No. 10 Baylor Rides Balanced Offense to Upset of No. 5 Kansas in Big 12 Action

AP Photo/Ray Carlin

No. 10 Baylor has kept its hopes for a Big 12 regular-season title alive thanks to an 80-70 victory over No. 5 Kansas on Saturday night at the Ferrell Center.

This was the second time these two heavyweight programs have met in the past three weeks. Kansas dominated the first meeting, 83-59, at Allen Fieldhouse on Feb. 5. Head coach Bill Self’s squad was riding a four-game winning streak coming into this matchup.

The Bears got a much-needed win over one of their key conference rivals. Their last two losses were against Kansas and Texas Tech (83-73 on Feb. 16). They are now 12-4 in Big 12 play, one game behind Kansas in the loss column with two games left in the regular season.

Fresh off shooting 64.1 percent from the field and scoring 102 points against Kansas State on Tuesday, the Jayhawks’ offense went cold against a much better defense. They only made 34.3 percent of their attempts, including 7-of-28 from three-point range.

Ochai Agbaji did his best to carry the unit with 27 points. David McCormack and Christian Braun both recorded a double-double in the loss. 

This game initially looked like it would be a blowout for Kansas after taking a 21-9 lead midway through the first half. 

Baylor settled in at that point, closing the first half on a 22-11 run to close the deficit to one point. Kendall Brown gave the Bears their first lead of the game with a dunk to open the second half. 

The Jayhawks cut the lead to three with just under two minutes to play, but the Bears scored seven unanswered points to seal the victory.

Flo Thamba was the star of the game for the Bears with a career-high 18 points. 

Notable Game Stats

• Flo Thamba (Baylor): 18 points (8-of-13 FG), 9 rebounds
• James Akinjo (Baylor): 12 points (8-of-9 FT), 6 assists
• Jeremy Sochan (Baylor): 17 points (5-of-9 FG), 5 rebounds
• Ochai Agbaji (Kansas): 27 points (8-of-21 FG), 6 rebounds
• David McCormack (Kansas): 10 points (4-of-11 FG), 13 rebounds
• Christian Braun (Kansas): 17 points (6-of-13 FG), 10 rebounds

What’s Next?

Kansas will play its final road game of the regular season against TCU on Tuesday at 8 p.m. ET. Baylor will take on No. 20 Texas at the Erwin Events Center on Monday at 9 p.m. ET.

This article will be updated to
provide more information on this story as it becomes available.

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