LAS VEGAS — No. 1 Kansas refused to let Duke star freshman Cooper Flagg beat them Tuesday night, and the Jayhawks survived a tight game to beat the No. 11 Blue Devils, earning a 75-72 win at T-Mobile Arena.

In a back-and-forth game worthy of March, or perhaps early April, it was freshman Kon Knueppel, not the highly touted but well-covered Flagg, who turned the ball over in the lane with three seconds left and his team down a point.

Kansas’ Rylan Griffen stole the ball from Knueppel, drew a foul and hit two free throws to close out the Jayhawks’ win.

Flagg finished with 13 points for Duke (4-2), scoring 11 after halftime as he made 5 of 9 shots in the game. But Knueppel scored 11 while hitting just 4 of 14 shots, and it was he who wound up driving in the lane with the game on the line, seeking in vain to score the go-ahead basket.

After Griffen’s free throws, Knueppel attempted a rushed 3-pointer at the buzzer which banked off the rim and out.

Kansas (6-0) played the final 10:26 without 7-2 center Hunter Dickinson after the preseason all-American received a Flagrant 2 foul and was ejected after kicking Duke’s Maliq Brown in the face as they tumbled on the court. Dickinson scored 11 points.

Kansas led by as many as 13 points in the first half before holding a 41-39 lead at halftime. The Jayhawks took a 71-67 lead with 3:33 to play. Duke dunks by Khaman Maluach and Flagg tied the game at 71.

Kansas took the lead for good on Zeke Mayo’s runner as the shot clock expired, giving the Jayhawks a 73-71 lead with 1:57 left. Flagg split two free throws with 1:38 left, leaving Kansas up 73-72.

Here are three takeaways from the game:

Kansas found holes in Duke defense

Before Tuesday night, no team had shot better than 39.6% against Duke. For the season, Duke had held opponents to 34.7% shooting.

Kansas moved the ball well to find an impressive amount of open shots. The Jayhawks shot 49.1% for the game, while hitting 8 of 17 3-pointers (47.1%).

That ball movement allowed the Jayhawks to collect 22 assists on their 28 made field goals. That’s the most assists a team has had against Duke this season. The only other team to come close to that was Kentucky, which had 17 while beating Duke 77-72 in Atlanta on Nov. 12.

Proctor led Duke’s 3-point attack

Proctor made 5 of his 7 3-point attempts to help Duke finish 11 of 26 (42.3%) on 3-pointers for the game. The Blue Devils started poorly, making just 2 of 8, but heated up from there.

That is, the Blue Devils heated up except for Knueppel. The 6-7 freshman missed all eight of his 3-pointers, meaning the rest of his teammates made 11 of 18 to bolster the Duke offense.

Duke survived early onslaught, punched back

The Jayhawks went for the knockout in the game’s early going, as they hit seven shots in a row to reel off 14 consecutive points and lead 16-3 less than five minutes into play. By starting the game 9 of 12 from the field, Kansas still held a 23-10 lead with 12:01 remaining in the first half.

AJ Storr’s 3-pointer with 7:29 to play before halftime gave the Jayhawks a comfortable 28-16 lead.

But Duke had a run of its own brewing.

With the score 32-20 with 5:18 to play until halftime, Sion James hit two free throws to innocently start a 12-0 Blue Devils run. A Proctor 3-pointer, followed by a Brown dunk and subsequent 3-pointer cut the Kansas lead to two points.

Knueppel’s driving layup at 3:38 tied the score at 32.

The Jayhawks built three different five-point leads the rest of the half. But Proctor’s 3-pointer as the half expired left Kansas with a 41-39 halftime lead.

After all those scoring runs going each direction, the teams each shot 50% in the first half.

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