LAWRENCE, Kan. – Despite holding the Lady Bears to their second-lowest scoring performance of the season, Kansas women’s basketball fell to No. 6 Baylor, 58-40, after a third quarter offensive surge on Wednesday evening inside Allen Fieldhouse.
Kansas emerged from the locker room after halftime trailing Baylor by only eight points. The Lady Bears’ 30 points tied the second-lowest first half total this season, despite shooting 52 percent from the field. BU turned things up in the second half, however, connecting on its first eight field goal attempts to push the lead to 20 points and out of reach for the Jayhawks.
The Lady Bears (15-1, 2-1 Big 12) were led by the Big 12’s second-leading scorer, junior forward Nina Davis. A game-high 16 points from Davis continued her streak of double-figure scoring in every game this season, but also marked her lowest scoring performance in the last six games. Senior guard Niya Johnson and redshirt junior Alexis Jones each logged 12 points, with Johnson dishing out a game-high eight assists and Jones draining Baylor’s two long-range buckets of the night.
Sophomore guard Chayla Cheadle brought the energy all night for the Jayhawks (5-9, 0-3 Big 12), leading the team in both points (12) and rebounds (6). The Columbia, Missouri native shot 2-of-7 from the field and 7-of-8 from the charity stripe, while also grabbing three of Kansas’ four offensive rebounds. Junior forward Caelynn Manning-Allen tallied nine points and three rebounds. The only Jayhawk to shoot 50 percent or better was freshman guard Kylee Kopatich, connecting on 3-of-6 attempts.
It took two and a half minutes for either team to score, before Davis rattled in a jumper to get the Lady Bears on the board first. By the first media timeout at the 4:53 mark, the Jayhawks forced four Baylor turnovers and trailed by a single point. Out of the break, four-straight made field goals helped the Bears take off on an 11-2 run to push their lead to 17-4. Kansas answered by claiming the last five points of the first quarter to bring the score to 17-9 after the first ten minutes of play.
Freshman guard Aisia Robertson gave the Jayhawks a spark on the first play of the second quarter with a steal and a fast-break layup. Baylor then collected six of the game’s next seven points, stretching its lead to 11 points. A five-point scoring streak midway through the period brought Kansas back to within six, 23-17. The conference foes remained evenly matched over the final minutes of the half, with a pair of free throws from Cheadle cutting the Baylor lead, 30-22, concluding the second quarter’s scoring.
The Lady Bears entered the game averaging more than 45 points in the paint per game, but Kansas managed to hold the visitors to just 14 points inside in the first half. Each team played tight defense over the first 20 minutes of action, forcing the other to commit 11 turnovers. The Jayhawks tallied six steals to Baylor’s four.
The second half opened with a 14-2 run by Baylor to extend its lead to 44-24 by the 4:33 mark of the third quarter. The two squads traded baskets through the remainder of the period, putting up six points each. Jones hit Baylor’s first three-point attempt of the second half as time expired, giving the visitors a 50-30 advantage. BU shot 75 percent from the field in the third quarter, sinking 9-of-12 attempts from the field to outscore Kansas by 12 points. The Jayhawks’ eight points was the lowest third quarter total this season.
Kansas continued to fight in the final 10 minutes of action, and significantly slowed down the Baylor offense. The Lady Bears shot 3-of-14 from the field as the Jayhawks outscored the conference favorites 10-8. It marked just the third time this season that Baylor was held to single-digit scoring in a quarter. Manning-Allen’s layup with less than 30 seconds left in the contest brought the score to 58-40, where the score would hold to give the Lady Bears their second conference victory.
— KU Athletics —