Baylor thrashes Oklahoma 87-64 on Senior Night

After dropping the last two games, Baylor came out to make a statement as the seniors took to the Ferrell Center for the last time. Coach Scott Drew said he wanted them to have one last great memory under the golden dome, and with an 87-64 win where three of five seniors scored double-digits, that was more than accomplished.

With the win, Baylor moves to sixth place in the Big 12 with an 8-9 conference record and will take on fifth place Kansas State to close out the season.

Dominating the paint

A good majority of Baylor’s points at TCU came in the paint, a feat that was easily accomplished tonight. Drew wouldn’t go as far to call it a trend, noting that different teams defend differently, but scoring 52 points (60 percent) in the lane certainly highlights a team strength.

In recent games, driving the lane has become an art form for Terry Maston. In tandem with his patented mid-range fadeaway, Maston led the team with 23 points. He shot 10-of-14 from the floor, and when a shot didn’t fall through, Mark Vital was virtually always there for the putback.

Vital led the team with five offensive boards, adding two tip-ins to his box score, making up four of Baylor’s 11 second-chance points. He’s become the team’s go-to cleanup artist, forcing his way under the basket to come up with rebounds in heavy traffic. That was more than evident tonight along with Jo Lual-Acuil around the rim as well. The redshirt freshman led the team with a +/- of 22 points, putting all that tenacity into perspective.

Shutting down the playmaker and then some

There’s a good chance you’ve heard Trae Young’s name sometime this season. If not during any ESPN broadcast, certainly as he hung 44 points against Baylor in January. Tonight, he was silenced to just 18 points. Only Kansas has limited him to less in the Big 12.

Lecomte said it was a point of attack to stop Young from the perimeter, “You don’t want to give him an open shot. You want to make him a driver, and that was the game plan.”

Making Young shoot under duress and in traffic worked to near-perfection. The freshman phenom was most successful in the lane, shooting 3-of-6 in the paint. Pushing him to 30-foot range, Young made just 2-of-11 three-pointers. Oklahoma collectively threw bricks from deep, making 6-of-26 shots, but it was silencing Young that spoke loudest.

Baylor made its biggest mark midway through the first half as it went on a 13-point run while Oklahoma missed 19-of-20 shots. Drew didn’t accept all the credit for that, he said that the Sooners missing nine times from the foul line was another factor out of Baylor’s control. But that three-minute stretch, flummoxing Oklahoma across the court was surely one of the finest moments of Baylor’s season.

Thank your seniors

Tonight is just a small piece of their story, but it’s one of the brightest.

Even without Jonathan Davis’ last-minute drive for two points, Baylor’s seniors would have outscored Oklahoma. The five seniors combined for 67 points, with Maston, Lecomte, and Lual-Acuil hitting double digits. Nuni Omot was just shy at 9 points but continues to shine at the perimeter, leading the team with two three-pointers.

The group also combined for 26 rebounds, just three shy of Oklahoma’s 29 total boards, putting Baylor’s dominance in the paint on an even higher pedestal.

With their dominance all around, they’ve set the team up nicely for an at-large bid to the tournament. Nothing’s guaranteed yet with one more game and the Big 12 tourney to come, but a 23-point win over a near-lock of a team is difficult to snub. Consider that Baylor lost by just two points in the last meeting with Oklahoma, it strengthens Baylor’s résumé even further.