No. 25 Bears Punked by Horned Frogs, 74-71

WACO, Texas — The No. 25 Baylor Men’s Basketball team (11-6, 3-3 Big 12) fell to the visiting TCU Horned Frogs (10-7, 3-3 Big 12) in a messy Big 12 game, 74-71.

A late game-tying three from Jayden Nunn — who came off of the bench for eight points tonight — was not enough with Brendan Wenzel returning the favor to seal the game for TCU. The senior led the Horned Frogs with 17 points.

Norchad Omier led all players with 20 points but he had an atypical night on the boards grabbing just five rebounds. The fifth-year forward also missed four free throws in the first half. Baylor would shoot 12-for-18 from the charity stripe on the night.

The Frogs dominated Baylor on the boards grabbing 41 to the Bears’ 25 rebounds. Despite the lower rebound numbers, Baylor put up 10 more shots than TCU on their way to 40% shooting from the field and 36% shooting from three.

Perhaps another key stat was points off of turnovers. The Bears gave the ball away only five times for five TCU points. The Frogs coughed up possession 17 times and the Bears converted that into 21 points. 

The flow of the game was that of Baylor trying desperately to pull away in the first half without success before TCU physically took things to Baylor to find a messy win in the second half. 

The Green and Gold grew a lead as big as 12 in the first half but could not deliver the kill shot.

In the third quarter of the game, TCU threw a haymaker of a 7-0 run to close affairs to 48-45 but Baylor countered with a 6-0 run. 

The Frogs had not emptied their clip however, launching into a 20-5 stretch to take a 67-61 lead over the Bears.

Baylor’s second-leading scorer on the night, VJ Edgecombe, drew a foul on a three and converted all free throws to make it 71-68 with 29 seconds left.

One defensive stop — which ended with Jeremy Roach leaving the game injured — later and Jayden Nunn hit his game-tying triple.

Sadly, the Frogs used the 25 seconds left on the clock to great effect, forcing a defensive miscue from Baylor and finding Wenzel for his winning three.

“We thought zone gave us the best chance to get a stop there,” said Baylor head coach Scott Drew postgame, “We ended up over-rotating instead of staying solid and because of that we ended up giving their, in my opinion, best shooter an open shot.”

At a time when the Bears needed to “get right” this result, especially at home, is telling of this team’s shortcomings. 

The Bears are a team that is short on options when shots are not falling or fouls pile up. Jalen Celestine returned from injury to knock down a couple of triples, but now Roach could be sidelined. These Bears need to learn to win messy or consistently execute at a higher level … or both. 

Edgecombe, who scored 18 points tonight, knows the urgency that they need to have. He knows they have to be better even saying “It ain’t no Xs and Os, no execution or anything like that. They just played harder than us. They punked us on the glass, in the paint, everywhere.”

Up Next: vs. Kansas State — Wednesday, January 22 — 8:00 p.m. on ESPN U