Kansas Rallies From Huge Halftime Deficit to Take Down Baylor in Top 10 Tilt
A battle between two of the Big 12’s Championship contenders entering final few weeks of the season turned out to be quite the one-sided battle. Well, a pair of one-sided battles, as it turns out, and the fifth-ranked Kansas Jayhawks were more dominant in theirs during the second half, eventually rolling to an 87-71 victory over the ninth-ranked Baylor Bears Saturday afternoon inside Allen Fieldhouse.
Trailing by 13 at intermission after the Bears (20-7, 9-5 Big 12) dominated the opening 20 minutes, the Jayhawks (22-5, 10-4 Big 12) put up 55 points in the second half in what became a rout. Yes, you read that right. They outscored their visiting opposition 55-26 over the final 20 minutes to completely flip the script after outstanding Baylor trio of guards LJ Cryer, Adam Flagler and Keyonte George showed off their stuff with 42 combined points before the break.
An electric 20-4 run saw Kansas take a 52-49 lead, its first since the 13:25 mark of the first half. Baylor simply had no answer from there, trailing by as much as 18 in the final minute of play.
While the Bears trio contributed with most all of its production in the scoring column, four Kansas starters lit up the twine. Forward Jalen Wilson led all of those with 21 points, while forward K.J. Adams and guards Grady Dick and Dajuan Harris Jr. added 17, 16 and 14, respectively.
They did so while propelling the ‘Hawks to a scorching 50.9% from the floor. Baylor, meanwhile, shot it a very modest 44.1% from the field, with its 22, 20 and 15 from Flagler, George and Cryer, respectively.
The overall statistics normally don’t lie, and that proved to be the case as well in this one. Along with the shooting numbers, Kansas won the rebounding battle 35-32, had a large 17-8 edge in assists and created 11 turnovers, while committing only four.
Hot 3-point shooting largely boosted Baylor to that huge lead in the first half. It eventually settled there at 10-of-25 for 40%, while Kansas didn’t shoot it particularly well from the outside, hitting only 28.6%.
Four games remain for both squads, who are among the few with realistic league title chances. Kansas, who kept pace in a first-place tie with Texas, heads to Fort Worth at 8 p.m. CT Monday to try for some revenge for an earlier season loss at home. Baylor takes to Manhattan, Kan., to challenge the Kansas State Wildcats at 6 p.m. CT Tuesday.
