MANHATTAN, Kan. — Baylor Men’s Basketball (13-13, 3-10 Big 12) suffered perhaps its most embarrassing loss of the season, falling to the Big 12 cellar-dweller Kansas State Wildcats (11-15, 2-11) by a score of 90-74.
This is now the worst season of Big 12 play under Scott Drew since the 2017-18 season. The Bears also lost ten conference games last season, but that was part of a 20-game league schedule. Baylor has not lost 11 or more Big 12 games since 2008-09.
Meanwhile, the Wildcats picked up their second Big 12 win of the season, fresh off of firing their head coach and former Baylor assistant Jerome Tang.
Back to tonight's game, Isaac Williams led the Bears in scoring with 16 points while registering six assists to four turnovers.
Tounde Yessoufou pitched in 14 points and seven rebounds to help the cause, but it was nowhere near enough as the KSU guards ran roughshod over the visiting Bears.
PJ Haggerty and Nate Johnson thrashed the Baylor defense, scoring 29 and 28 points, respectively.
Cameron Carr once again hit double figures with 12 points, but his performance was marred by seven turnovers and a 5-for-12 shooting performance. The junior looked to be pressing too hard.
As for the flow of the game, Baylor looked weak early, giving up a 20-10 lead to the hosts by the under-12-minute timeout of the first half.
Yessoufou and Michael Rataj created a 7-0 run to draw Baylor back within six points at 34-28, but the Wildcats would take a seven-point lead into the locker room at the break and never look back.
The second half opened with an 18-6 stretch for Kansas State, and the Bears were down 21 points by the under-12-minute timeout this time.
A 13-2 Baylor response run spearheaded by Yessoufou and Williams whittled the deficit back to 66-57, but that is as close as the Bears would get.
In his first game action since the Bears’ trip to West Virginia, forward Dan Skillings scored 11 points and grabbed eight rebounds in 21 minutes as he returned from a knee injury.
Up next, Baylor has a home tilt with Arizona State on Saturday at 3 p.m., leading into the Baylor Women’s game at 7 p.m. against Arizona also in the Foster Pavilion. The Men’s game will be broadcast on ESPN 2.
