National Basketball Association
BOXSCORE | RECAP
Kansas 67, Texas-El Paso 63
When: 7:00 PM ET, Saturday, November 30, 2013
Where: Imperial Arena at Atlantis Resort, Nassau
Officials: # Gary Maxwell, # Darron George, # Mike Stuart
Attendance: 3350


No. 2 Kansas 67, Texas-El Paso 63: Perry Ellis scored 19 points as the Jayhawks rebounded from an upset loss with a ragged win over the Miners in the third-place game at the Battle 4 Atlantis in the Bahamas.

Wayne Selden Jr. had 14 points for Kansas (6-1), which was defeated 63-59 by Villanova on Friday. Freshman phenom Andrew Wiggins was held in check for the second straight game, finishing with a career-low six points but had seven rebounds as the Jayhawks secured their first victory in four tries against Texas-El Paso.

McKenzie Moore finished with 15 points and Justin Crosgile sparked a late rally by the Miners with 14 points. Vince Hunter chipped in 10 as UTEP (4-4) refused to go away after suffering a 36-point loss against No. 23 Iowa in Friday’s semifinals.

Neither team could score for the first four-plus minutes until Selden ended the drought with a jumper and scored eight of the Jayhawks’ first 10 points to give Kansas a 15-2 advantage. Crosgile halted his UTEP’s drought with a 3-pointer and hit another long-range jumper late in the first half to bring the Miners within six.

UTEP started out the second half slow as well, allowing the Jayhawks to extend the margin to 42-27 on a dunk by Ellis with 14:35 left. Kansas saw its advantage slip to as little as 66-63 with seven seconds remaining as the Miners scored 13 points over the final 1:27 thanks to their full-court pressure and several late fouls by the Jayhawks, but they hit eight free throws over the final 34 seconds to hold on.

GAME NOTEBOOK: This marked the first meeting between the teams since UTEP stunned top-seeded Kansas in the 1992 NCAA Tournament, one season after the Jayhawks lost in the national championship game. … UTEP was outrebounded by an average of 15 boards in the three games at this event. … Jayhawks freshman C Joel Embiid finished with a career-high seven blocks.

Top Game Performances
 
Texas-El Paso   Kansas
McKenzie Moore 15 Scoring Perry Ellis 19
Julian Washburn 3 Assists Naadir Tharpe 4
Matt Willms 8 Rebounds Perry Ellis 7
McKenzie Moore 5 Free Throws Made Perry Ellis 7
Justin Crosgile 4 Steals Joel Embiid 2
John Bohannon 3 Blocks Joel Embiid 7
Team Stats Summary
 
Team Points FG% 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA Assists Rebounds Blocks Steals Turnovers
Texas-El Paso 63 40.7 5-13 14-24 9 31 6 9 12
Kansas 67 39.3 5-19 18-26 12 38 11 5 15