No. 11 Bears Drop Regular Season Finale to Texas Tech, 78-68
LUBBOCK, Texas — The No. 11 Baylor Men’s Basketball team (22-9, 11-7) was beaten 78-68 in its regular-season finale against the Texas Tech Red Raiders (22-9, 11-7).
The Bears had locked up the number three seed in the Big 12 tournament before tip-off thanks to a loss by Kansas at Houston. However, the loss was a disappointing way to head into the postseason.
Baylor gave up a devastating 16-0 run in the first five minutes of the game. The 14-point hole left Scott Drew’s squad scrambling to make it a competitive game.
The Bears did start the second half topping Texas Tech 29-16 to erase the 13-point halftime deficit. But after tying the game at 56-56, things once again headed south for the green and gold.
Texas Tech knocked down three straight triples as part of an 11-0 run that the Bears would not be able to counteract.
At the end of the day, Baylor was outrebounded 40-29 and did not play effective enough defense for much of the night.
Beyond that, Baylor could not get Pop Isaacs or Darrion Williams to foul out despite both picking up four fouls before the 13-minute mark of the second half.
Isaacs led all scorers with 20 points and Williams was second in the game with 16 points, including a three-pointer in that game-deciding 11-0 run.
Ja’Kobe Walter led Baylor with 15 points while Jayden Nunn and RayJ Dennis followed closely with 14 and 12 points respectively.
Dennis struggled a bit holding onto the ball today with four turnovers.
Langston Love did return to action for the first time since February 20th at BYU. He scored nine points and grabbed five rebounds while looking like there was not much rust to knock off.
The Bears will now prepare for the Big 12 Tournament in Kansas City. As the No. 3 seed, Baylor gets a double-bye and will play their first game in the quarterfinals on Thursday evening at 8:30 PM.
If BYU beats Oklahoma State, Kansas will fall to the sixth seed and play the winner of (11) Cincinnati and (14) West Virginia to decide who move on to the quarterfinal matchup with Baylor.
Otherwise, a BYU loss makes the Cougars the sixth seed and moves Kansas up to fifth.