By DJ Ramirez | Sports Editor
For the first time in Scott Drew’s 17 years as Baylor basketball’s head coach, the Bears are leaving Lawrence, Kan. with a win. The fourth-ranked team won it’s 12th straight game to upset the No. 3 Jayhawks 67-55 and move to 13-1 on the season, 3-0 in the Big 12, Saturday afternoon at Allen Fieldhouse.
Pulling off their first victory over a ranked team on the road, the Bears led by 13 points at the half with a score of 37-24 and finished the game shooting 45% from the field.
Battling the Jayhawks’ size advantage on the inside, Baylor’s guards dominated on the perimeter. Sophomore guard Jared Butler notched a game-high 22 points and redshirt junior MaCio Teague followed with 16 points and a team-high seven rebounds.
Although the Bears were outrebounded 34-31 by the Jayhawks, Baylor used its usual scrappy man defense to force 14 Kansas turnovers, 10 of them in the first half. The Bears netted 21 points off of those turnovers and held the Jayhawks to a season-low 39% in field goal shooting.
Baylor started off with an early six-point lead but Kansas picked up the pace with a 9-0 run to pull ahead. The Bears then trailed by five with seven minutes left in the first half but proceeded to go on 23-2 tear, making seven of the last 10 scores prior to intermission.
The Jayhawks came back determined in the second half, cutting into Baylor’s lead with 10 points. But scores by forwards Tristan Clark and Freddie Gillespie kept the Bears ahead.
With a little over five minutes left to play, a three-point jumper by Butler and layup by redshirt junior Mark Vital extended the gap between the Bears and Kansas to 16 points at 60-44. The Jayhawks attempted to breach Baylor’s lead but were unable to do much in the final three minutes. With 49 seconds on the clock, Butler iced the game for the Bears with a three. Kansas wrapped things up with a jumper followed by a layup at the buzzer, dropping its third game of the season.
Baylor returns home to host Iowa State at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Ferrell Center.
