By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
           
As if losing 6-9 sophomore center Tristan Clark to a season-ending knee surgery wasn't enough of a blow, the Baylor Bears missed their first 15 shots and found themselves trailing seventh-ranked Kansas by 16 points midway through the first half of Saturday's game.
           
And they still didn't go away.
           
With the Jayhawks (14-2, 3-1) going the last 6 ½ minutes without a field goal and turning it over five times down the stretch, Baylor (9-6, 1-2) was able to whittle a 23-point second-half deficit to just four on Devonte Bandoo's 3-pointer with 19.6 seconds left.
           
But, the Bears' furious rally came up short as Kansas escaped with a 73-68 win before a crowd of 9,009 at the Ferrell Center.
           
"All year long, these guys have competed," said Baylor coach Scott Drew, who made the announcement about Clark's injury just minutes prior to tipoff. "We haven't given up all year. And as long as we keep doing that, and as our execution gets better, we'll be a much better team."
           
In a prepared statement that was released before the game, Drew said Clark "suffered a left knee injury that will require season-ending surgery. He's a tremendous player and teammate, so this is obviously disappointing news, but Tristan is determined to do whatever it takes to rehabilitate and return to being one of the nation's premier big men."
           
The 6-9 sophomore averaged 14.6 points, 6.3 rebounds, 2.4 blocks and 1.6 assists in Baylor's first 14 games this season and leads the nation with a 73.7 field goal percentage.
           
Sophomore forward Mark Vital, who narrowly missed a double-double with 10 points and nine rebounds, said Clark is "like my brother and it hurts a lot. I don't ever want that to happen to anybody else."
           
Even without Clark's inside presence, Baylor dominated the boards, 49-30. Vital had eight of the Bears' 26 offensive rebounds, which matched the Jayhawks' number of defensive rebounds.
           
"Tristan told us before the game that he couldn't be out there, so he wanted us to play as hard as we can to crash the boards," Vital said. "I took that personally, and I was like, 'Man, we've got to step up for Tristan.' Get the offensive rebounds, defensive rebounds, do everything we can to make it like he's still out there."
           
What the Bears clearly missed most of all was Clark's shooting touch. They went nearly 10 ½ minutes before Vital ended the drought when he grabbed a rebound off a missed 3-pointer by Makai Mason and scored on a layup.
           
By that time, Kansas was up 18-2, with the Bears' only points coming on a pair of free throws by King McClure.
           
"I think we missed some shots that I believe we'll hit in the future," Drew said. "Tristan did so much for us in the past, because you give him the ball in a one-on-one (situation), he scores. If you double, you give a shooter an open shot. That was the offense, to some degree. Now, we need to work on everybody kind of picking up, getting other people shots."
           
Hitting their next three shots in a row, the Bears pulled to within 20-11 on a dunk by Freddie Gillespie and twice got it back to a two-point game, the last one coming on a Mario Kegler jumper.
           
Kansas, though, closed the half on an 11-3 run and went into the locker room up 35-25 on the third of Lagerald Vick's six 3-pointers. Vick had a game-high 18 points on his 22^nd birthday, while 6-9 junior forward Dedric Lawson had 17 points, five blocks, five steals and only three rebounds.
           
"You always like to have a run right before halftime," Drew said. "They answered it like a team should do, that had a lead and gave it up. That definitely hurt us, momentum-wise."
           
The Jayhawks seemed to regain their footing and were able to stretch their lead out to 64-41 on a jumper by freshman Ochai Agbaji with 6:28 left in the game. But, they would score just nine points the rest of the way, and all of them came at the foul line.
           
"I thought we played really well the first 36 minutes. That's about the best we've played from an efficiency standpoint," Kansas coach Bill Self said. "Then, I made the mistake and subbed, and it got all screwed up. Certainly, the story that I'm leaving with is that we got a good road win today, not that we played (that badly) the last four minutes."
           
Still trailing by 12 with under a minute to play, Baylor made things interesting with 3-pointers by Butler and Bandoo and a layup by Vital in an 8-0 run that made it 72-68 with 19.6 seconds left.
           
The Bears had even more chances in the final seconds, with the press forcing another turnover and Lawson missing one of two free throws, but Butler missed twice from 3-point range and Vital went 0-for-2 from the line.
           
"I know everybody on the team was down and upset for Tristan," Drew said, "but we have good leadership and character. These guys want to win and they want to compete, and now they have an opportunity to do that in the Big 12."
           
Three players scored in double figures for the Bears, led by Butler with four 3-pointers and 14 points to go with four assists. Vital had 11 points, Mason finished with 10 and McClure grabbed 10 rebounds.
           
In a quick turnaround, Baylor goes on the road to face a suddenly hot Oklahoma State team (8-8, 2-2) at 8 p.m. Monday in Stillwater. The Cowboys followed up a 61-58 win over Texas by going on the road to beat West Virginia, 85-77, on Saturday in Morgantown.