No. 9 Baylor Bears 71

No. 1 Kansas Jayhawks 64

RECAP:

OKLAHOMA CITY – It’s a new season for the Baylor Bears.

That season will last at least one more game, as No. 9 seed Baylor (19-13) pulled off a stunning 71-64 upset over No. 1 seeded Kansas (25-7) in the Big 12 Championship’s second round on Thursday.

After Wednesday’s win over Nebraska to start the tournament, Baylor coach Scott Drew compared the Bears’ conference season to a wearing a weight vest. Once they lost a few games, the vest just got heavier.

Thursday the vest got a whole lot lighter.

“It’s tough when you have expectations and you’re not meeting them and you are frustrated, and that’s how the conference season went for us,” Drew said. “Now, once we got to the conference tournament, the vest comes off because it’s a new season.”

Baylor came out red-hot, pulling out to a 30-13 lead, forcing Kansas to spend the majority of the game fighting back. But the Jayhawks went on a run, closing out the half down only four points. A back-and-fourth second half saw Kansas pull out to a 56-51 lead with 8:45 left.

That’s when the Bears decided their season wasn’t over yet.

LaceDarius Dunn, who scored a game-high 24 points, hit a jumper straight out of a timeout. After Henry Dugat hit another jumper, Dunn scored five straight points for the Bears to put Baylor back on top. Kansas could not recover.

“We kept our poise. We knew the team. Kansas is a great team,” Dunn said. “They made a run. We kept telling ourselves we can’t get down and can’t give up. We just kept fighting.”

Baylor will take on the winner of the Kansas State vs. Texas game in Friday’s quarterfinal.

Kansas will take its No. 1 seed back to campus, where players will attend class on Friday.

“It’s disappointing,” KU forward Marcus Morris said. “We worked real hard to get here and let it slip away from us. We let them get a lead right away and we had to fight back the whole game, and it was hard.”

The Jayhawks will now regroup and prepare for the NCAA Tournament. Baylor will live to see at least one more game.

“I think we just showed what we’re capable of doing tonight,” Dugat said. “A team like Kansas, the defending national champs, we were able to come out and take care of business.”

QUOTEABLE:

“A lot of people were counting us out coming into the tournament. I don’t think they expected us to make it this far. We had a chip on our shoulder. We knew what we were capable of and we knew we had to step up. We know it is not through right now. We still got work to do.” – Baylor guard Henry Dugat.

“First thing we are doing, we go back when we get to the hotel and go to school tomorrow and make all the players walk around class tomorrow with all the other students wondering ‘why are you back here already. And then we will practice as hard as we have ever practiced in the next two days and get them thinking about that as opposed to worrying about what just happened.” – Kansas coach Bill Self

PLAYER OF THE GAME: Mamadou Diene, Center, Baylor (Off the bench for 9 points and 5 blocks)

Mamadou Diene, center, Baylor.

It may not show up in the stat sheet as much as Dunn’s 24 points, but Diene, a senior, came off the bench with 4-of-4 shooting for nine points, and more importantly had five blocks. He also positioned himself under the hoop for a wide open dunk off a nifty pass by Kevin Rogers to give Baylor a 62-58 lead and all the momentum. “Obviously we wouldn’t have won the game without him,” Baylor coach Scott Drew said. “I think that’s a senior not wanting to play his last game.”

WHAT IT MEANS:

Baylor is finally playing up to its potential. But is it too late? A loss still likely ends Baylor’s season, barring an NIT berth, and a third game in three days is on the horizon. None-the-less, the Bears have new life, and can erase the memories of a disappointing conference season. Kansas, on the other hand, overachieved during the season, but will have to regroup in order to carry that over to the Big Dance.