Bears Blow Past Kansas State Wildcats in Big 12 Tournament Second Round, 70-56

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The No. 7 seed Baylor Men’s Basketball team (18-13, 10-10 Big 12) rode a highly efficient night from Jayden Nunn to beat the No. 10 seed Kansas State Wildcats (15-16, 9-11 Big 12) in the second round of the Big 12 Tournament by a score of 70-56.

When a third scorer steps up alongside Baylor’s VJ Edgecombe and Norchad Omier, the Bears are tough to beat. Nunn was that third man tonight with an electric 12 first-half points on his way to 18 points for the game. 

VJ Edgecombe led the Bears in scoring with 19 points and grabbed 10 rebounds. Meanwhile, Norchad Omier scored 12 and rebounded 14 misses. 

With his double-double, Omier now has 88 for his career, moving him into sole possession of second place in NCAA history for double-doubles. He was tied with Armando Bacot and Tim Duncan heading into the night and he still trails the 96 double-doubles of La Salle’s Tom Gola.

The bigger story of the night was Nunn’s performance though. An early 7-0 run where Nunn aggressively drove for two layups and hit a three between them set the tone for the Bears. There was an early urgency to his game that the Bears had been lacking as a team for much of the year. 

Nunn was also highly efficient, finishing 7-for-10 from the floor, 4-for-6 from three and committed just one turnover in his 31 minutes. He also put an exclamation mark on the end of the first half with an emphatic block on KSU’s final possession.

With a 17-point halftime lead, the Green and Gold simply needed to maintain course and match the Wildcats through the second half. 

Baylor did just that, holding Kansas State to 37% shooting from the field, a 3-for-25 performance from three and staying out of foul trouble.

The Bears finished with solid shooting marks of 46% from the field and 33% from deep. 

Baylor also won every aspect of the rebounding battle and outscored KSU in second-chance points 10-4. 

The Bears will now look to ride the momentum into tomorrow’s game against No. 2 seed Texas Tech.

While Scott Drew is likely ruing having to face two of his former assistants back-to-back, the Bears’ NCAA tournament entrance looks safer now and a possible seed-line jump could be on the table with a win over the Red Raiders in the quarterfinals.

Baylor vs. Texas Tech tips off from Kansas City at 6:00 p.m. tomorrow on either ESPN or ESPN 2.