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Kansas Takes It
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"What happened in overtime?" Calipari said. "We didn't have Joey Dorsey in overtime."
It should never have gotten to that point for Memphis. Douglas-Roberts, who scored 22 points, carried Memphis in the first half, and Rose, who scored 18 points, helped Memphis seemingly take control of the game in the second half.
After Darrell Arthur (team-high 20 points) made a jumper to cut the deficit to seven points, Collins stole the ball and made a three-pointer 10 seconds later. Chalmers made two free throws and Arthur made another jumper to cut the deficit to two points with one minute remaining.
Douglas-Roberts was in position to put away the game with 16 seconds remaining, but he missed two free throws. Six second later, Rose also had a chance to seal the victory but missed the first of two free throws.
In the first half, Kansas assigned Brandon Rush to guard Douglas-Roberts, who sliced through the defense early for a layup. Soon after, Rose sank a baseline jumper, drew a foul and made the free throw to put Memphis ahead 9-3, giving Kansas its largest deficit of the tournament.
But Memphis soon faced its largest deficit of the tournament after Kansas went on a 19-6 run to take a 22-15 advantage when Rush hooked up with Arthur for an alley-oop dunk.
For the most part, Kansas neutralized Rose in the first half, holding him to 1-of-4 shooting from the floor and forcing three turnovers. Dorsey made a steal and a breakaway dunk, but the Baltimore native seemed a step slow in the first half.
Memphis leaned heavily on Douglas-Roberts, who scored 13 of its first 28 points. Calipari likes when Douglas-Roberts perpetually moves without the ball like Richard Hamilton of the Detroit Pistons. In the first half Monday, Douglas-Roberts hardly stopped moving, creating matchup problems for Kansas throughout.
Kansas had made four other Final Four appearances since 1991, and the Jayhawks also endured disappointing first-round losses to Bradley and Bucknell this decade. Much like 1988, it took a near miracle.
"I'm a little overwhelmed now," Self said.
