Baylor avoids awful loss in first game back, defeats Iowa State 77-72

WACO, Texas — The No. 2 Baylor men’s basketball team (18-0, 10-0) returned to action on Tuesday with a 77-72 win over Iowa State (2-17, 0-14) in the Ferrell Center. 

Well, that was close. 

Did you hear the one about John Haila, the mayor of Ames, Iowa, petitioning to shorten NCAA basketball games to 35 minutes? Yeah, Bob Bolwsby, in a rare move that actually benefited Baylor, said no. 

There was plenty of rust to go around for the Bears, but this tale of two halves worked out alright in the end. When have you known Baylor to make it easy? It’s not exactly commonplace. This team has a tendency to get into close battles and make a run when it matters. 

The first half recap is quirky. The first 13 minutes of gameplay were far and away the worst Baylor has played all year, arguably the worst they’ve played in two years. Iowa State sprinted out to an 18-6 start and forced five early Bear turnovers, holding Baylor to a 2-8 start shooting. 

It didn’t end there. The Cyclones would go on to lead 29-13 before Baylor did that thing that they do where they become a healthy mix of the Monstars and Globetrotters to make a 19-8 run to pull the score to 37-30 at the break. 

Adam Flagler led the opening 20 with 12 points on 4-7 shooting, but it was Iowa State who dominated the stat sheet with a 7-10 mark from deep, 10 forced turnovers, two players in double figures and a 54% shooting percentage for the half. 

The second half was nerve-racking. Iowa State led things 65-64 with a little more than four minutes to go, but that’s when Baylor decided it would win. It wasn’t smooth sailing from that point on, but the Bears found a way to get it done thanks to free throws when it mattered and a couple of clutch shots. 

Thanks to Jared Butler’s 15 in the second half, another 10 from Flagler, just two turnovers and holding Iowa State to 33% from deep in the final 20, Baylor clinched the 77-72 win. 

This was not pretty. Granted, you can’t expect perfection coming off of just two days of practice that followed a three-week hiatus. Flagler led the Bears with 22, but Tyler Harris’ 22, Rasir Bolton’s 21 and the Cyclones shooting 10-21 from outside were the stories of the game. 

Depth and the clutch factor were really the only two things that pushed Baylor to victory. 

The Green and Gold return to action on Saturday against Kansas in Lawrence, and anything similar to this will surely lead to Baylor’s first loss of the season. This was too close for comfort.