In the game of the year, No. 1 Kansas took a huge gamble and beat No. 2 Oklahoma in triple-overtime

ESPN

In what will likely go down as the best game of college basketball’s regular season, No. 1 Kansas beat No. 2 Oklahoma in a triple-overtime thriller, 109-106.

In the end, it came down to the Jayhawks’ defense and one huge gamble that paid off.

After forcing two turnovers with less than 30 seconds to go in the third overtime, Kansas turned a 1-point deficit into a 3-point lead with 8.6 seconds left.

At this point, a lot of teams would choose to foul Oklahoma as they are coming up the court, giving up two free throws instead of a potential game-tying three-pointer. This strategy seemed even more sound considering that Oklahoma shoots 45% from 3-point range on the season.

Instead, Kansas decided to play straight-up defense and it worked. Ryan Spangler never got his 3-point shot off as Perry Ellis knocked the ball loose before one final heave by the Sooners missed the mark completely.

Buddy Hield scored 46 points in the losing effort for the Sooners.

More importantly, this felt like a Final Four game and nobody who watched this game would be surprised to see rematches in the Big 12 championship game and the NCAA Tournament.