Cryer, Bears Top Kansas 75-69 on Big Monday in Waco

WACO, Texas — The No. 17 Baylor Men’s Basketball team (15-5, 5-3) beat the No. 9 Kansas Jayhawks (16-4, 5-3) 75-69. The win handed the Bears’ Big 12 rival its third straight loss and extended the green and gold’s winning streak to five. 

LJ Cryer led the Bears in scoring with 22 points while Adam Flagler had 17. 

Kansas star freshman Gradey Dick led all scorers with 24 and potential lottery pick Jalen Wilson notched 23 for the Jayhawks.

However, 15 turnovers doomed the visitors as Baylor turned those into 16 second-chance points. 

The seven-point margin of victory came despite Baylor shooting almost 10% worse from the field than Kansas, although they got off 10 more shots.

In the first half, the Bears built an early lead thanks to a 9-0 run with great team offense making the lead 20-7. 

The Jayhawks fought back though, with Jalen Wilson and Gradey Dick hitting a pair of threes. However, LJ Cryer answered the call with two of his four first-half three-pointers. 

Scott Drew was also very proactive in protecting the Baylor lead from the sidelines calling a timeout late in the half after a couple of bad possessions. The lead was still at eight at that point in time. 

The Bears saw out the half with just four turnovers, eight assists on 15 made buckets, seven threes and a 41-34 lead. Cryer had an outstanding 19-point half with Flagler scoring 10 of his own.

The second half saw Kansas chip away at the halftime lead until the Jayhawks took their only lead of the game on a Wilson three, 46-45.

Langston Love stepped up with the immediate answer in the form of a tough and-one jumper. 

The freshman played some tough, important minutes down the stretch on his way to an 11-point performance.

From there, the Bears built the lead back out to as much as 13 points with timely Flagler and Love threes as well as getting to the charity stripe.

At 68-55 with just under five minutes to go, the visitors started whittling the deficit down once again, but they would run out of time.

Not to be forgotten, Jalen Bridges had another lunch pail performance with 11 points, nine total rebounds and four offensive rebounds.

The Bears will look to keep the momentum rolling into a possible sixth straight win with Arkansas coming up in the Big 12 - SEC Challenge on Saturday at 3 PM CST in Waco (ESPN).