Bears Battle Hard, Fall Just Short in Upset Bid against No. 2 Arizona, 87-80

WACO, Texas — The Baylor Men’s Basketball team (14-14, 4-11 Big 12) put together one of its best performances of the season but still came up short against the No. 2 Arizona Wildcats (26-2, 13-2 Big 12), losing 87-80.

The little things made the difference, with the Bears giving up multiple offensive rebounds on Arizona free throws that were converted into buckets, as well as Baylor missing key free throws late.

“We really wanted to try to gang rebound<‘ Baylor head Coach Scott Drew said after the game, “We needed our guards to get six, seven, eight, nine rebounds because it was going to be hard enough to keep the other guys off the glass. Free throw rebounds were inexcusable.”

Otherwise, the Bears played really clean basketball, turning the ball over just five times and shooting 49% from the field.

Unfortunately, Arizona only turned the ball over seven times, also shot 49% from the field, shot 43% form three, and won the rebounding battle 37-30.

“Our game plan was to take away the paint,” said Coach Drew, “The next part was we had to get more second-chance points, and we lost that by 11, and that was the game.”

Cameron Carr led all scorers in the game with 26 points in his 37 minutes. 

Arizona’s Jaden Bradley led the Wildcats with 25 points with five threes, six assists and six rebounds. Bradley had not hit a three-pointer in the last six games and was shooting 22% from deep thus far in Big 12 play.

Fellow Arizona guard Brayden Burries added 24 points of his own, including a dagger three at the end to put the visitors out of reach.

For the Bears, Isaac Williams had a great game, scoring 16 points on 5-6 shooting, but he did miss a pair of key free throws in the closing minutes.

Tounde Yessoufou also reached double-figure scoring with 12 points.

Baylor showed early that they were going to make the No. 2 Wildcats earn the win by getting to the rim often and even going on an 11-2 run to take a 19-12 lead.

Arizona would make multiple pushes to tie the game, but could get no closer than four points before the Bears bounced back and opened things back up. 

With a halftime lead of 41-34, Baylor put itself in a good spot to withstand the offensive slumps that have so often plagued the team this season. 

And that slump came, inevitably, at the start of the second half. The Bears scored just four points in the first six minutes of the half while the Wildcats turned their seven-point deficit into a 50-48 lead.

The Baylor offense recovered and started trading buckets with the visitors until the final minutes, when Arizona eked out a two-possession lead, and Baylor sputtered both from the field and the free throw line.

The Bears' effort on the day would have beaten most teams in the nation, but a battle-hardened — if not battle-weary — No. 2 Arizona squad made the little things work for them and against the Bears.

Can Baylor take this level of play on the road to Orlando and Houston in the coming week? Have the Bears finally figured enough out to make a last gasp run through the Big 12 Tournament and into the NCAAs?

“I know it took us about half the year to figure out just what we had and to start to put guys in better positions to be succcessful,” said Scott Drew, “I feel like our staff finally has our guys knowing what we can expect and what positions we can put them in to be successful … they were fun to coach today.”

Time will tell if they continue to be this fun to coach and to watch. 

Baylor at UCF tips off on Saturday at 7 p.m. on FS1.