By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
 
WACO, Texas – When Baylor coach Scott Drew called a timeout 2 ½ minutes into the second half of Saturday's game at Foster Pavilion with seventh-ranked Kansas on a 6-0 run, the message was simple: Get some stops.
 
All he had to do was ask.
 
Jayden Nunn sparked a 13-2 second-half run with back-to-back fast-break layups and a 3-pointer, helping the 15^th-ranked Bears defeat the suddenly slumping Jayhawks, 82-74, on Kansas' first game at a packed Foster Pavilion. But the key was a Baylor defense that came up with five stops in that four-minute stretch.
 
"We had a couple really bad offensive possessions, cross-court passes that led to runouts," said Kansas coach Bill Self, whose team suffered its first two-game losing streak of the season in falling to 21-8 overall and fourth in the Big 12 standings at 9-7. "When you're playing a good team on the road, you can't afford to have a four-minute bad stretch like that."
 
Nunn and RayJ Dennis combined for 25 of Baylor's 47 second-half points, going a combined 9-for-9 from the floor and 5-for-7 from the line. Dennis had his third double-double of the year and fifth of his career with a team-high 19 points and 10 assists, while Nunn had 18 points and five boards.
 
"I think we found something (in the second half) as far as playing fast and playing in transition," Dennis said. "Like, if we get stops, let's run. Because we're tough getting downhill."
 
Even with Kansas shooting a mind-boggling 65.2% in the first half (15-of-23), Baylor led by as many as seven at one point and was somehow up by one at the break, 35-34, when Dennis made a tough jumper with 28 seconds left.
 
Freshman 7-footer Yves Missi got the crowd of 7,500 and his own teammates going early when he posterized 6-7 forward KJ Adams with a hang-in-the-air slam dunk for the first points of the game.
 
"That was crazy," Dennis said. "I've never seen anything like that before."
 
Nunn said Missi "does something new to shock me (every day). He's just showing how comfortable he's getting playing the game."
 
"I know (the dunk) fired Yves up, and obviously got the crowd going," Drew said. "Yves is somebody that that is capable of being on (ESPN) SportsCenter each and every night."
 
After Missi made a pair of free throws in the first minute of the second half, the Jayhawks scored six unanswered points and went up 40-37 on back-to-back buckets by Kevin McCullar Jr. and a sweet hook by 7-2 center Hunter Dickinson.
 
Kansas made six of its first seven shots in the second half, bumping its shooting percentage up to a cool 70%. But in the Bears' 13-2 run, the Jayhawks scored just once in six possessions. McCullar, playing in his first game since Feb. 13 because of a knee injury, was 0-for-5 from 3-point range and tied Dickinson for scoring honors with 20 points.
 
"I thought our guys did a great job on short prep," Drew said, "because we didn't know (McCullar) was going to play. We were trying to get them down from 75% to 60%. We mixed defenses up a little bit."
 
Grabbing a defensive rebound off a miss by Dajuan Harris Jr., Nunn got in transition and made the first of his back-to-back layups and then added another one 25 seconds later off a dish from Dennis. The VCU transfer drained a 3-pointer and then capped off the 13-2 run by feeding Josh Ojianwuna for a layup that pushed the lead to 60-48, forcing Self to call another timeout.
 
"I feel like that gave us a lot of momentum that we needed coming out of the half," said Nunn, who was 7-of-8 overall and 3-of-3 from distance. "Just trying to get that breakaway lead and keep our foot on the gas."
 
After Baylor stretched the lead out to as many as 13, the Jayhawks were able to work their way back into it and pulled within four, 75-71, when Harris picked off Dennis and scored on a layup with 1:43 left.

Dennis answered with one of his patented floaters, which Self said "are not the easiest shots to shoot."

"They made some plays, and we didn't answer with the same plays," he said. "I didn't think our defense the second half was near as good as the first half. But I'm leaving here not encouraged but less discouraged, other than I thought after some of our other losses that I didn't think we played every well."

With the win, the Bears (21-8, 10-6) take over sole possession of third place in the Big 12 standings and moves a step closer to a top-four seed for the Big 12 tournament that starts March 12 in Kansas City.
 
"Throughout March, that's when you want to be playing your best ball," Dennis said. "All these games finishing out the regular season and into the Big 12 tournament are important, all the way to the NCAA tournament."
 
Harris had 12 points and nine assists and gave the Jayhawks a chance late in the game with some key steals.
 
Missi and fellow freshman Ja'Kobe Walter had 17 and 11 points, respectively. Jalen Bridges had a tough shooting day, but chipped in with nine points, five rebounds and three steals.
 
After turning it over 21 times in a 64-61 loss to Kansas three weeks ago, Baylor had only 11 turnovers on Saturday and won the battle of the boards, 31-23, finishing with an 11-9 edge in second-chance points.
 
Self was complimentary of the new Foster Pavilion, saying it's loud and "looks bigger than 7,000 just because it's so steep.
 
"I didn't tour the bowels of the arena or anything," he said, "but I thought it was great. It's certainly dozens times better than what Baylor was playing in before. . . . Whoever hired the architect to make it loud was a real smart move. I like it."
 
Baylor will host Texas (19-10, 8-8) for a Senior Day game at 8 p.m. Monday in an ESPN national telecast. The Longhorns (18-10, 7-8), which won the first meeting with Baylor on a buzzer-beating shot, defeated Oklahoma State, 81-65, on Saturday in Austin and have won three of their last four to move into a tie for seventh in the league standings.
 

• No. 15/14 Baylor is 21-8, 10-6 in the Big 12 Conference. Kansas is 21-8, 9-7 in the Big 12. 
• The Bears are 14-2 at home in 2023-24 and are 7-2 at the Foster Pavilion in its debut season.  
• Kansas leads the all-time series with Baylor, 37-10, including a 14-7 mark in games played in Waco. 
• The Bears are 5-5 over the last 10 meetings vs. Kansas. 
• Under Coach Scott Drew, Baylor trails the series 29-10. 
• Baylor reached double-digit conference wins for the sixth straight season and the 11^th time under Drew, after Baylor had just eight double-digit conference wins seasons prior to Drew. 
• Baylor is 32-15 against ranked teams over the last five seasons and own five top-25 wins on the year. 
• With five ranked wins in 2023-24, Baylor ranks tied third with UConn and North Carolina in the nation. Kansas (seven) and Purdue (six) lead college basketball. 
• Baylor is 15-4 at home vs. ranked foes over the last five seasons. 
• The Bears are 13-5 in their last 18 games against AP top-10 teams. 
• The Bears have eclipsed the 20-win mark for the sixth-straight season and the 15^th time in the last 17 seasons.
• BU held a halftime lead (35-34) for the 19^th time this season. The Bears are 18-2 this season with a halftime lead. (wouldn't it be 17-2?)
• Baylor is 407-172 since 2007-08, the first year Drew had a full allotment of scholarships. 
• Drew is 461-252 in his 22^nd season as a head coach and owns a 441-241 record at Baylor. In league play, Drew is 186-167 at BU and is 198-169 in his career. 
• The Bears are 125-32 over the last five seasons, the nation's second-best winning percentage among power-6 teams in that stretch.
• Baylor will return to action on Monday, hosting Texas at 8 p.m. on ESPN and the Baylor Sports Media Network. 
• BU deployed the starting lineup of RayJ Dennis, Jayden Nunn, Ja'Kobe Walter, Jalen Bridges and Yves Missi for the 25^th time this season. The Bears are 17-8? when utilizing that lineup.
• Trailing 40-37 with just over two minutes elapsed in the second half, the Bears went on a 16-6 run over a four-minute stretch to take a 53-46 lead, forcing a KU timeout.  
• Baylor has built double-digit leads in 113 of 149 games over the last four seasons, going 107-6 in those outings. 
• Dennis had 19 points, on 7-of-8 shooting, 10 assists and two steals in 39 minutes. 
• Dennis recorded his third double-double of the year and the fifth of his career. 
• Dennis now has 195 assists on the year, moving past Tweety Carter (2009-10), Nelson Haggerty (1992-93) and Curtis Jerrells (2008-09) for fifth in single-season Baylor history. 
• Dennis has scored in double-figure points in 21 of Baylor's 29 games on the year, with the Bears going 17-4 in those games.
• Bridges finished with nine points and has hit a 3-pointer in 13 consecutive games.  
• Nunn chipped in 18 points with five rebounds and two steals in 39 minutes. 
• Nunn has scored in double figures in 14 games on the year and the Bears are 12-2 in those games.
• Missi charted 17 points, on 7-of-12 shooting, with five rebounds and a block in 26 minutes. 
• Missi has reached double figures in 19 games on the year and the Bears are 14-5 in those games.
• Walter had 11 points and seven rebounds in 38 minutes. It marks the 21^st game of the year for Walter in double figures, with BU going 15-6 in those games.