WACO, Texas — James Akinjo scored 20 points and third-ranked Baylor clinched a share of the Big 12 title with its fifth consecutive win, 75-68 over Iowa State on Saturday night.
Akinjo put the Bears ahead to stay with a 3-pointer with 3:37 left, followed seconds later by a driving reverse layup. They had fallen behind after building a 25-point lead in the game’s first 12 minutes.
Gabe Kalscheur had 18 points for Iowa State (20-11, 7-11), which went from trailing 29-4 at the under-eight timeout in the first half to a 60-58 lead just before that same timeout in the second half. The Cyclones got back-to-back 3s from Tyrese Hunter and Caleb Grill before turning Baylor’s turnover into a go-ahead layup by Aljaz Kunc.
That was a 56-29 spurt for the Cyclones, who were coming off a 53-36 loss to Oklahoma State in their home finale that snapped a four-game winning streak.
The game was tied at 62-62 for nearly three minutes before Kalscheur made a tiebreaking jumper with 3:52 left to end a span when both teams missed four shots and each missed free throws in one-plus-one situations.
Baylor went ahead to stay on the long 3 by Akinjo 15 seconds later, and he added a driving reverse layup after big man Flo Thamba got fouled and missed the free throw.
Iowa State: Despite consecutive losses to end the regular season, the Cyclones’ 20 wins are already a plus-18 turnaround from last season. That is a school record and the most ever for a Big 12 team with a first-year coach. (T.J. Tozelberger). … Iowa State shot 47.5% overall from the field, remarkable considering 14 missed shots in a row over a span of 8 1/2 minutes when falling behind in the first half.
