WACO, Texas – Behind senior center Udoka Azubuike’s 23 points and career-high 19 rebounds, the No. 3 Kansas Jayhawks topped No. 1 Baylor, 64-61, Saturday afternoon inside the Farrell Center. The win snapped the Bears’ 23-game winning streak and pulled the two teams into a tie atop the Big 12 standings with four games remaining in league play.
The victory, KU’s 12th-straight, moved the Jayhawks to 24-3 and 13-1 in Big 12. Baylor fell to 24-1 in 2019-20 and to 13-0 in the league.
MOMENT OF THE GAME
After Baylor cut the KU lead to just three points, 56-53, with four minutes to play in regulation, two Jayhawk veterans stepped up and made plays that put just enough distance between themselves and the Bears. Marcus Garrett connected on two free throws before Udoka Azubuike netted a putback one minute later for his 11th and final field goal of the day to put his team up by seven points with just over two minutes remaining. From there, KU used more clutch free throw shooting, getting a pair each from Devon Dotson and Isaiah Moss in the final 34 seconds to stave off a late Baylor charge and seal the program’s first road win over an AP No. 1 team in over 60 years.
STAT OF THE GAME
19 – Udoka Azubuike pulled down a career-high 19 rebounds in the win, 11 of which came in the second half. The total marked the most rebounds by a Jayhawk in a game since Andrew Wiggins pulled down 19 boards at Iowa State on Jan. 13, 2014. It was also the most rebounds tallied by a Big 12 player this season.
NOTES
- With today’s three-point difference, eight of the last 10 KU-BU meetings have been decided by eight points or less, with six of those by five points or fewer.
- The win made Kansas 13-1 in Big 12 play or better for the first time since the 2009-10 season when KU was 13-1 and the third time in the Bill Self era.
- It also marked the Jayhawks’ first win over an AP No. 1 team since Nov. 15, 2016, when KU topped No. 1 Duke, 77-75, in the Champions Classic. It was KU’s first win over a No. 1 team in a true road game since March 8, 1958, when Kansas topped Kansas State, 61-44, in Manhattan.
- Kansas is now 8-1 in true road games this season and 12-2 in games not played in Allen Fieldhouse.
- Senior Udoka Azubuike tallied his 12th double-double of the season and 19th of his career via a team-and-game-high 23 points, a new career-high 19 rebounds and three blocked shots in 36 minutes, also a career-high.
- His 19 rebounds marked the most by a Jayhawk in a game since Andrew Wiggins also pulled down 19 boards at Iowa State on
- He finished the game with eight dunks (of his 11 made field goals), upping his season total to 90 slams on the year.
QUOTE OF THE GAME
“He was great. He controlled the paint and rebounded the ball at a high level. That’s about as well as I’ve seen him play.”
– Bill Self on Udoka Azubuike
UP NEXT
Kansas will try for its 17th-straight win on ESPN Big Monday when the Oklahoma State Cowboys come to Lawrence on Feb. 24. Tipoff from Allen Fieldhouse is slated for 8 p.m. (CT) on ESPN.
Kansas is 117-59 all-time against OSU, which includes a 65-50 win in this season’s first meeting on Jan. 27 in Stillwater. The Jayhawks are 63-12 versus Oklahoma State in games in Lawrence and hold a 48-10 mark in contests inside Allen Fieldhouse. Kansas has won 21 of the last 23 games against OSU in Lawrence.
