No. 1 Baylor men's basketball outruns No. 8 Iowa State on the road 77-72

No. 1 Baylor men’s basketball (13-0) ends No. 8 Iowa State’s undefeated campaign while retaining its own with a 77-72 win in a rowdy Hilton Coliseum. 

First, give all the credit in the world to Iowa State, its fans and Hilton Coliseum. That is one of the top two atmospheres Baylor will compete in this season, and the Cyclones never rolled over. But no level of energy or noise was going to stop James Akinjo and squad. 

There is a very, very clear number one basketball team in the nation — your Baylor Bears. 

Recapping the first half, Akinjo slander will no longer be tolerated. The point guard had a team-high 10 points on 2-2 from deep and a steal. In a game that was fast-paced and high-scoring, Akinjo led the charge on the road. 

What’s more, the Bears showed scoring against a top-10, defensive-minded opponent away from Waco is not that daunting for this team. With seven offensive boards, eight points off turnovers and a 48% shooting clip, Baylor was unstoppable. 

Oh, and Flo Thamba put up nine and four which was cool. 

The red button of death wasn’t completely pushed, but it was certainly nudged as Scott Drew’s team led by as many as 10 and eventually took a 41-33 lead into the break. 

The second half still didn’t see the red button of death hammered by Drew. Instead, the head Bear hammered like eight mini-red buttons of death. The typical 19-3 run never came about, but, when it was needed, a 5-0 run or 6-0 spurt was there for Baylor. 

Things got a bit hairy at 70-65 with under 2:30 to go, but it was still Baylor making the big plays when they counted — i.e. an Adam Flagler deep two pushing the lead to 72-65. The Bears had the Cyclones at arm's length basically all game to round out the 77-72 victory. 

Baylor won the game decisively despite Iowa State shooting 27 free throws and the bears shooting 14. The Green and Gold also turned the ball over 18 times. Depth and the long ball won this game.

Kendall Kaut called it — Baylor needed to shoot over 30% from deep. It shot 41%. Iowa State shot 1-14. And the bench point differential favored the Bears 29-12. On a scale of one to good for Iowa State, that’s not.

I hope you never get tired of winning. Really, it can be easy to get bored with 13-0 and dominating performance after dominating performance but bask in how special this is. It’s tough to describe it.

Now rest up, Baylor nation. We have a Sugar Bowl to lose our voices over this evening.