On Wednesday night in Waco, Texas, two Big 12 teams clashed in an exciting back-and-forth matchup.
Scott Drew and the Baylor Bears welcomed Jerome Tang and the Kansas State Wildcats to Foster Pavillion for the seventh game of the Big 12 regular season. The pair traded blows early in the first half and late in the second, which eventually wound up with the Bears taking the reigns and cruising to victory.
With that, here are the top three takeaways from Baylor’s 70-62 win over the Wildcats.
Two-Man Show
While the first half was largely dominant for the Kansas State Wildcats, Baylor found production in a large way in the second half from the duo of VJ Edgecombe and Jalen Celestine. The pair recorded 48 of Baylor’s 70 points, with no other scorers reaching double figures.
Without the help of Jeremy Roach and Langston Love, Edgecombe showed why he deserves to be in consideration for the No. 1 overall pick in the 2025 NBA Draft. The freshman phenom dropped a career-high 30 points against Kansas State, going 8-13 from the field and 11-12 from the free throw line.
The Streak Continues
For Kansas State, this loss stings. Jerome Tang’s group led Baylor by 12 points in the second half and couldn’t get the job done. With the loss to Baylor, K-State stacked even more days on top of an already embarrassing record.
After falling to Baylor, the Wildcats have now not won a true road game in 378 days. The streak dates back to the 2023-24 season, with their last road win coming on January 9th in Morgantown, West Virginia.
Unfortunately for Kansas State, they took a bit of a beating from the officiating crew. Kansas State attempted a total of nine free throws for the entire game, while Baylor shot 21 attempts at the line.
Regardless, the Wildcats threw away the game and dropped to 1-6 in conference play this season. The loss marks their sixth-straight loss and eighth in the last nine games.
What’s Next?
Kansas State has become the laughingstock of the Big 12 this season, and that doesn’t appear to be changing anytime soon. The Wildcats have already lost a total of six conference games and will have to take on No. 23 West Virginia, Oklahoma State (who beat them on Jan. 7), Arizona State, No. 12 Kansas, and Arizona in their next five outings.
The win for Baylor, however, came at the perfect time. The Bears had been sliding down the Big 12 leaderboard after back-to-back losses to Arizona and TCU. Their win over Kansas State propels them into a manageable stretch that features opponents of Utah, BYU, No. 12 Kansas, Texas Tech, and UCF in their next five games.
