Kansas Tops Baylor 74-64

Baylor jumped out to early first half leads of 10-4, 18-6, and 23-10 before the Jayhawks began mounting the comeback that you just knew was coming inside the friendly confines of Allen Fieldhouse on Saturday afternoon.

With Baylor up 26-14 halfway through the first half, Kelly Oubre and Wayne Selden hit three-pointers on consecutive possessions to spark the Jayhawks and the Valentine's Day crowd.  The 'Hawks got to within six by halftime as the Bears took a 33-27 lead into the break - the first time ever Baylor had led KU at halftime in Allen Fieldhouse.

The Jayhawks came out on fire in the second half and before the first media timeout had claimed their first lead of the day.  The lead went back and forth for a while before Kansas finally took the lead for good at 50-49 with 9:07 remaining with a Devonte' Graham free throw.  Kansas would stretch out a lead of their own all the way to 13 points before settling on the final score of 74-64.

In a way, the second half was a bit of the Landen Lucas show for the Jayhawks.  The seldom-used 6'10" sophomore played 14 minutes in the game, picking up 9 points, 4 rebounds, a steal, an assist, and making all five of his free throw attempts.  Lucas provided a spark at a time in the game when the Jayhawks needed it the most.

Perry Ellis and Kelly Oubre led all scorers with 18 points apiece.  (Rico Gathers of Baylor also had 18 points.)   Ellis went 7/11 from the field while Oubre went 6/9, including 4/6 from three.  Frank Mason chipped in 8 assists to go with his 5 points.

Surprisingly, Kansas was only outrebounded by Baylor by a 33-32 margin.  Perry Ellis and Cliff Alexander led the way with 6 boards each.

As a team, Kansas shot 6/18 (33%) from 3-pt range while Baylor went 8/23 (35%).  The Jayhawks did an excellent job from the free throw line, hitting 24/29 (83%) free throws to the Bears' 14/18 (78%).

Up next, Kansas will travel to West Virginia on Monday, Feb 16 for a tilt at 8 PM Jayhawk time.