Kansas Ends Baylor’s Undefeated Season with 71-58 Win
Kansas ended Baylor’s undefeated season on Saturday night, with The Jayhawks winning, 71-58, at Allen Fieldhouse in Lawrence KS.
The Bears (18-1, 10-1 in Big 12) had won their first 18 games of the season, including their first 10 conference games. That winning streak included a 77-69 win over Kansas in Waco, Texas, on Jan. 18.
Baylor was seeking to claim its first regular-season conference championship since 1950, when the Bears shared the Southwest Conference title. the Bears can still win the regular-season crown, but now they’ll have to wait until at least Tuesday’s game against West Virginia.
The only remaining undefeated team in Division I college basketball is Gonzaga.
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Kansas (18-8, 12-6) won the Big 12 regular-season title last year, and with the win over Baylor, The Jayhawks end their Big 12 season with wins and six of their final seven conference games.
Kansas forward David McCormack led the Jayhawks with 20 points and three rebounds. Marcus Garrett finished with 14 points and seven rebounds. Jalen Wilson had just seven points, but he grabbed 13 rebounds to lead the Jayhawks. As a team, Kansas shot 51 percent and had a 47-28 edge on the glass.
Baylor, playing its second game since a layoff that started Feb. 2 and ended when the Bears faced Iowa State on Tuesday, shot just 34 percent. MaCio Teague led the Bears with 18 points, while Davion Mitchell added 13 points. National Player of the Year candidate Jared Butler had a rough night, shooting 1-for-7 from the floor and scoring just five points as he struggled with foul trouble.
Kansas will play UTEP on March 4 to wrap up the regular season. Baylor, which had seven conference games postponed, an one conference game cancelled, must play three games next week. The Bears travel to West Virginia on March 2, followed by home games against Oklahoma State on March 4 and Texas Tech on March 7.
You can find Matthew Postins on Twitter @PostinsPostcard. Send him a tweet with your question to be included in this week’s Big 12 Basketball Mailbag, which appears each Friday during the conference season.
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