Kansas Jayhawks

For the first time in the 13 year history of the Big 12 tournament, Kansas, the three time defending national champs, lost its opening game to Baylor 71-64. Baylor also defeated the only other top-seeded team, Iowa State in 2001, in its opening game.

Kansas had lost all of its starters for last year’s team, leaving Cole Aldrich and Sherron Collins the only experienced players. Aldrich was held to only five shots, collecting eight points and 14 rebounds, while Sherron scored six of 20 from the field. 14 of his six points were scored in the second half.

Marcus Morris and Tyshawn Taylor added 12 each. “It’s disappointing,” he said. “We worked real hard to get here, and we let this one slip away from us.”

On Baylor’s side, LaceDarius Dunn scored six three pointers for a total of 24 against Kansas, and Kevin Rogers added 14 points and five rebounds.

“I think we just showed what we are capable of doing tonight,” Baylor guard Henry Dugat said. “A team like Kansas, defending national champs, we were able to come out and take care of business.

Dunn controlled the first half, sinking 11 points including three treys within the first 12 minutes of play. Cutis Jerrell netted another three pointer for a 30-13 lead. Aldrich responded by scoring 4 points off of offensive rebounds to start a 9-0 run before Taylor finished with a three pointer to narrow the gap to 37-33 at the half.

“We kept telling ourselves we can’t get down and just can’t give up,” said Dunn, who is constantly calling for the ball when he’s not defended. “We just kept fighting, and it turned out great for us.”

Two minutes into the second half, Collins scored two points on a layup and with 9:40 left in the game, Kansas and Baylor were tied after a three pointer by Reed landed in the net.

Dunn and Mamadou Diene combined to score 11 points before Reed and Collins score back to back three pointers with 3:24 left to trim the deficit to four.

“Well, I think Mamadou and Josh really stepped up and were huge today. And we were active in it. The big thing is we didn’t give up a lot of second-chance points. Kansas did get 12. But, again, they are a pretty good rebounding team, and we can live with that. We knew that was key coming in to keep them off the glass and for the most part, we did a pretty good job.”

Collins missed two chances to tie it up again when he shot a three pointer and was blocked by Dien at 1:57 on the clock, and again when with 12 seconds to go he turned over the ball.

“We didn’t end the Big 12 season like we wanted to, but we couldn’t hang our heads going into this,” Dugat said. “We knew coming into this that it was a new season and we had to leave it all on the line in order to accomplish what we needed to do.”

Sylvester Smith is a writer for LeatherBeltStore.com you can check out his Kansas Jayhawk Belts or Kansas Jayhawk Wallets or his Graduation Gifts