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RECAP
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BOX SCORE
LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) -- On an afternoon set aside for seniors,
nervous freshmen carried the day.
First-year players Drew Gooden and Kirk Hinrich shrugged off
enormous the pressure and made two free throws each over the final
12 seconds as No. 23 Kansas squeezed past Missouri 83-82 Sunday in
the Big 12's regular season finale.
|  | | Kansas' Nick Bradford, left, and Kirk Hinrich double-team Missouri's Brian Grawer. |
Gooden, intentionally fouled by Jeff Hafer as he darted in for
what would have been a layup, turned an 80-79 deficit into an 81-80
lead for the Jayhawks (22-8, 11-5).
Then after Hinrich's two foul shots gave Kansas an 83-80 lead
with 7.6 seconds to go, Missouri's Clarence Gilbert tipped in Keyon
Dooling's miss with one-tenth of a second left.
"I was under a lot of pressure. It was like a dream," said
Gooden, who had 20 points and 13 rebounds. "I've never been in
that position before in my whole life."
Because Hafer was charged with an intentional foul, the Jayhawks
retained possession. Hafer's foul was not called intentional on
Hinrich. But the freshman guard calmly canned both shots and
brought a roar from the sellout throng who had come to honor four
seniors playing their last game at Allen Fieldhouse.
Missouri (17-11, 10-6) had erased a 14-point second-half deficit
to take a one-point lead on T.J. Soyoye's free throw at the 1:40
mark.
"I'm stinging a bit from this one. It hurts to play like we did
and lose," Missouri coach Quin Snyder said.
Hafer did not dispute the intentional call foul.
"I didn't want him to get an easy two or have an opportunity
for a three-point play," he said. "It's something I did and it
turned out not to be a very good play."
Dooling and Hafer had hit consecutive 3-pointers to launch a
13-2 Missouri rally after Nick Bradford's free throw had given the
Jayhawks a 77-67 lead with 4:20 left in the seesaw game between the
archrivals.
After Soyoye's free throws, Kansas inbounded the ball with 39
seconds remaining.
"I thought it was probably a good call," Snyder said of the
intentional foul.
Hafer, a 6-foot-5 senior averaging 7.2 points, hit two
3-pointers and a short jumper, scoring eight straight points during
a 12-2 run that saw the Tigers shave a 63-49 deficit to 65-61
midway through the first half.
But then came Bradford, a 6-7 senior, scoring seven straight
points to give the Jayhawks a 72-63 lead with 6:42 remaining.
Gooden was delighted, at first, to see Hafer called for the
intentional foul.
"I looked up and saw he'd called it intentional. I thought
good, then I thought, 'Oh, gosh, now I've got the pressure to make
the free throws.' The crowd quieted down for me and I knocked them
in," he said. "I kept thinking we've got to win this one for the
seniors."
Hinrich figured he needed to make both his foul shots.
"I wanted to win the game so bad," he said. "I had made some
mistakes early in the game and the last couple of possessions. "I
thought if I made both of them we were sitting pretty good. If I
didn't, then we were in trouble."
Missouri went six minutes without scoring during a 14-2 Kansas
run opening the second half. The Tigers hit only three of their
first 14 shots of the second half and Kansas appeared to be pulling
away for an easy win until Hafer and Dooling halted the momentum.
The victory matches Kansas against 12th-seeded Kansas State on
Thursday in the first round of the Big 12 tournament. Bradford had
15 points and Nick Collison added 14.
Kareem Rush had 20 points and Gilbert added 18 for Missouri,
which will play Texas Tech on Thursday night.
Missouri had eight 3-pointers in the first half and twice led by
as many as six before the Jayhawks pulled away for a 45-42 halfime
lead.
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ALSO SEE
Mens College Basketball Scoreboard
Missouri Clubhouse
Kansas Clubhouse
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