Vick’s milestone night leads Kansas to victory over Bears

In his 110th career game, senior guard LaGerald Vick stepped up to lead the No. 7 ranked Kansas Jayhawks to a 73-68 victory over the struggling Baylor Bears.

The Jayhawks move to 14-2 (3-1) on the season while pushing the Bears down to 9-6 (1-2).

Baylor guard King McClure got the game out to a start by hitting two free throws but then Vick would have an immediate response by hitting a triple on the other side of the court. Kansas rushed out to an 18-2 lead in the first half, not allowing a single field goal until the 9:37 mark midway through the first half.

After its first field goal, Baylor quickly turned the tides, going on a run of its own to bring the Jayhawk lead down to two. Quickly Vick would hit another triple, followed by another three from freshman forward Ochai Agabji.

Kansas entered the half with a 10-point lead, lead by Vick’s strong shooting.

Vick entered the game with 994 career points but after his second triple of the first half, he became the 61st Kansas Jayhawk to ever reach the 1000 career point milestone.

Kansas came out of the half with the hopes of simply coasting to a victory. The Jayhawks stretched their lead out to 22 with 6:04 left in the game.

Despite the large lead, the Bears refused to go down and worked the lead down. Trailing by 12 with 1:03 left in the contest, the Bears scored eight quick points after a couple Vick turnovers and two missed free throws by freshman point guard Devon Dotson.

Junior forward Dedric Lawson however shut down the Bears momentum with a free throw to give Kansas its final score of 73. Despite a few offensive rebounds, the Bears were unable to capitalize and eventually fell to the hands of the Jayhawks.

Vick lead all scorers with 18 in the game on 6-of-10 shooting, 6-of-8 from behind the arc. Lawson followed Vick’s performance with 17 of his own, but the double-double machine was only able to snag three rebounds in the game, far below his season average of 11.3.

All throughout the game, Baylor struggled to score the ball, shooting a mere 33.3% from the field. Senior guard Makai Mason, who averages 15 a game, managed to score 11, but did so on 3-of-12 shooting. Freshman guard Jared Butler led all Bears with 14 of his own.

Agbaji continued to be a much-needed above-the-rim force for Kansas as he finished the game with 10 points off the bench and snagged three rebounds in the process. Agbaji now has two games under his belt and will continue to be someone coach Bill Self heavily leans on going down the stretch of the Big 12 schedule.

Devon Dotson, a preseason favorite to win the Bob Cousey award for the nation’s top point guard, continues to look more and more like the true point guard Kansas seemed to lack in the preseason.

Dotson is without a doubt the best passer on the team, but has become much more of a scorer as the season has rolled on. Dotson’s high free-throw percentage has become arguably his biggest strength over the course of the season as Kansas has played in numerous close contests.

The Jayhawks will return to Allen Fieldhouse on Monday, Jan. 14th to face off against the Texas Longhorns at 8 P.M.