Big 12 Conference Tournament Recaps

Kansas City, MO (SportsNetwork.com) – Wayne Selden Jr. had 20 points and eight rebounds, helping ninth-ranked Kansas beat No. 16 Baylor 62-52 in the semifinals of the Big 12 Tournament on Friday.

Perry Ellis, Kansas’ leading scorer, returned from missing two games with a sprained right knee to chip in 11 points and six rebounds.

Kelly Oubre Jr. had nine points and five boards for the top-seeded Jayhawks (26-7), who advanced to the Big 12 championship game for the 11th time. They will seek a 10th title on Saturday when they play No. 13 Iowa State.

Kenny Chery netted 20 points and Rico Gathers added 11 with 13 rebounds for the fourth-seeded Bears (24-9), who were held to 32.8 percent shooting.

“Give credit to the defense, the intensity of the game, playing back-to-back nights in the best conference in the country there is fatigue and that affects you physically and you see that in the shots and it also affects you mentally,” said Baylor coach Scott Drew.

Baylor went on a 15-4 run and trimmed its deficit to 39-35 when Chery nailed a 3-pointer with 11:12 remaining.

The Jayhawks, however, pulled away by scoring 10 straight points. Selden and Frank Mason III supplied the points during the burst that left Kansas up 51-36 with 5:08 left.

Kansas opened the game by hitting consecutive 3-pointers after an 0-for-8 performance from beyond the arc against TCU on Thursday.

“Certainly, we were on fire from three because we made three,” Kansas coach Bill Self said sarcastically. “We were 3 for 12, and that’s the best we shot in a while. But it was good to have Perry and Kelly to knock down a couple right off the bat and that gave us confidence.”

Royce O’Neale converted two free throws to give the Bears their first lead at 13-12, and Chery knocked down a trey to make it 16-14 with 7:11 remaining.

Baylor then missed its final eight field goals in the half as Kansas went on a 12-2 run to build a 26-18 lead by the break.

The Bears’ string of misses reached 14 and their deficit 15 early in the second half. Selden completed a three-point play to put Kansas up 35-20 with 16:42 to play.

Game Notes

Rico Gathers has set a Baylor single-season record with 384 rebounds. He broke the mark set by Charles McKinney in 1973-74 … Baylor’s Taurean Prince shot 1-for-11 and finished with only two points. He had scored in double figures in a career-best 16 straight games … The Bears had won the only two previous matchups with the Jayhawks in tournament play.

Final Score: (13) Iowa State 67, (15) Oklahoma 65

Kansas City, MO (SportsNetwork.com) – It appeared No. 13 Iowa State would need overtime to take down No. 15 Oklahoma and return to the Big 12 championship game.

The Sooners’ Ryan Spangler went up for a game-tying layup in the dying seconds of regulation but the ball slipped out of his hand, and the Cyclones survived for a 67-65 victory on Friday.

Georges Niang had 13 points, eight rebounds and four assists for second-seeded Iowa State (24-8), which beat Baylor last year to capture its second Big 12 Tournament title.

Iowa State will play ninth-ranked Kansas, the Big 12 regular season champs, on Saturday.

Jameel McKay scored 12 with nine rebounds and came up with two key blocks late for the Cyclones, who got 11 points from Monte Morris, the hero in the last- second quarterfinal victory over Texas.

Buddy Hield netted 16 points to lead third-seeded Oklahoma (22-10) but shot 6- of-20 from the floor, including 2-of-13 from 3-point range. TaShawn Thomas had 13 points and matched Hield with 10 rebounds.

Oklahoma closed to within 66-65 when Thomas converted on a putback with 12.6 seconds. Niang was then fouled and made 1-of-2 free throws before Jordan Woodard dished underneath the basket to a wide-open Spangler, who couldn’t send the game to overtime.

“Got a great look, feel bad for Ryan for what he’s going through right now, but we’ve got to find a way to pick him back up,” Hield said.

The Sooners trailed by eight in the second half before battling back to grab a 58-54 lead on a Hield layup with 5:44 left. Morris, who hit a jumper at the buzzer against the Longhorns, and Naz Long buried 3-pointers during an 8-0 spurt that left Iowa State with a 62-58 lead.

Isaiah Cousins then knocked down a trey for Oklahoma, but Hield had a 3-point try rattle out that would have given it the lead.

McKay followed up a block with a putback and he denied the Sooners on a second straight possession. Niang then banked in a short jumper for a 66-61 Iowa State lead with 1:52 remaining.

The Sooners opened the game with 3-pointers from Hield and Woodard and went ahead by as many as 11 three times in the first half. A Thomas jumper put the Sooners up 21-10 with 9:20 left, but the Cyclones used a 19-6 run to grab a lead before the teams entered the break tied at 29.

“They jumped out on us early. I thought we missed a couple of good looks at the basket and I thought we started rushing our shots a little bit as opposed to letting the offense come to us,” said Iowa State coach Fred Hoiberg. “Once we calmed down, I was glad to see we were able to pull back even at the half and come out and get off to a nice run in the second half.”

Game Notes

Oklahoma hasn’t advanced to the Big 12 championship game since winning the last of its three consecutive titles in 2003 … Iowa State scored 17 points off 14 Oklahoma turnovers … The Sooners owned a 43-27 rebounding advantage.

Categorized in: NCAA Basketball