Lawson leads KU to 78-70 victory over Baylor as Jayhawks finish undefeated at home
Dedric Lawson’s 20th double-double of the season paced Kansas to a 78-70 victory over Baylor on Saturday afternoon at Allen Fieldhouse in the regular-season finale for both teams.
The 6-foot-9, 235-pound Memphis native’s 23 points and 14 rebounds not only assured the 13th-ranked Jayhawks a 16-0 home record in 2018-19, but also solidified the junior power forward’s status as a leading Big 12 player of the year candidate.
“Yeah, I guess so, yeah, as far as the stats,” Lawson said with a smile, asked point blank if he should be voted conference player of the year Sunday.
“Everything comes with winning. This year we failed to do that. I think winning cures it all,” added Lawson, whose 17 points and 11 rebounds in the second half helped hold at bay a Baylor team (19-12, 10-8) that was led by Jared Butler’s career-high 31 points.
Lawson, of course, is involved in a player of the year battle with Kansas State’s Barry Brown and Texas Tech’s Jarrett Culver.
“Shout out to both those players for winning and being in first place. That’s pretty much it,” Lawson said.
KU coach Bill Self stated his case for Lawson, who leads the conference in scoring and rebounding.
“I think Dedric is the best player in our league,” Self said, “but I’m not sure that’s always the reason why guys win awards. I’ve been a big proponent in the past that it means something to be the best player on the best team. I think it’s three people that would have a chance to win — Dedric and obviously Culver and obviously Brown. I could make a case for Dedric but I could also make a case for the other two as well.
“I hope he (Lawson) does (win) because selfishly it’d be great for him. It would probably guarantee his jersey getting hung in the rafters being Big 12 player of the year. The reality of it is those other kids are deserving, too.”
Texas Tech and Kansas State finished ahead of third-place KU (23-8, 12-6) in the regular-season standings. The Jayhawks were eliminated from the league race following Tuesday’s loss at Oklahoma.
That made Saturday’s game against Baylor all but meaningless from a KU standpoint. The Jayhawks will play No. 6 seed Texas in the Big 12 Tournament quarterfinals around 8:30 p.m. Thursday at the Sprint Center.
“Whether I want to admit it or not, it’s deflating not winning the league. It was deflating to them not winning the league, even though we ended up not being in the game to win the league because we lost by two games,” Self said. “To me, today was a ‘seed game’ (for the NCAA Tournament). ... We were going to play Texas no matter what in the first round.”
Self said the Jayhawks, who also received 15 points from Devon Dotson and 12 points and five boards from David McCormack, had a good day offensively despite the team hitting just 44.1 percent of its shots, including going 6 of 16 from three.
“I thought our offense against their zone was maybe best it’s ever been,” Self said. “We missed some easy shots. It was a boring game, not a lot of flow.”
Baylor, went 6 of 31 from three and hit 35.8 percent overall.
The game basically turned into a one-on-one scoring battle between Lawson and Butler.
“Dedric had 23 (on 6 of 14 shooting) and 14. I told him after the game that should have been 32 and 18. He missed some bunnies the first half,” Self said. “Dedric is going to get numbers. He is a great free-throw shooter. Whenever it becomes a free-throw contest, you’ve got to like it when he and Devon are shooting a majority of them.”
Dotson was 6 of 10 from the line and Lawson 11 of 12. Overall KU hit 20 of 30 free throws to Baylor’s 16 of 24.
“I do think Dedric needs to be our best player moving forward,” Self said. “In an NCAA Tournament game you get 23 and 14, there’s probably a good chance your team will get an opportunity to advance.”
Lawson, by the way, was whacked in the nose by Flo Thamba with 15:09 left. Lawson hit two free throws following the flagrant foul call and after a steal hit two more to open a 44-35 lead.
“He hit my nose pretty hard. It was nothing personal, he was just swinging,” Lawson said. “I think people fight back hard once they get punched. I needed to get punched earlier.”
The postgame interview sessions may have been more interesting than the play in KU’s regular-season and home finale. Self came up with a creative line or two when asked to describe the status of his team entering the postseason.
“It’s ‘50 First Dates.’ Drew Barrymore could star with our team. Wasn’t that the name of that movie? ‘50 First Dates’ because it’s something new every day,” Self said. “I don’t know what to expect but I’m excited to see whatever happens. I still think there’s a level we can get to we haven’t gotten to yet. Hopefully we’ll peak at the right time.”
KU-Baylor notes: KU completed its regular-season schedule with a perfect record in Allen Fieldhouse for the seventh time in Self’s 16 seasons at KU and 20th time in the history of the 64-year-old building. KU went 9-0 at home in the league and 16-0 overall. Overall, KU has won 20 consecutive games in the fieldhouse. … Baylor is 0-16 in Allen. … KU won its 36th straight regular-season home finale and improved to 250-13 at home in the Self era. … Bayor was without senior guard Makai Mason, who sat on the bench with a walking boot on his left foot. … McCormack scored 10 points on 5 of 7 shooting in helping KU to a 32-29 lead at halftime. KU led by as many as 14 points in the second half (68-54 witih 5:11 left). BU crept to within six points. … KU honored senior managers Riley Cobb of Silver Lake, Kan., and Trent Schulte of Baileyville, Kan., prior to the game. … Oscar winning screenwriter Kevin Willmott, a professor at KU, was honored during the first timeout. … Two junior prospects attended Saturday’s game as part of official recruiting visits to KU. They are: R.J. Hampton, a 6-5 guard from Little Elm (Texas) High School who is ranked No. 5 in the recruiting Class of 2020 according to Rivals.com, and Isaiah Cottrell, a 6-9 forward from Bishop Gorman High in Las Vegas, who is ranked No. 69 in 2020. Cottrell has a long list that includes KU, Nevada, Marquette, Florida, UNLV, Arizona, Oklahoma, West Virginia, UCLA and many others. Hampton is considering KU, Duke, Kentucky, Memphis and TCU.
This story was originally published March 9, 2019 at 3:26 PM with the headline "Lawson leads KU to 78-70 victory over Baylor as Jayhawks finish undefeated at home."
