No. 4 MBB Secures First-Ever Win at Allen Fieldhouse over No. 3 Kansas

Saturday, January 11

Lawrence, Kan.

12 p.m.

Baylor

13-1,3-0Big 12

Kansas

12-3,2-1Big 12

Baylor

Kansas

Photo by: Baylor Photography

No. 4 MBB Secures First-Ever Win at Allen Fieldhouse over No. 3 Kansas

1/11/2020 2:38:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score Postgame Notes

Behind Jared Butler's 22 points, Baylor defeats a top-5 team on the road for the first time in program history

            LAWRENCE, Kan. – That monkey on Baylor's back was more like King Kong after 16-consecutive losses in Allen Fieldhouse, including 12 straight under head coach Scott Drew.
            No more.
            Riding the hot hands of Jared Butler and MaCio Teague, plus a trademark suffocating defense that's made a habit of shutting teams down, the fourth-ranked Baylor Bears pulled off their first-ever win at Allen Fieldhouse and first on the road against a top-five team, beating No. 3 Kansas, 67-55, Saturday afternoon.
            "I knew at some point Baylor was going to win up here, and I was just hoping that I would get to be a part of it," said Drew, whose team improved to 13-1 overall and 3-0 in the Big 12 with its 12^th win in a row. "I'm really pleased with this group because they've worked extremely hard and played with a lot of toughness and poise today. . . . Any time you beat a Coach (Bill) Self team, you have to beat them, because they don't beat themselves."
            Neither did the Bears. After turning it over 20 times in a 57-52 win at No. 22 Texas Tech on Tuesday, Baylor had just five turnovers for the game and outscored Kansas, 21-2, on points off turnovers.
            "I think the big thing is we never let them put together that 8-0, 10-0, 12-0 run they're normally able to get home," Drew said. "And I think a big part of that goes to our offense actually, because we only had five turnovers. . . . When you just have five (turnovers), now all of a sudden you keep them out of transition a little bit more. The fact that we shot 45 percent says we were getting the right shots. We showed a lot of poise, late-clock, and made some extra passes, which was really nice to see."
            Baylor, which had been 0-22 all-time versus top-five teams on the road, also snapped Kansas' 28-game home-court winning streak and held the Jayhawks (12-3, 2-1) to their fewest points in a home game in 20 years.
            "Man, 17 years, it's a long process," said Butler, who scored 31 points in last year's 78-70 loss at Kansas. "We came in here expecting to win and expecting to do great things in the Big 12. It shows when you're expecting to win versus just trying to survive."
            As they have all year, the Bears got it done on the defensive end, holding Kansas to a season-low 39.2 percent from the field overall (20-of-51) and just 4-of-15 from outside the arc. The Jayhawks' inside-out duo of Udoka Azubuike and Devon Dotson combined for just 15 points, with the 7-foot Azubuike going scoreless in the first half and Dotson scoring just two second-half points after aggravating a hip pointer injury.
            "We try to turn our defense into offense," said Teague, who had 16 points and a team-high seven rebounds. "We tried to lock in defensively. We had a bad night shooting the ball, but our effort on defense is what keeps us going on offense, so we're just trying to stay that way defensively."
            After Baylor fell down 20-15, Teague nailed a 3-pointer that started a closing 22-4 run in the last seven minutes of the first half that gave the Bears a stunning 37-24 lead at the break. Butler drained a 3-pointer to give Baylor the lead for good and then capped a 9-0 run by scoring on a driving layup in traffic to make it 24-20.
            Kansas was still within one possession, at 27-24, until the Bears scored 10 unanswered points in the last 2 ½ minutes before intermission. The run included a three-point play by Teague, another tough shot by Butler and a Davion Mitchell layup off a steal and assist by Butler.
            "It puts so much pressure on you to have to come back against a team that guards that well," Self said. "Give Baylor credit than us, they were better than us, better prepared and better coached with everything today."
            Leading 37-24 at the break, Baylor got off to a slow start in the second half and missed its first six shots before Tristan Clark ended the scoring drought with a layup off a dish from Devonte Bandoo.
            Taking advantage of the Bears missing 10 of their first 12 shots, Kansas closed the deficit to 41-36 on a bucket by Azubuike, who finished with just six points and 11 rebounds.
            Teague said the goal in stopping Azubuike was to keep him off the glass, "not letting him get any easy baskets. We know he's a big part of their program and their team, so we just wanted to limit his buckets."
            Answering the Kansas run, Teague hit a 3-pointer, followed by consecutive baskets by Freddie Gillespie and a Butler trey that pushed it back to a double-digit lead, 51-38.
            "That's the blessing of having a balanced team," Drew said, "because you have four guys in double figures. Different parts of the game, different matchups, different people stepped up. That really comes in a team knowing their roles and knowing each other's strengths. I thought when Jared got going, the team did a great job getting him going. He was in a zone for a minute there."
            Gillespie added 13 points for the Bears, while Isaiah Moss had 15 points off the bench and Marcus Garrett chipped in 11 for the Jayhawks.
            "Any other team would say, 'Oh, we got one at Kansas.' But, we expected to win," Butler said. "We have a great team with great guys and great coaches. Our defense determines how we play. If we play defense, we're probably going to win."
            After beating their fifth top-25 team in a row and second this week, the Bears return home to host Iowa State (8-7, 1-2) at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Ferrell Center. The Cyclones broke into the win column in league play for the first time on Saturday, beating Oklahoma, 81-68.