AP PHOTO / JERRY LARSON
The hunter of the Kansas Center Dickinson and the Baylor striker Norchad Omier, are looking for a loose ball during the first half of a university basketball match of the NCAA on Saturday February 1, 2025, in Waco, Texas.
Waco, Texas-After several of its recent victories required late rallies, the male basketball team of Kansas ended up in the unknown position to play the second half on Saturday afternoon.
Maybe the Jayhawks would have been more comfortable trying to chain another return.
After having led up to 21 points in the first half, Ku conceded a 26-6 race to open the second-then another section of 17 consecutive points when he had briefly recovered his composure and increased again two -digit.
“I never felt like I had momentum in the second half,” said Ku coach Bill Self.
The result was the biggest return that Ku has ever authorized in a loss. The Baylor Rally of Down 38-17 with less than two minutes to travel in the first half replaces a 20-point lead against Arizona in 2003. Ku in Waco.
“The difference was that they scored 21 points in the first half and they scored 60 in the second,” said Center Dickinson Center. “I don’t think you will have ever beaten a team allowing them to score 60 points in half a half. I think it’s quite difficult to overcome even if you have a 19-point lead before half-time. »»
Baylor succeeded in the miracle, dubbing Ku in the second half, despite some precious players at his disposal. He was already playing with a tight rotation in the absence during guards Langston Love (ankle pain) and Jeremy Roach (Concrete), and he was even more tightened when the VJ Edgecombe recruit underwent a injury to the body Lower in the start of the second half and Jayden Nunnnn Nunnn and Norchad Omier was in trouble.
“We should have been more aggressive towards the guys who had four faults because they were key guys, and I think it’s on the players,” said Dickinson. “We have to be more aggressive while trying to go down, trying to contact.”
Adding me: “We wanted to drive it. Obviously, I’m not going to say that they were not going to keep us but they were not going to clog us. So, of course in this situation, you were able to drive the ball. We did not do a good job at all. But we also had finishes that should be baskets each time and we have found nothing several times. »»
Ku came back to full strength with KJ Adams still in the fold (although he was leaving the bench, a rarity for him in recent seasons) and Dajuan Harris Jr. in the starting alignment after missing his very first match With an ankle injury. The only missing player was the first year Rakease Passmore, who received sporadic moments of playing time in recent weeks but has not made the trip to Waco after being a commotion in training on Thursday, said Self on the radio pre-match.
After Edgecombe paved the way in Baylor early, his compatriot Robert O. Wright III took over, leading all the scorers with 24 points. Omier added 18 with 16 rebounds and Jalen Celestine hit four critical points at 3 points, all in the second period.
“They were as good as we were in the first half, and” said Self about the second half. “And we were as bad as they were in the first half, more. Just a kind of tale of two halves. »»
Dickinson was the only constant offensive threat to Ku, marking 20 points. Harris raised 12 with eight assists.
The Jayhawks did not take advantage of a series of looks open beyond the arc in the first minutes. Dickinson scored four of the first five goals on the Ku field – not necessarily in his usual way, because they came on three horsemen and a float.
Rylan Griffen provided a spark in its initial action, flowing a pointer at 3 no-histation, then finishing an alley of Harris to put Ku at 15-9 and forcing a waiting period by the Bears.
They had to call for another short time, because David Coit struck the 3S bench stepback and Flory Bidunga stole the ball at Celestine for a transitional dunk.
As Josh Ojianwuna scored in the post with eight minutes and 51 seconds to play in the first half, Ku had made a sequence of 18-1.
The Jayhawks did not do much to enjoy a series of turnover from Baylor, and Edgecombe put an end to a long drought for the Bears with his first 3-point pointer to reduce the advantage From Ku to 30-15.
At halftime, the Jayhawks led 40-21. Edgecombe went 4-en-7 on the ground before the break compared to a brand 4 for 22 for all his combined teammates.
“We were quite confident at halftime,” said Dickinson. “We had the impression that we had done a very good job to keep their sets and really forced bad blows and we were playing from it.”
This dynamic changed quickly after half-time, when Baylor scored seven consecutive points, including five from omier, to require an immediate dead time.
“I think we just didn’t go out in the second half with energy,” said Griffen. “This is something that we were able to repair for the rest of the season.”
Wright entered the score, and Baylor returned in return to reduce his deficit up to six points on the consecutive 3s by Celestine, helped by free -failed throws by Harris.
The Jayhawks immediately overturned the ball of a dead time and allowed the first bucket of Edgecombe of the second half; However, Edgecombe drink in the tunnel with an apparent injury almost immediately after.
Baylor had a potential bucket in sipped by Ojianwuna destroyed when traveling, but the Bears took the lead on a pair of francs from Wright with 13:03 to do.
“I think that in the second half, we just didn’t stop,” said Dickinson. “I do not remember a time when we have obtained two-one row stops.”
The Jayhawks finally answered, with the first bucket of Zeke Mayo of the day of an offensive rebound in Adams, then a three -point game by Harris.
Adams has given the Jayhawks to 10 points on a Mayo assist with just over nine minutes to play, only for Celestine to reach 3 others in a dead time.
After Dickinson missed the front end of one and one, Omier and Wright made two free throws, reducing the Ku’s advance to 63-61 with five minutes. Then Wright responded to a leap missed by Adams with a float to equalize the match, and Celestine struck a green light 3 to give Baylor what was then his biggest advance of the day – three points.
“He exhausted us the second half,” said Self about Wright. “We had no answer to him.”
The margin has become increasingly large because the Jayhawks failed to bring together any offense to note. The Mayo won with 2:13 to go ended a goalless period of four minutes and 44 seconds.
Dickinson hung on after two late faults in a period of 22 seconds.
The Jayhawks will face a quick turnaround while returning to Lawrence to accommodate the state of Iowa on Monday at 8 p.m., the cyclones, classified n ° 3 in the country, suffered a shock in the state From Kansas, 80-61, Saturday, Saturday afternoon. Isu previously beaten Ku at the Hilton Coliseum, 74-57, January 15.
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Written by Henry Greenstein
Henry is the sports editor of the Lawrence Journal-World and Kusports.com, and is the writer Ku Beat while managing daily sports coverage. Previously, he worked as a sports journalist at Bakersfield Californian and graduated from the University of Washington in St. Louis (BA, Linguistics) and Arizona State University (MA, Sports Journalism). Although from Los Angeles, he was often told that he did not give off the “California vibrations”, whatever this means.
