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No. 9 Kansas tops No. 16 Baylor to reach Big 12 title game

Mar 14, 2015 - 5:09 AM 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.