Baylor narrowly beats #7 Texas Tech, extends win streak to five

This recap was one second away from looking entirely different. Had Brandone Francis' last-second three-pointer gone in, Baylor's win streak would have been reset. Instead, Baylor held Texas Tech to 0-for-6 shooting in the last three minutes to take down the No. 7 team in the nation 59-57.

This is now Baylor's fifth consecutive win, bringing the team to 7-7 in Big 12 competition and with a more than intriguing case for the NCAA tournament.

Learning from mistakes

Holding a one-point lead with 22 seconds left in-bounding the ball, King McClure slipped up and put the ball back into the Red Raiders’ hands. Had they made their last shot, it would have left a big cloud over McClure. Not that one mistake makes a game, but it would have been the last difference-maker.

But Scott Drew said the whole team was supportive of him walking to the bench. It was partly a brilliant play by Josh Webster getting the ball back.

Baylor forward Mark Vital added more words of promise after the game for McClure, underscoring a bigger theme of the night: Getting better.

“We all make mistakes,” Vital said. “He gonna learn from it. He gonna be great.”

Mistakes were surely made in Baylor’s first bout with the Red Raiders, losing by 24 points to open Big 12 play. Against now No. 7 ranked Texas Tech which was the hottest team in the conference before today, a lot of those mistakes were remedied, beating Tech at its own game.

Seeing that improvement firsthand, Texas Tech head coach Chris Beard said this is a Baylor team no one wants to face in Waco right now.

Meet the offense: Terry Maston

Not to undermine the rest of the pieces of the offense, but it’s Maston that guided the offense this round.

Coach Drew said he was “pretty worried” about the offense considering Jo Lual-Acuil and Manu Lecomte shot a combined 5-of-20 (scoring only twice in the second half to boot). But Maston stepped in to jumpstart the offense to save the day.

In the first half, Maston made six shots from the floor to the team’s five makes. He followed that up with four Baylor’s seven field goals in the second half. With three free throws, that put him at 24 points, just one point less than the next three scorers combined.

Texas Tech coach Chris Beard was completely enamored with Maston after the game, mentioning him multiple times.

“Thought Maston was the best player on the floor today,” Beard said, noting the last two games as all-conference caliber. “He’s kind of a mismatch guy.

“Looks like he’s at the end of his career and is finding special things.”

Solved the foul issue but found another in the process 

Against Texas, it took nearly three quarters of the game to take. Today, Baylor went to the line five times in the first eight minutes. But the rest of the way, things fell apart.

Baylor took 29 shots — the most in conference play by far — but only converted 20 into points. It was one of the few areas Maston struggled, missing three times, and Jake Lindsey fighting the flu missed his two golden opportunities to hold a lead.

Those final breath-holding seconds could have been avoided with just a couple more shots falling through. They’re the controllables that coaches always preach, especially in the closing weeks with the tournament on the line. It’s a fix easier said than done, but the most obvious missed opportunities of the night when Monday night, fans would have been happy just getting sent to the line.