Kansas basketball knocked out the Baylor Bears Saturday afternoon by a final score of 87-71.
Going into halftime, Kansas trailed by 13 points and trailed by as many as 17, as Baylor shot 64.3 percent from beyond the arc in the first half.
Baylor’s big three, freshman guard Keyonte George, senior guard Adam Flagler and junior guard LJ Cryer, combined for 42 of Baylor’s 45 first half points.
Out of the interval things have changed. Kansas opened the second half on a 32-9 run, which would extend over nine minutes and 22 seconds into the second half. Baylor was no longer driving. They were losing by 12 once Kansas finished its run.
At the end of the second half, Kansas had outscored the Bears 55-26. Kansas scored on 25 of its 32 possessions and capped the comeback, beating Baylor 87-71.
Kansas redshirt junior guard Dajuan Harris led the team in the second half, scoring 14 points, and junior forward Jalen Wilson was right behind him with 12.
Baylor head coach Scott Drew noted that things never really went well for Baylor in the second half for a multitude of reasons.
“Normally, we are a good rebounding team. In the second half, they dominated us” Drew said.
“They killed us in transition, we flipped it, we had a good looking pair, but we didn’t get any offensive rebounds, and I thought Bill [Self] he did a great job adapting going off in the second half.
Harris attributed the second half upset to some defensive adjustments he made at halftime.
“Coach made me and Kevin [McCullar] stay on their two best guards and don’t shut them down. We just had to block. Everyone else did their job rebounding and we just took their two best guards out of the game,” Harris said.
The Baylor trio who combined for 42 points in the first half for Baylor scored just 15 points in the second 20 minutes.
Kansas head coach Bill Self saw that the biggest difference between the first and second half was the energy of the team.
“We got caught,” Self said. “The thing is, in this building, where our fans are amazing, they played a huge part in helping us win today, but you have to do something to get them excited. It usually comes from energy. You don’t need to snap to get them excited; it comes from playing it right and selflessness.
Kansas will be back on track Monday night as they head to Fort Worth to take on TCU’s Horned Frogs. The tip for that game is scheduled for 8:00 pm
