Baylor comes up short 70-67 in thrilling finish with Kansas

The unthinkable was thought...Baylor dared to win in Allen Fieldhouse for the first time in Scott Drew’s time with the Bears.

With under three minutes remaining, Baylor held a six-point lead after stumbling out of halftime down 11. A win seemed imminent, one that would more than rival Kanas’ comeback in Morgantown a week ago. But Kansas remains the only Big 12 team to win in the first week of the year as the Bears head back to Waco after 70-67 loss to the Jayhawks.

This is Big 12 parity at its finest.

Second-chance points and rebound come too late

It took five and half minutes for Baylor to log a rebound. Allowing Kansas to freely shoot the three ball aside didn’t do any favors but for a rebounding team to play so small really buried the Bears early on. By the time King McClure grabbed their first board of the night, the Jayhawks held an 18-5 lead.

The game progressively rolled in Baylor’s direction from there once Terry Maston got a second-chance look but was a late start nonetheless. Considering the Jayhawks’ season-long struggle to control the glass compared to Baylor’s patented size, it was all the more damaging early on.

Baylor ended the night with 16 second-chance points compared to Kansas’ single point. But with the game as close as it ended, the first five minutes without second look was telling, especially looking at how Jake Lindsey among others made plays late in the game to find those extra points that went directly to Kansas in the opening minutes.

Bench climbs out of the hole

The whole roster struggled to get the ball rolling to start the game but the bench wasn’t doing much service until the second half. In the first half, the bench combined for just nine of Baylor’s 27 points and could hardly find a rebound between them while personal fouls ran rampant. No assists, either.

But turn to the second half, Drew’s coaching adjustments did wonders as Jake Lindsey and Nuni Omot took over.

Lindsey, for the second time in three games left without a point. But he turned on the jets running the offense with six assists. He was a true catalyst late in the game with back-to-back assists to begin burying the lead. With plays like his rebound-assist to King McClure, Baylor ran the table with a 14-3 lead to counteract the Jayhawks’ jumpstart. In fact, Lindsey was the only Bear to leave the game with a double-digit (12 point) +/-.

Though, it was Omot that gave Baylor its first lead of the night burying three free throws at 5:35. He’s proven here he can be a meaningful contributor even off the bench now that Mark Vital has taken his starting spot. In the second half, he led Baylor with 11 points after draining all seven of his free throws and working the paint. Baylor only flirted with a win because of Omot’s 11 points and Lindsey’s six dishes.

Omot and Lindsey were hardly the only bench contributors. Even Tyson Jolly put in meaningful minutes. He put in his first points in three games but more importantly, walked away with two blocks in the second half that helped chip away at the Rock Chalk lead and helped set up more plays on offense as well.

Vital continuing to develop alongside Big Jo

The redshirt freshman continues to put in work in the starting lineup, leaving the game with nine points and nine assists. He continues to highlight his athleticism and his performance truly curbed the first half deficit. Him and Jo Lual-Acuil have started to work well together in tandem, feeding off each other as the latter put together another double-double. But Vital took a backseat in the second half

Vital was virtually silent in the last leg of the game. His last logged play was a foul with under eight minutes remaining. Before that, he had another foul, a turnover, and a missed free throw- all was going well before those strings of gaffes. It comes with the territory of more court time but seeing Omot take over in the second half shows there’s still room for Vital to grow while Omot has the potential for more playing time as Vital continues to develop.