No. 15 Baylor looks to clinch a top-four seed in the upcoming Big 12 Conference tournament and avoid a season sweep by Texas when the Bears host the dangerous Longhorns on Monday in Waco, Texas.
The Bears (21-8, 10-6 Big 12) finish their home schedule after holding off No. 7 Kansas 82-74 on Saturday.
RayJ Dennis had 14 of his team-high 19 points in the second half and distributed 10 assists for Baylor, which won its second consecutive game after two losses and is now alone in third place in the league standings with two games to play.
“Throughout March — that’s when you want to be playing your best ball,” Dennis said. “All these games finishing out the regular season and into the Big 12 tournament are important, all the way to the NCAA Tournament.”
Baylor reached double-digit conference wins for the sixth straight season and the 11th time under coach Scott Drew. The school totaled just eight league campaigns with 10 or more victories prior to Drew taking the reins.
The Bears got 18 points from Jayden Nunn, 17 from Yves Missi and 11 from Ja’Kobe Walter as they fashioned a 13-2 run early in the second half to turn a one-point game into a 60-48 lead. Kansas never got closer than four points the rest of the way.
“In March, the whole world is watching college basketball,” Nunn said. “So just take it one game at a time, and just play as hard as you can so that when you look back, you’re not like, ‘I should have done this. I should have did that.’ Just go out there and do it and compete.”
The Longhorns beat the Bears 75-73 in Austin on Jan. 20 on a last-second drive and layup by Tyrese Hunter.
Texas (19-10, 8-8) heads north on Interstate 35 with some momentum built by winning back-to-back games for the first time in five weeks and capturing three of its past four contests. The most recent outing was an 81-65 home win over visiting Oklahoma State on Saturday when Dylan Disu scored 17 points, Chendall Weaver added 16 and Max Abmas scored 15 points.
“We’re starting to figure out what we have to do on the defensive end of the floor in order to have success in the game overall,” Disu said. “We’ve stepped our game on defense, and that’s led to success.”
The Longhorns dominated the final 12 minutes, producing a 14-0 run to burst away from a game tied at 52 while getting points from five different players.
“At the end of the day, it’s about getting stops and we really put a big premium on that point of the game, when they went on a run,” Texas coach Rodney Terry said Saturday about that key stretch. “I told them, ‘Hey guys, we’re taking care of the basketball.’ I think we answered the bell again today.”
The Longhorns waltzed to the finish line, thanks to a 16-1 edge in second-chance points after halftime.
Texas leads the all-time series 165-97 according to its records, and the Longhorns are 35-25 against Baylor since the formation of the Big 12 Conference (prior to start of 1996-97 season). The game Monday is the final contest scheduled between the longtime rivals, as Texas is joining the Southeastern Conference after the 2023-24 school year.
–Field Level Media