Undefeated No. 2-ranked Baylor continued its spectacular start to the 2020-21 men’s basketball season by downing No. 9-ranked Kansas 77-69 on Monday night at Ferrell Center, in Waco, Texas.
Jared Butler scored 30 points, MaCio Teague added 13 and Davion Mitchell 10 as the Bears (13-0, 6-0 Big 12), who raced to an 11-point lead just 5 1/2 minutes into the game and 13 points at halftime, but just five points with 3:17 to play, surged to a three-game lead over KU (10-4, 4-3) in the Big 12 standings.
The Bears — they led by just five points midway through the final half — remained a game ahead of Texas (11-2, 5-1), while KU joined a large group of three-loss teams (Texas Tech, Oklahoma State, Oklahoma, West Virginia).
Christian Braun scored 17 points and Ochai Agbaji added 16 for the No. 9 Jayhawks (10-4, 4-3), who fell for the third time in their last five games.
KU, which lost for the first time in 19 ESPN Big Monday telecasts, has dropped two straight league games for the first time since the 2012-13 season. The Jayhawks would need a monumental comeback to claim at least a share of their 16th league crown in the last 17 seasons.
KU last lost on Big Monday on Jan. 25, 2016 when Iowa State downed the Jayhawks, 85-72, at Hilton Coliseum in Ames, Iowa.
Butler, who blitzed KU for a career-high 31 points in a 78-70 loss to the Jayhawks on March 9, 2019 in Allen Fieldhouse, scored 17 points on 6-of-8 shooting (4-of-5 threes) and Baylor led, 41-28, at halftime. Teague had eight points and Vital six rebounds in the half.
Butler scored nine quick points as Baylor opened a 16-5 lead at 14:23.
The Bears led 18-7 at 12:26, 21-10 at 11:01 and 26-13 at 8:31. At that point Butler had torched KU for 12 points on 4-of-6 shooting — 3-of-4 from three.
The lead blossomed to 37-21 with 4:08 left in the half as Butler cashed a three to increase his point total to 15. Baylor’s biggest lead of the half was 39-23 at 3:18. KU’s only offense was from Braun, who had 11 points.
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KU cut the gap to eight points, 46-38, with the ball with 15:41 to play. However, Baylor went on a 5-0 run to go up 51-38 at 14:00.
Down 56-43 at 11:20, KU used a 8-0 run to slice the gap to seven points at 10:19. The points came on a Mitch Lightfoot dunk, two free throws by Agbaji a bucket by Tristan Enaruna and dunk by Agbaji. However, Baylor responded with a 9-0 surge to go up 65-51 at 7:03.
A 7-0 run, started by a Braun three, cut the gap to 65-58 at 3:44. Marcus Garrett and McCormack also scored in that quick surge. KU trailed by five, 65-60, at 3:17, however, Baylor had one last run in it to again open a double digit league.
KU at 4-3 is off to its worst start through the first seven games of a conference season since 1988-89, when Roy Williams’ first KU team opened 3-4.
KU, which hit 48.1% of its shots to Baylor’s 53.8%, dropped its second straight conference game for the first time since the 2012-13 season. Yes, nine seasons ago, KU lost to Oklahoma State in Lawrence and TCU in Fort Worth, Texas. It turned into a three-game losing streak when Oklahoma defeated KU in Norman.
Entering Monday’s game as 9-point underdogs, the Jayhawks indeed fell to 98-14 following a loss in the Self era. KU lost to Oklahoma State last Tuesday in Stillwater, Oklahoma, then had Saturday’s home game against Iowa State postponed because of COVID-19 protocols involving ISU’s program.
KU is 47-6 after losses the past seven seasons.
The Bears entered with 11 double-digit victories in 12 games. Baylor beat Texas Tech by eight points on Saturday in Lubbock, Texas.
The Jayhawks players, In honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, wore pregame shooting shirts with five different quotes by King on them. Each KU player chose a specific quote for his shooting shirt. KU’s coaches wore a patch honoring King, an initiative from the Big 12 Black Assistant Coaches Alliance.
In all, 2,300 fans attended the game. Baylor is allowing 25% of arena capacity during the COVID-19 pandemic.
