WACO, Texas (AP) — Naadir Tharpe scored 22 points, nine in a go-ahead run for No. 8 Kansas before halftime, and the Big 12-leading Jayhawks rebounded from their first league loss with a 69-52 victory at Baylor on Tuesday night.
Andrew Wiggins overcame a slow start to score 14 points, while Perry Ellis had 14 points and 10 rebounds for Kansas.
Wiggins, the Big 12’s top scoring freshman, finished 4-of-13 shooting and didn’t make his first basket until a half-court shot to beat the buzzer going into halftime. That capped a 14-3 run over the final 5 minutes for a 35-27 lead.
Early on, there were three ties and nine lead changes. Tharpe’s short jumper with 3 1/2 minutes left in the half broke a 25-all tie and put the Jayhawks (17-5, 8-1 Big 12) ahead to stay.
Cory Jefferson had 14 points to lead Baylor (14-8, 2-7), which lost its fourth consecutive game at the Ferrell Center after a 13-game home winning streak. It’s the longest home drought since dropping six straight in 2005.
The Bears, coming off a win at then-No. 8 Oklahoma State that snapped their five-game losing streak, was trying to set up for a final shot before halftime when Kenny Chery threw an errant pass. Wiggins ended up with the ball, took a few steps and threw took a shot from near midcourt that went through the hoop.
Baylor has never won consecutive games over Top 25 opponents.
The tiebreaking shot was Tharpe’s third basket in the half-closing spurt, and he added a 3-pointer with a minute left. He then made a long 3-pointer on Kansas’ opening possession of the second half.
Kansas was coming off an 81-69 loss Saturday at surging Texas.
In their regular season finale last March, the Jayhawks lost 81-58 at Baylor. They still had a share of their ninth consecutive Big 12 title, but that loss kept them from winning it outright.
Baylor was within 49-44 midway through the second half and Wiggins had just shot and missed the rim.
But the Bears missed three free throws on the same possession. Then, with Baylor students chanting ”Air Ball!, Air Ball!”, Wiggins swished a 3-pointer from the right wing. Wiggins scored again on the next possession to push the lead to 54-44.
Brady Heslip had 12 points on four 3-pointers, but didn’t score again after his last gave Baylor a 22-21 lead with 6:34 left in the first half.
Baylor got off to a fast start, with Gary Franklin’s alley-oop pass to Jefferson for a dunk on the game’s opening possession. It was 5-0 before Kansas took a shot when Heslip made his first 3-pointer.
After the lead changed on four consecutive possessions, Baylor was up 11-8 after another Franklin-to-Jefferson alley-oop 5 1/2 minutes into the game.
— Associated Press —