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Baylor earns historic first win at Iowa State, Kansas alone atop Big 12

Baylor earns historic first win at Iowa State, Kansas alone atop Big 12

The Big 12 Conference’s one true champion motto blew up in its face at the end of the college football season with Baylor and TCU tied atop the standings and left out of the inaugural College Football Playoff.

Heading down the stretch of the basketball regular season, Kansas is in solid position to win its 11th consecutive championship and make the league’s mantra stand up after Iowa State blew a golden opportunity to put pressure on the Jayhawks on Wednesday night.

Baylor went into Hilton Coliseum and beat the Cyclones 79-70. It is the first time the Bears have won at Iowa State in history. It is the first home loss of the season for the Cyclones and it snapped Iowa State’s 21-game home-court winning streak.

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It happened because the Bears got hot from behind the 3-point line late in the game while the Cyclones went cold. Baylor made 14 of 26 3-point attempts and five players scored in double figures led by Taurean Prince, who scored 20 off the bench.

With 7 minutes remaining, Iowa State had a four-point lead, but Prince drained three consecutive 3-pointers over a 2-minute span to put the Bears in front and in position to notch a historic win for the program.

Iowa State will lament this one, possibly for years to come. The poor late-game shooting will be at the forefront of those memories. The Cyclones final made field goal attempt came with 6 minutes, 27 seconds remaining. They scored only four more points the rest of the way all coming at the free throw line.

The loss has to be that much more confounding to Cyclones fans because it came on the heels of impressive road wins at Oklahoma State and Texas, two places where the Cyclones have historically struggled.

It’s still possible that the Jayhawks could stumble down the stretch with home games against Texas, West Virginia and a road trip to Oklahoma and they could end up in a tie with either Iowa State, West Virginia or the Sooners, all of whom are one game behind them in the standings.

This certainly isn’t settled yet. But Kansas certainly feels less pressure now than it would have had the Cyclones not fallen apart late in the game Wednesday, watching a share of first place evaporate.

 

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[Kyle Ringo is the assistant editor of The Dagger on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at kyle.ringo@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!