Published Feb 1, 2025
KU falls at Baylor, 81-70, after blowing a 21-point lead
Shay Wildeboor  •  JayhawkSlant
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With 1:28 left in the first half, Kansas (15-6; 6-4) led Baylor by 21 points, 38-17, and appeared to be well on its way to earning its seventh conference win of the season.

Baylor, with 13:02 left in the second half, had clawed its way back into the game and took a brief one-point lead, 47-46, before Kansas rallied to build a double-digit lead, 59-49, with 9:09 left in the game.

However, down three of its best players, Baylor took the lead for good, 66-63, following a made three-pointer by Jalen Celestine with 4:04 remaining in the game.

In trailing by four points, Kansas would get no closer the reminder of the game and, after outscoring Baylor, 40-21 in the first half, Bill Self’s squad was outscored, 60-30 after halftime.

“They were great the second half, and we were beyond pitiful,” said Kansas head coach Bill Self after the game. “We played great the first half and probably could have been up more than 19 (points), to be honest with you. We missed some bunnies, and in the second half, we didn’t have anything going. Struggled against soft-ass pressure again, and then we couldn’t guard them.

“They were good,” he added. “I mean, those guards were really good. The building got into it, and we didn’t have any answers. That was disappointing because this is a game that we obviously could have won, but we didn’t come out of the locker room at halftime in a way that warranted a little better play and toughness, and they did.”

Kansas took its biggest lead of the game, 38-17, with 1:28 left in the first half. In leading by 19 points at the break and by 10 points with 9:09 left in the game, the Jayhawks, with the Bears down three key players, appeared to have regained complete control of Saturday's Big 12 showdown in Waco, Texas.

Despite the double-digit lead, Baylor took a three-point lead, 66-63, with 4:04 left in the game and never looked back.

“That’s something we’ll continue to talk about, but it's been taught enough hard lessons,” said Self. “We didn’t have them ready the second half, to come out and play, and they certainly put it on us.”

Kansas, in leading by 21 only to lose by 11, suffered the biggest blown lead loss in school history. In the loss, Kansas held Baylor to 10.0 percent (1-10) shooting from behind the arc in the first half. It is the lowest three-point percentage allowed in a half since limiting Cincinnati to 11.1 percent (1-9) shooting in the first half on Jan. 11, 2025.

Furthermore, KU’s 19-point halftime lead (40-21) matched the largest halftime lead of a conference game on the road for Kansas this season (at UCF, Jan. 5, 2025).

Kansas shot 58.0 percent (15-of-26) from the floor in the first half. It is the highest shooting percentage in a half since shooting 60.7 percent (17-of-28) in the second half at TCU on Jan. 22, 2025.

In the loss, Kansas was led by Hunter Dickinson (20), Dajuan Harris (12), and Rylan Griffen (11). David Coit (8), Zeke Mayo (8), KJ Adams (6), AJ Storr (3), and Flory Bidunga (2) also scored for Self’s squad.

“We were pretty confident at halftime,” said Hunter Dickinson. “We felt like we did a really good job of guarding their sets and really forcing some bad shots. I think in the second half, we just didn’t get stops. I don’t remember a time where we got two in a row on stops.

“We gave up too many points in that second half, for sure,” he added.

The road gets no easier for Kansas, as Self and the Jayhawks play host to an Iowa State team that lost at home to Kansas State on Saturday afternoon.

“Hopefully, we’ll be a lot better Monday than we are today,” said Self. “This was going to be a hard game regardless, they’ve got good players, but the way we played the first half, having control, you would think that maybe we put ourselves in a better chance to win the game in the second half.

“It's frustrating and disappointing,” he added. “We’ve got to be better, and I’ve got to be better. It sets up a tough game on Monday, but it was going to be a tough game regardless. We’ve got to get over this and come out and fight because we’ve had two of the last three games, we’ve lost games, we obviously had total control over and didn’t get it done. We’re going to play arguably as good a team as there is in our league on Monday, on a short flip, and with guys whose bodies, I’m sure, are sore and tired. We’ve gotta show some toughness.”