HONOLULU — Things got feisty at the Stan Sheriff Center on Tuesday night as fourth-ranked Marquette pressed, scrapped and hustled its way to a 73-59 upset of No. 1 Kansas in a semifinal of the Allstate Maui Invitational.

Forward Oso Ighodaro scored 21 points on 9-for-15 shooting and grabbed nine rebounds, and after an on-court dust-up between the teams' full benches and staffs in the first half, the Golden Eagles (5-0) earned a shot against No. 2 Purdue (5-0) in Wednesday’s noon championship game of the stacked 40^th edition of the field, and first on Oahu.

Kansas (4-1) had won the Maui Invitational in its last two appearances in the Islands in 2015 and 2019. But Bill Self’s Jayhawks met their match, and then some, in the more mobile Eagles of the Big East.

Marquette, with Hall of Fame alumnus Dwyane Wade taking in the action courtside, went on an 11-0 run to seize control of a tied game midway through the first half and maintained its advantage at or near double digits the rest of the way.

“I thought Marquette played great. They were so quick … we got behind and played catch-up the whole game,” Self said.

“They were definitely the much better team tonight.”

Guard Chase Ross added 12 points and Kam Jones 10 for the Eagles.

KU guard Kevin McCullar Jr., who had triple-doubles in his last two games, had 24 points on 9-for-14 shooting, eight rebounds, three assists and six turnovers as one of the few productive KU players. Center Hunter Dickinson added 13 points and eight rebounds but couldn’t get into much of a rhythm.

The teams got into a full fracas heading into a timeout late in the first half. It took officials several moments to separate everyone.

Smart said he recognized McCullar as a fierce competitor when he coached at Texas and McCullar played at Texas Tech.

“He’s one of the best competitors I’ve coached against in a long time. He always brought an edge that was different, and he always enjoyed having dialogue with me. He probably does that with all coaches, but … it started the little dust-up. Then their bench got involved and our bench got involved. At the end of the day, it really had very little to do with the game. Our guys did a very good job of basically ignoring what happened.”

Self followed Smart’s press session and was asked the same question about the fracas. Self was seen yelling in Smart’s direction in the fray as assistant coaches kept them separated.

Said Self, “I doubt (Smart’s account) was accurate. Just so you know. I don’t even care. I’m not going to talk about it, but I can guarantee it wasn’t accurate.”

The teams shook hands without incident in the post-game handshake line.

Purdue beat No. 7 Tennessee 71-67 in the day's first semifinal.

Brian McInnis covers the state's sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at brian.mcinnis@charter.com.