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LAWRENCE, Kan. — The only thing that could cool off Dallin Hall was his fifth foul, making BYU's first trip to Kansas since 1971 nothing if not memorable Tuesday night.
Hall totaled 18 points, four rebounds and three assists before fouling out late, and BYU snapped Kansas' 19-game home winning streak with a 76-68 over No. 7-ranked Jayhawks at historic Allen Fieldhouse.
Jaxson Robinson added 18 points for the Cougars (20-8, 8-7 Big 12), who trailed just 58-54 after Hall drove to the rim with 6:07 remaining. Fousseyni Traore had 6 points, seven rebounds and five assists for BYU.
"It was a crazy game. Just thinking back on it was amazing," Robinson told BYU Radio after the game. "But we just had to make sure that we kept our composure the whole time, controlling what we could control. Coming into this game, we definitely weren't favored to win it, but I think that drove us. … We'll remember this for the rest of our lives."
Trevin Knell canned a triple a minute later to pull within one, 58-57, and Hall gave BYU its first lead from the free-throw line with a pair of foul shots with 4:50 remaining. Hall did it again with a 3-pointer with 3:44 left, forcing Kansas coach Bill Self to call timeout with 3:35 left to play.
Kansas made just five 3-pointers, including 2-of-10 in the second half. But Hunter Dickinson drained one of them to tie the game at 66-66 with 2:28 remaining in front of the raucous capacity crowd at The Phog.
"Give them credit," Self said. "They caused us to look bad and they were successful at that."
FOR THE LEAD👌 pic.twitter.com/zVqcz729X4
— BYU Men's Basketball (@BYUMBB) February 28, 2024
But Hall showed ice in his veins, stepping back for a deep triple from the top of the key to give the Cougars their largest lead of the game, 71-66, with 1:31 on the clock.
Dickinson finished with 17 points and 11 rebounds for Kansas (21-7, 9-6 Big 12), and KJ Adams added 11 points, five rebounds and two assists. Dajuan Harris Jr. finished with 12 points and six assists, and Johnny Furphy had 10 points, nine rebounds and two assists for the Jayhawks.
The loss is Kansas' first to an unranked team inside Allen Fieldhouse since a Feb. 3, 2018 defeat to Oklahoma State, a span of 2,215 days — and also snapped a three-game road losing skid by the Cougars, their first win away from home since Feb. 3, an 86-73 win over West Virginia.
"I was proud of how the guys hung in there," BYU coach Mark Pope said after the Cougars' first win over Kansas since 1960. "Defensively, I thought our guys were tough all night long."
BYU trailed the entire first half, but Richie Saunders drained a 3-pointer with 6:46 left in the half to cap a 6-0 spurt that pulled the Cougars within one, 25-24. Kansas responded with an 8-0 run, and held BYU scoreless for more than four minutes en route to a 35-29 halftime advantage.
Robinson had 6 points at the half to lead the Cougars, who shot just 30% from the field before the break. But the visitors shot 6-of-19 from 3-point range, and got 11 points from the bench through Robinson and Saunders to hang around at the break.
Adams had 9 first-half points to lead Kansas, and Dickinson added 7 points and six rebounds for a Jayhawks squad that shot 50% but just 1-of-5 from deep. Kansas stretched the lead to double digits with a 6-0 run to start the second half, and BYU opened the half 0-for-4 from the 3-point line and 1-for-6 from the field.
BYU pulled within 6, then 5 on a three by Robinson with 13:47 left, then two on Robinson's transition 3-pointer at the 12:11 mark. The Jayhawks made just 1-of-12 field goals, but knocked down 13-of-20 free throws that included a pair of technical foul shots after Pope was called for a bench foul at the under-8 media timeout to go down 54-50.
"Obviously, we wish we could've done it without the tech," Robinson said. "But I think staying composed throughout the whole game, there were a lot of calls that didn't go our way. We just let it not affect us, and we came out with the win."
That set up the final stretch, when BYU held the Jayhawks scoreless from the field over the final 2:28 to finish the comeback.
The Cougars are back home Saturday to host former Mountain West rival TCU (7 p.m. MST, ESPN+).
