Johnson, Jayhawks steal win

OMAHA, Neb. -- The messages were flying in the Kansas locker room at halftime.

Elijah Johnson told his team to stop second-guessing itself. Tyshawn Taylor reminded the Jayhawks they had been in trouble before.

"When things don't go well and you get behind and you play uphill the whole way, it takes some energy and it takes some toughness," Kansas coach Bill Self said. "My message to the whole team was trust each other."

All those messages came through loud and clear.

Johnson, of Las Vegas, had 18 points, including the go-ahead basket in the final minute, and No. 2 seed Kansas held off Robbie Hummel and 10th-seeded Purdue 63-60 on Sunday in a third-round NCAA Tournament game.

"I felt it would come down to one possession, no matter what," Johnson said.

Purdue was clinging to a 60-59 lead and had the ball with less than a minute remaining when Lewis Jackson lost control at the top of the key. Johnson, a Cheyenne High product, picked it up and went the other way for the go-ahead layup with 23.3 seconds left.

Hummel missed an open 3-pointer at the other end, and Taylor scored a transition dunk for the Jayhawks with 2.5 seconds left, giving the roughly 15,000 Kansas fans reason to let out a roar for one of the first times all night.

After a timeout, Purdue's Ryne Smith managed to get off a decent look at a long, potential tying 3-pointer. It hit off the backboard, clanked off the rim and finally fell away.

"It stinks," Purdue coach Matt Painter said. "It stinks to lose."

Thomas Robinson fought through double-teams all night for 11 points and 13 rebounds, and the Jayhawks (29-6) got enough production from everyone else to erase a 10-point second-half deficit and reach the Midwest Region semifinals in St. Louis.

Kansas will face No. 11 seed North Carolina State (24-12).

"What a great game. It wasn't the best played, but it was a grind-it-out, typical Big Ten game," Self said. "Hummel was unbelievable, and we just hung in there."

Hummel finished with 26 points and nine rebounds for the Boilermakers (22-13), who were trying to reach the round of 16 for the third time in four years. D.J. Byrd and Terone Johnson finished with 10 points each for Purdue.

The Jayhawks' biggest lead all night was their final one. They overcame a ragged night from Robinson by getting 10 points from Taylor and 10 more from Travis Releford.

Purdue couldn't have gotten off to a much better start, and neither could Hummel, who hit three 3-pointers while making his first four shots. The senior forward, who has come back from two anterior cruciate ligament tears in his right knee, even followed his first miss with a basket to make it 19-8.

"I wanted to come out and be aggressive, especially the first half. It seemed like everything I was taking was going in," said Hummel, who had 22 points in the first half. "It was a crazy feeling you have as a player."

The miserable start by Kansas was enough for Self to scream at his team during one defensive trip down floor, "You told me you were ready!"

Purdue was up 36-30 at the break and extended its lead to 42-32 early in the second half, even after Kansas employed a zone defense to slow down Hummel. The Jayhawks slowly clawed back into the game and finally took their first lead at 57-56 on a deep 3-pointer by Johnson with just over three minutes left.

"We just kept grinding and grinding," Taylor said, "and we ended up making some big plays down the stretch."