No. 4 Baylor slugs No. 3 Kansas Jayhawks for Bears’ first win at Allen Fieldhouse
Baylor’s basketball team has finally discovered what it’s like to win a game in Allen Fieldhouse.
“Seventeen years is a long process,” Bears’ guard Jared Butler said after No. 4-ranked Baylor (13-1, 3-0) upended No. 3 Kansas (12-3, 2-1), 67-55, on Saturday at Allen Fieldhouse.
Butler led the way with 22 points in 32 minutes, while fellow guards MaCio Teague and Davion Mitchell scored 16 and 10 points respectively as Baylor won its first-ever game at Allen Fieldhouse 17 tries.
KU, which was a step slow in keeping up with Baylor’s guard contingent partly because of injuries — KU’s Marcus Garrett was hindered by a tender left ankle that he turned Wednesday at Iowa State, and Devon Dotson missed 11 minutes of the second half with a hip pointer — had its 26-game Allen Fieldhouse win streak snapped.
“I knew at some point Baylor would win here. I was just hoping to be part of it,” said Baylor coach Scott Drew, who entered the game with a personal 0-12 record at Allen.
The loss tied for the worst defeat at Allen Fieldhouse in the Bill Self era. Texas Tech beat KU by 12 points in 2018.
“We were without question the second best team on the court today,” Self said, quickly addressing the injury situation for the Jayhawks, who had an abysmal showing, hitting just 4 of 15 threes and also failing to score inside with Udoka Azubuike netting six points on 3-of-6 shooting in 31 minutes and David McCormack no points on 0-of-2 shooting in 10 minutes. Silvio De Sousa had a bucket in six minutes.
“It’s a hip-pointer,” Self said of Dotson’s injury. Doston, KU’s sophomore point guard (nine points, three assists), left the game with 19 minutes, 19 seconds left in the second half clutching his left hip and KU down 13 points. He returned with 8:53 left and KU down 10, 48-38.
“He’ll be sore,” Self added. “They can linger and be pretty painful. He was hurting out there no question. Marcus (Garrett) 11 points, four boards, four assists, four turnovers in 35 minutes) hurt his ankle again. He’s not 100 percent.”
Garrett said he actually didn’t re-sprain his left ankle in Saturday’s game. It just hasn’t fully recovered from Wednesday.
“I didn’t feel as great as I thought I would be,” Garrett said. “It (his play) depends how much pain I can play through and how much I can tolerate.”
Of KU’s injuries, Self said: “We went from being a team well rested and certainly relatively healthy other than Marcus 24 hours ago to exhausted and beat up and now we have two road games this week (Oklahoma on Tuesday; Texas on Saturday). We need to get well quick.”
Baylor completely dominated the last eight minutes of the first half in turning a 20-15 deficit into a 37-24 halftime lead courtesy of a 22-4 half-ending run. Teague exploded for 11 points and Butler six in the run.
KU cut the gap to as few as five points in the second half (41-36 at 11:09), but Baylor regrouped and led by 16 at 3:53 (60-44).
It all proved disappointing to Self, who was pleased the fans filled the fieldhouse, showing up on a snowy day.
“The crowd was incredible considering the weather and everything,” Self said. “The efforts taken by people just to make it to get to the game were incredible. They came for a reason. They wanted to be here. We didn’t give them much to cheer about.”
KU’s defense forced just five Baylor turnovers. The Bears had nine steals and forced 14 turnovers.
“I don’t feel today like I did when Arizona State came in here (and won by 10 on Dec. 10, 2017),” Self said, keeping a positive outlook about Saturday’s contest.
In fact, Self called Baylor a national title contender and Butler, who hit 9 of 18 shots, one of the best guards KU will face all season.
“They were just better than us,” Self said.
The Bears hit 45 percent from the field and were 8 of 19 from three. Isaiah Moss hit two of KU’s four threes and had 15 points to lead the Jayhawks. Azubuike had seven blocks and 11 rebounds to go with his six points.
KU will meet Oklahoma at 8 p.m., Tuesday, in Norman, Oklahoma. Baylor will play host to Iowa State on Wednesday feeling great about what happened at Allen … finally.
“This year we came in with expectations to win and do great things in the Big 12,” Baylor’s Butler said. “It shows what can happen when you expect to win versus try to survive.”
Of the locker room celebration he said: “We gave him (coach Drew) a lot of love when he came in the room. It’d been so long not winning here. It’s tough to win here. He (Drew) always says you’ve got to be up with three minutes to go to win the game here.”
Game notes
Baylor has won 12 straight games since a 67-64 loss to Washington on Nov. 8 in Anchorage, Alaska. … Baylor is now 1-3 all-time in matchups involving top-five teams and 1-2 versus KU. No. 3 Kansas beat No. 2 Baylor 73-68 on Feb. 1, 2017 at Allen Fieldhouse; No. 3 KU beat No. 4 BU 67-65 on Feb. 18, 2017, in Waco, Texas. No. 5 Missouri beat No. 3 Baylor 89-88 on Jan. 21, 2012, in Waco. … Baylor is 1-22 all-time on the road against top-five teams. …Baylor is 36-38 in Big 12 road games since 2012, second-best mark in the league behind only Kansas (46-28). … Scott Drew, who is in his 17th season in Waco, improved his record to 329-210. … KU leads the all-time series vs. Baylor 32-6. KU now is 17-1 over Baylor in Lawrence, 16-1 in Allen. … KU had won the last two meetings versus Baylor and 13 of 14. … BU snapped KU’s streak of nine straight wins over AP top-five teams. KU is now 14-3 against AP top-10 teams in Lawrence in the 17-year Self era. KU has won 20 of its last 24 regular-season games against AP top-10 teams. … Self is 485-109 while at Kansas, 692-214 for his career. … Kansas is 2,287-862 all-time.
This story was originally published January 11, 2020 at 2:06 PM.
