Via Kansas Athletics
WACO, Texas – The Kansas Jayhawks suffered a 79-64 defeat at No. 16 Baylor Sunday at Foster Pavilion.
Jaliya Davis led the Jayhawks with 21 points while S’Mya Nichols and Lilly Meister had 11 points apiece. Meister notched her second double-double as a Jayhawks with 10 rebounds. Davis has now scored at least 20 points in four straight games and five times in the seven games she’s played in.
Nichols tied her season high with seven assists while also moving up to No. 17 on KU’s all-time scoring list in the game. She now has 1,385 career points, passing Jaclyn Johnson, who scored 1,378 points as a Jayhawk from 1998-2001.
KU shot 45.3% from the field, but committed 20 turnovers and allowed 16 offensive rebounds, which led to 15 more shot attempts for Baylor. The Jayhawks had 17 assists on 24 made baskets and hit 10-of-13 (76.9 percent) attempts from the free throw line.
Kansas falls to 11-6 on the year and 1-4 in Big 12 play, while Baylor is now 15-3 (4-1 Big 12). The Jayhawks return to Allen Fieldhouse on Wednesday, Jan. 14, to host Oklahoma State. Tipoff is set for 6:30 p.m. CT and the game will be broadcast on ESPN+.
“In the first half, some of it was self sabotage. We committed fouls, we committed turnovers. Those are things in areas that we have to do better,” head coach Brandon Schneider said. “Then in the second half, they made some big shots whenever we did get the momentum. I thought that we played much better in the second half, we played even with the exception of the basket at the buzzer.”
Nichols and Meister scored the first four points of the game, giving KU an early 4-0 lead, but the Jayhawks were held to just five points the rest of the quarter. Baylor used an 11-1 run during the quarter to take the lead and the Bears maintained an advantage of 17-9 after 10 minutes of play.
Kansas used a 4-0 run in the second quarter to get back within six at 27-21, but it was answered by an 8-0 spurt from Baylor as the Bears built their largest lead at 35-21. The Jayhawks continued to fight with a three-pointer from Libby Fandel and four consecutive points from Nichols that got KU within four before Baylor hit three-pointers on each of their last two possessions to go into the locker room up 44-30.
Baylor pushed its lead to 20 points late in the third quarter and it reached 22 at 65-45 on a three-pointer on the opening possession of the fourth quarter. Kansas countered with a trio of three-pointers as Meister, Sania Copeland and Elle Evans hit from downtown as the Jayhawks clawed back to within 13, 65-52 with 6:43 to play. KU closed to within 11 on three separate occasions, but Baylor scored the final four points and won 79-64.
