout by Syracuse with the Jayhawks holding their largest lead at 13 points.

The Orange ended a long drought from beyond the arc when Betsey, who had opened the game 0-for-5, managed to catch and shoot a 3-pointer in half a second off a baseline out-of-bounds play.

Tiller scored a pair of consecutive buckets and JJ Starling answered with a late 3-pointer for the Orange. Council’s spinning attempt from the left corner was off at the buzzer, meaning that KU took a 34-25 lead into the break.

One statistical oddity: Despite a strong defensive showing, the Jayhawks did not force a single turnover in the first half. However, they did outrebound the Orange 26-11.

“That gave us the extra possessions that we didn’t make up for in turnover margin,” Self said.

An uneasy start to the second half saw Syracuse cut into KU’s margin early. Betsey answered what had looked like a key 3-pointer from McDowell, and then Self took significant issue with an offensive foul call against Bidunga.

The Orange stayed within striking distance on the strength of two three-point plays by Kiyan Anthony.

Tiller salvaged a stagnant offensive possession by finishing a three-point play of his own that made it 52-41 with just under 11 minutes to go. But Syracuse responded with six straight, including a big 3-pointer by Starling that prompted Self to call timeout.

That didn’t do much to spark the Jayhawks’ offense, as a couple of attempts to reincorporate Bidunga backfired and Betsey hit another 3 to bring the Orange even closer.

“We got the ball to him more in the first half in the second,” Self said of Bidunga. “In the second half they didn’t double, they played it straight, and we didn’t take advantage of him sealing. Our guards aren’t great at getting the ball to the bigs on time yet. We’ll get better at that.”

White’s run of six straight went a long way for the Jayhawks, as did some pivotal missed free throws by Syracuse’s William Kyle III.

Betsey threw in another from deep to give the Orange some hope at 63-53 with 2:42 to go. Later, in a nine-point game, Bidunga traveled after receiving an inbounds pass. KU earned the ball back, but White attempted a 3 too early in the shot clock and Starling made a floater in transition to cut the deficit to seven.

Council made the necessary free throws late to conclude the game. There was, though, an unusual sequence in the final moments as with the shot clock turned off and an 11-point lead, several Jayhawks attempted 3-pointers as a result of the Players Era’s point-differential tiebreaker.

“The guys were well aware of it,” Self said.

Ultimately, 11 was all KU needed to pass Iowa State in the tournament’s overall standings. The Jayhawks will play their third and final game of the Players Era on Wednesday.

“We’re going to try to win, but it’s a bonus game,” Self said. “We’re not going to have a great book on whoever, they’re not going to have a great book on us.”

Time, location and opponent are yet to be determined, but KU is on track to take part in either the third-place game at 6 p.m. Central time or the championship game at 8:30, both of which are at MGM Grand Garden Arena. Both carry considerable financial rewards for KU’s players.

“We want to play in the title game for sure,” Tiller said. “That’s what we came here for. So, we’re just looking to see whoever we’re going to play and take advantage of that opportunity.”

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