COLLEGE BASKETBALL / NCAA MEN’S TOURNAMENT : Walters Gets Redemption, : Kansas a Victory Over BYU
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ROSEMONT, Ill. — Frayed at the edges and creased down the middle, the 1989-90 Brigham Young pocket schedule made a rare appearance from the inner reaches of Rex Walters’ wallet Saturday.
The palm-sized piece of paper inspiration helped explain the motivation behind Walters’ 28 points and, in its own strange way, a 90-76 Kansas victory over Brigham Young in the second round of Midwest Regional before 17,463 at the Rosemont Horizon
Three seasons ago, while playing for Northwestern as a sophomore, Walters missed three critical last-minute shots against BYU and the Cougars won. Walters never forgot. Didn’t want to, which is why he tucked a copy of the pocket schedule in his billfold.
“I kept (it) to remind me in case I got big headed,” he said.
In the personal rematch of sorts, Walters suffered no such late-game lapses against the seventh-seeded Cougars. His three-pointer with 6:54 to play gave put second-seeded Jayhawks (27-6) ahead to stay, 65-64.
His rebound of a missed free throw and subsequent three-point play with 1:56 left extended the Kansas lead to 11 points. A dunk by Walters 12 seconds later all but ended any hopes of a BYU comeback.
“It’s probably been the best weekend of my life,” said Walters, who transferred to Kansas after that 1989-90 season.
Walters made nine of 15 shots, all eight of his free-throw attempts, grabbed six rebounds and added six assists.
Guard Nick Sanderson scored 24 points for BYU (25-9), but it wasn’t enough to overcome Walters or Kansas’ constant pressure on the Cougar ballhandlers. BYU had 21 turnovers, Kansas 10.
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