LAWRENCE, Kan. -- Perry Ellis was not about to lose in his final home game for No. 1 Kansas on Saturday.
The senior forward dove to grab a loose ball with the Jayhawks clinging to a one-point lead, then passed to junior guard Wayne Selden, who delivered a perfect bounce pass underneath to sophomore guard Devonte' Graham for a layup.
That sequence with 3:07 remaining helped trigger a run of 11 straight points, which enabled the Jayhawks to take control and upend No. 21 Iowa State 85-78 in Allen Fieldhouse.
"I just wanted to do what I could do to get us over the hump," said Ellis, who collected 22 points and seven rebounds to lead the Jayhawks to their 11th straight win.
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Kansas (27-4) clinched the outright Big 12 title earlier in the week and finished 15-3 as league champions for the 12th consecutive year. The victory was also the 33rd in a row in Kansas senior finales, a string Ellis obviously wanted to preserve when he took his floor burn.
Selden and Graham usually start for the Jayhawks, but each came off the bench as coach Bill Self started all four of his seniors. Selden and Graham still managed 16 points each.
Graham, in addition to the layup off the bounce feed from Selden, drained a clutch 3-pointer from the corner with 48 seconds remaining to end the closing spree and put Kansas ahead 79-71.
"It's big; I feel like most of the pressure was mostly on the guys who weren't seniors," Graham said. "We want to do whatever we can to make sure they go out with a W. We didn't want them to go out with an L in Allen Fieldhouse."
Despite gaining a win that puts Kansas in even better position to obtain the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament, Self said the Jayhawks looked fatigued and were not at their best.
"We weren't very good," Self said. "We never guarded them and we never created any pace defensively. ... We talked about closing, 'this is what we do, we close.'
"We had a tip-in, and then the hustle play by Perry to get Devonte' a layup off Wayne's pass. It's an even game, a coin-flip game and we had a few possessions and it totally turns."
As the top seed in the Big 12 Tournament, Kansas will open on March 10 against the winner of a play-in game between Kansas State and Oklahoma State.
Senior forward Jameel McKay provided 19 points and a game-high nine rebounds for Iowa State (21-10, 10-8). Another senior forward, Georges Niang, added 22 points, despite missing the last nine minutes of the first half with two fouls.
Junior guard Monte Morris added 13 points for the Cyclones and played the whole way before banging his shoulder inside the final minute and leaving the game.
Still, Morris made only 3-of-10 shots and had four assists after posting 21 points and nine assists in an 85-72 victory over Kansas on Jan. 25.
Two free throws by Niang gave the Cyclones a 71-68 lead with 5:09 remaining, but the Cyclones came up empty on five straight trips as the Jayhawks made their closing push.
The teams previously exchanged 14 leads.
"I'm disappointed for our guys," Iowa State coach Steve Prohm said. "I thought we played well in stretches. We were in a one-point game late."
The Cyclones were outplayed underneath.
The Jayhawks grabbed 16 offensive rebounds as part of a 39-33 advantage on the glass. The offensive boards led to 14 more field goal attempts by Kansas. Both teams shot 47 percent.
"It's obviously disappointing to end on a loss and to not win in here," NIang said. "It was something I always wanted to do. Now we have to work on bouncing back."
Iowa State will head into the Big 12 Tournament as the defending champions of that event. The Cyclones were seeded sixth and will open against third-seeded Oklahoma on March 10.
"We're playing our best stretch of basketball, so I think our spirits are still high," McKay said.
Kansas used a string of seven unanswered points to take a 31-26 first-half lead and maintained a slim margin throughout the remainder of the half.
Morris cut into the lead at the buzzer, drilling a 3-point shot to make it 37-36 at halftime.
The Jayhawks had no early answer for McKay, who scored 15 first-half points. Niang added 12 for Iowa State, despite going to the bench with his second foul midway through the half.
Ellis countered with 12 points for Kansas, including back-to-back buckets at the 3:31 and 2:45 marks to help the Jayhawks cling to their lead, which never exceeded eight points the whole game.
NOTES: Kansas completed its second straight undefeated run at home and the 19th in its history. The undefeated conference run at home was the Jayhawks third straight and their eighth under Bill Self, who is in his 13th season. ... In addition to four Kansas seniors who were recognized before and after their last home games in Allen Fieldhouse, the Jayhawks? play-by-play radio announcer Bob Davis also called his last home game. Davis is in his 32nd year broadcasting Kansas games. ... Iowa State was attempted to become the first Big 12 rival to sweep Kansas in a season series since 2001. The Cyclones did so that season and captured the conference title. No Big 12 rival has ever swept a Kansas team coached by Self. ... The Cyclones came in ranked first in the Big 12 in scoring (82.2 ppg.) and field goal percentage (.503), with the Jayhawks ranked second in both categories.
