Reuters

SAN ANTONIO, Texas - Kansas capitalized on some poor free-throw shooting by Memphis late in the game to grind out a 75-68 overtime victory and seal their first national championship for 20 years on Monday.

Memphis (38-2) led 60-51 with 2:12 left in regulation but missed four of five free throws down the stretch, setting the stage for a game-tying three-pointer by Kansas guard Mario Chalmers with 2.1 seconds remaining.

Tigers senior forward Joey Dorsey dropped to his knees after watching Chalmers hit the shot from the top of the arc that locked the score at 63-63 and sent the game into overtime.

"I was like, 'Man, I can't believe he hit that shot,' because I just knew we was ready to cut the nets down," he told reporters.

"When you're out there, it was tough because you're looking at the ball, you're looking at the rotation," Memphis guard Chris Douglas-Roberts added. "I seen it was going in. It hurt."

Douglas-Roberts, who finished with 22 points, missed all three of his free throws in the final 1:15 of regulation, while his backcourt mate, freshman Derrick Rose, blew one of two.

Given a reprieve by Memphis's free-throw woes, Kansas (37-3) scored the first six points in the extra session to take a 69-63 lead and was never threatened.

"I wish we would have made the free throws," Memphis coach John Calipari said. "But let's put it this way. Did we have the guys at the line that we wanted at the line? Yeah.

"They don't make every one. They're not machines, these kids. They're just not. And under that glare of that significance."

Missed throws

Kansas forward Darrell Arthur scored 20 points, hitting nine-of-13 shots while grabbing 10 rebounds. Chalmers had 18 points and was named the game's most outstanding player.

Memphis, which hit only 61 percent of its free throws this season, made 12-of-19 on Monday. Douglas-Roberts hit six-of-nine and Rose three-of-four but they misfired when it really mattered.

"All along people have been talking about how bad a free-throw shooting team they are," Chalmers said.

"Coach (Bill) Self told us to foul a couple of their worst shooters. We got lucky. Chris missed two free throws.

"Derrick Rose missed one free throw. That was a big thing for us. We just took that and ran with it."

Self conceded things had looked grim late in regulation but he never thought it was over.

"I just thought, 'You know, we can do this. We can do this. We just need to catch a break.' And we caught a break," he said.

"But I never thought it was dead. I never did. But I knew it didn't look very good."