No. 17 Baylor beats No. 9 Kansas in matchup of last 2 champs

WACO, Texas (AP) — Langston Love came up hugefor 17th-ranked Baylor after No. 9 Kansas took its only lead in amatchup of the last two national champions, both of whom haveendured three-game losing streaks in Big 12 play.

The reigning champion Jayhawks are on their three-game skid,only the fourth in coach Bill Self’s 20 seasons. Baylor’s 75-69 winon Monday night gave the Bears a Big 12-best five game winningstreak since losing their first three conference games.

“There is time to be reactive in a negative way if your team’snot doing well. This is not one of our times,” Self said. “We havegotten beat, and granted we got beat (by) a team that was projectedto win the league tonight, that’s really good. And they wentthrough the same crap we’re going through right now. ... Our leagueis that good. It’s going to be a grind.”

Love made an impressive go-ahead turnaround jumper while beingfouled, then made the free throw. The freshman guard, who missedall of last season after tearing his ACL in a preseason scrimmage,later capped the Bears’ key run with a 3-pointer.

Jalen Wilson swished a 3 from the left wing with 15:24 left togive the Jayhawks (16-4, 5-3 Big 12) their only lead at 46-45. Lovethen started a 12-3 spurt with his three-point play.

“He’s ready to step up whenever his name is called. ... Weweren’t surprised when he went out there and did what he did,”Bears senior Adam Flagler said of his fellow guard.

“That’s huge for us. It shows that when adversity hits, we’reable to fight through it,” guard LJ Cryer said. “We’ve had gamesthis season where adversity hits and we didn’t fight back.”

Cryer had 22 points for 2021 champion Baylor (15-5, 5-3), though19 of his points and all five of his treys came before halftime.Flagler added 17 points, while Jalen Bridges and Love each had11.

Freshman Gradey Dick had 24 points and Wilson 23 for theJayhawks, who were coming off a 23-point home loss to TCU after aone-point overtime loss at now fifth-ranked Kansas State. KevinMcCullar Jr. had 14 points and 12 rebounds for his fifthdouble-double this season.

After an early layup by Wilson got Kansas within 11-7, Baylorhad a 9-0 run that was punctuated by Josh Ojianwuna’s two-handedputback dunk. That was the last time in the half that the Bears hadconsecutive scores, though Cryer did make three 3s in an 83-secondspan — the first two after 3s by Dick and Wilson, and the thirdfollowing two free throws by Dick.

TOUGH SHOOTING

The Bears missed 11 of their last 13 shots over the final 13minutes, and finished 37.1% from the field (23 of 62) two daysafter a 62-60 win at Oklahoma when they shot a season-low36.2%.

BIG PICTURE

Kansas: The other times the Jayhawks lost three in a row underSelf were in February 2005, February 2013 and January 2021. ...Dick got his second foul only 3:13 into the first half, and waslimited to 11 minutes before the break.

Baylor: The Bears got off to a fast start with a steal byBridges that led to a fast-break layup by Cryer before Flo Thambahad a three-point play. Bridges then had another steal, this one inthe backcourt, though Cryer missed an open 3 that would have madeit 8-0 only a minute into the game. ... The Bears are 25-8 againstTop 25 teams over the past four seasons, the nation’s best mark.Baylor is 12-1 against Top 10 teams the past three years.

UP NEXT

Kansas goes to Rupp Arena to play Kentucky in the SEC/Big 12Challenge on Saturday.

Baylor is home for its SEC/Big 12 Challenge game againstArkansas on Saturday. That is a rematch of the 2021 Elite Eightgame the Bears won 81-72 on way to winning their nationalchampionship.