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Baylor pulls away from Kansas State

Feb 22, 2015 - 2:13 AM Waco, TX (SportsNetwork.com) - With five scorers in double figures and its typical stingy defense, No. 20 Baylor earned a 69-42 win over Kansas State on Saturday.

Taurean Prince paced the Bears (20-7, 8-6 Big 12) with 14 points and five assists. Rico Gathers added 13 points and 10 rebounds, Lester Medford chipped in 12 points, and Al Freeman and Royce O'Neale scored 11 and 10 points, respectively.

Baylor limited the Wildcats (13-15, 6-9) to 38.3 percent shooting and a 1- of-16 display from 3-point range. The Bears scored 19 points off 15 Kansas State turnovers.

Thomas Gipson scored 11 points and added six rebounds for Kansas State.

The Bears built a 14-point lead at the half, but Marcus Foster scored six points during an 8-0 Kansas State run to start the second that brought the Wildcats within 39-33. It took more than six minutes for Baylor to get on the board for the period on a pair of Medford free throws.

Those free throws started an 11-1 Bears run that gave them a 50-34 lead just after the midpoint of the second half. Prince's jumper during that burst started a run of 11 straight shots made from the field for Baylor.

The Wildcats never responded, making just three more field goals the rest of the game. A late 10-0 Baylor run that included a 3-pointer from O'Neale expanded Baylor's lead to a game-high 28 points before KSU's Shawn Meyer's free throw with a minute left accounted for the final margin.

"Obviously, I thought we needed a very special effort today," said Wildcats coach Bruce Weber. "They are a very good team, a very explosive team."

Baylor played a clean first half, committing just one turnover not allowing the Wildcats to get to the free throw line once. Kenny Chery opened the game with a 3-pointer on Baylor's first possession.

The Wildcats never led, and an early 8-0 run by the Bears gave them a 17-6 lead six minutes into the game.

"I thought the crowd helped us get off to a great start," said Baylor coach Scott Drew. "We were really energetic on the defensive end, and I really thought we shared the ball extremely well today."

Baylor led 39-25 at halftime after scoring the last six points and shot 7- of-14 from long distance before the break.

Game Notes

The Bears dished out 24 assists on 27 made shots ... Each team shot below 50 percent from the free-throw line with Baylor at 41.2 percent and Kansas State at 41.1 percent ... The Wildcats have not been two or more games under .500 since the end of the 2002-03 season, when they finished 13-17 ... Kansas State hosts rival Kansas on Monday while Baylor heads to Iowa State on Wednesday.