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Kansas Basketball vs. Memphis

Memphis tried its best Mario Chalmers impersonation. And once again, Kansas came out on top.

The Tigers missed the go-ahead three-point jumper as time expired, giving the Jayhawks a 57-55 victory in the Hall of Fame Showcase Tuesday night at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis.

Junior center Cole Aldrich led the Jayhawks with 18 points, 12 rebounds and five blocks. But the biggest performance wasn’t on the stat sheet.

Favoring his right thigh with cramps, Sherron Collins had several visits with his trainer hoping to stretch it out. But Collins limped back to the locker room with around 7:30 left to go in the second quarter.

With his team struggling to execute cohesive offense, he returned right when his team needed him.

“I wasn’t going to sit out the whole game,” he said. “I wasn’t going to let the cramps keep me down the rest of the game I was going to get out there some way and finish the game off.”

Leading by four with three minutes left to go, Collins ran straight out of the locker room into the game.

Memphis whittled the lead down to two points in the final minute and Collins had a floater counted for goal tending. On the other end, Memphis hit a three, giving Kansas a one-point lead with 16.7 seconds to play.

Collins was fouled right away and only hit one out of two free throws, but Memphis guard Elliot Williams missed a three pointer, giving Kansas the victory.

Coach Bill Self said he thought the game was well played on both sides except for Kansas’ offense.

“Offensively, we stunk,” he said. “That was in large part because of them, I hope.”

With Collins out of the game, the offense looked lost. The team only shot 46.5 percent from the floor. Tyshawn Taylor assumed his point guard duties only to turn the ball over seven times. Taylor said Collins is the key for making the Kansas offense go.

“He makes the game so much easier for everybody around him,” Taylor said. “And when he went out, it was kind of tough.”

Technically a road game, Memphis and Kansas fans were spread evenly. The teams were as even as the fans they brought with them.

Memphis constantly nipped at the Jayhawks’ heels, spotting Kansas around five points for most of the game.

Coming into the game, most thought this would be a wash. Memphis is inexperienced in both player and coach and is dealing with several injuries. But Kansas didn’t underestimate the Tigers.

“We never looked over them,” Marcus Morris said. “We never thought they were a bad team. We always knew they would cause a lot of matchup problems.”

Freshman guard Xavier Henry came back to earth from his debut performance with only 11 points on 3-of-11 shooting.

The turnovers didn’t help his cause either. Henry had four of the Jayhawks’ 21 turnovers to go along with Taylor’s seven. Aldrich said the turnovers kept Memphis in the game.

“We played pretty good defense and were able to contain them for the most part,” Aldrich said, “but if we don’t take care of the ball, it becomes a really tight game like it was.”

— Edited by Sarah Kelly