The Kansas Jayhawks needed a late rally to come back from an 11-point deficit to beat the Purdue Boilermakers 63-60. Kansas played a terrible first half and did not shoot the ball well at all and trailed by six at the half. In the second half Kansas trailed by 10 points with 16:37 left in the game. Down the stretch it was Kansas who was making the big plays to crawl their way back in this game.
Kansas kept chipping away at the Purdue lead and finally took their first lead of the game on an Elijah Johnson three-point shot to go up 57-56. That play was set up by a Thomas Robinson block which landed in Johnson's hand and he took the ball himself to hit the go-ahed three-pointer:
Purdue countered with four straight points to go up by three, but then the momentum went back to Kansas on this alley-oop from Johnson to Tyshawn Taylor:
Johnson then had another great defensive play as Purdue decided to run down the clock, but could not get a shot off as Johnson stole the ball from Lewis Jackson and scored what was the game winning layup.
In what looked like a good play for Kansas turned into a golden opportunity for Purdue to have one last chance. Purdue's Robbie Hummel missed a three-point shot with nine seconds left, but instead of running the ball out Taylor dunked the ball with just under three seconds left to give Purdue one last shot:
Luckily for Kansas the final shot did not fall:
With the win Kansas moves onto the Sweet 16 and takes on No. 11 seed N.C. State.
Make sure to check out Rock Chalk Talk for more Kansas basketball and Hammer And Rails for everything on Purdue. For more on the 2012 NCAA Tournament bracket, stay with SB Nation's Selection Sunday StoryStream, and stick around SB Nation's NCAA Tournament hub for a complete printable NCAA Tournament bracket and tons of analysis on who was snubbed, who got the best bracket, and who will make it all the way to New Orleans and the Final Four.
