Coming into the week, No. 6 Baylor faced two Top 10 conference foes, with a chance to make a real statement, not only within the Big 12, but on a national level as well. However, it failed to do either.
On Wednesday night, No. 10 Kansas (20-5, 10-2 B-12) traveled to Baylor and found itself down early to the Bears (21-4, 8-4 B-12). Sparked by Thomas Robinson’s (27 points, 14 rebounds) and senior Tyshawn Taylor (28 points), the Jayhawks overcame an early 10-point deficit at 19-9 and finished the half on a 17-2 run to take a 39-29 lead into the break.
Kansas picked up where it left off in the second half, and withstood an early Baylor assault that saw the Jayhawks pull to within six; that’s when Robinson and company took over. Kansas opened up a 20-point lead with just under seven minutes remaining and that was all she wrote as Kansas coasted to a 92-74 win.
On Saturday, Baylor had to travel to Missouri to try to avoid going 0-2 for the week, but ran into a hot Missouri team.
Missouri (23-2, 10-2 B-12), the nation’s fourth best team, used 14 3-pointers to coast past the Bears. In a game that was close throughout the first 30 minutes, the Tigers used six 3-pointers during a 20-6 run that pushed their lead to 15 points. This lead was too large for Kansas to overcome, as the Tigers walked off the court with a 72-57 win and improved to 14-0 at home this season.
Duke stuns UNC
It took the entire 40 minutes to decide the outcome of the Duke, North Carolina game on Wednesday night. And in the end, the hometown Tar Heels left the Dean Smith Center stunned.
In front of a raucous crowd, the No. 5 Tar Heels (21-4, 8-2 ACC) were in a battle the entire night, and every time they seemed to pull away from the Blue Devils (21-4, 8-2 ACC), Duke would come roaring back.
Powered by freshman Austin Rivers’ career-high 29 points, Duke withstood every North Carolina blow and counter with an even bigger one of its own.
North Carolina took a 43-40 lead into halftime and came out storming to start the second half. North Carolina led the entire second half and when the game the Tar Heels led by as many as 10 points in the final two-and-a-half minutes,
However, Duke slowly chipped away, and North Carolina was unable to respond. Behind a barrage of 3-pointers, the Blue Devils cut the deficit to two with just 10 seconds left, and the ball in the hands of Rivers. The freshman got a mismatch against senior Tyler Zeller and buried a 3-pointer as time expired to propel Duke to an 85-84 victory over their rival.
The Blue Devils carried their momentum into the weekend as they returned home to Cameron Indoor Stadium to defeat a struggling Maryland Terrapins team, 73-55.
Despite what should have been a routine game, Maryland (14-10, 4-6 ACC) hung around, only trailing by three at the half. But, led by the superb low-post play of Miles Plumlee (13 points, 22 rebounds), Duke pulled away in the second half.
Halfway into the second half, Duke built a 12-point lead and seemed to have the game in hand, but Maryland’s Nick Faust capped off a rally with a 3-pointer at the 8:45 mark that brought the Terrapins back to within four of the Blue Devils. However, the Blue Devils responded with a run of their own, and coasted to victory.
SU nip Hoyas
On Wednesday night, bitter rivals Syracuse and Georgetown, played one of the best games of the season, with the Orange emerging with a 64-61 overtime victory.
Playing in front of 27,820 fans, the No. 2 Orange (24-1, 11-1 Big East) were by Kris Joseph, who torched the Hoya defense for 29 points. SU outscored No. 11 Georgetown (18-5, 8-4 Big East) 9-6 in OT to remain with just one loss on the season.
The last unbeaten team in the nation, No. 7 Murray State (23-1, 11-1 OVC), lost at home to Tennessee State (16-10, 9-4 OVC), 72-68. They bounced back and dispatched the Austin Peay (9-18, 6-7 OVC) on Saturday.
Patrick Strohecker can be reached at [email protected].
