By Jackson Posey | Sports Writer, Braden Murray | LTVN Sports Director
With a characteristically raucous Foster Pavilion atmosphere soundtracking an attempted second-half comeback, Baylor fell short against No. 19 Arizona 74-67 Monday night on ESPN.
Tipoff too late? LTVN’s Braden Murray provides the details of a disappointing loss.
“I think there was a little bit more grit [in the second half],” said Norchad Omier, who finished with 15 points and 13 rebounds. “Not enough, you know. We came on more aggressive, we did little things different than we did in the first half, and that made the defense better. But it was not enough.”
The Bears struggled to convert from downtown, clanking triples on three straight possessions and ceding an early lead. They finished 5-of-22 from long range. Freshman wing VJ Edgecombe (24 points, four rebounds) put Baylor back on the board with a driving dunk, a defender at his hip and racing for the baseline.
“As a staff, we’ve got to do a better job getting us better looks because we do have better shooters than that,” Baylor head coach Scott Drew said.
When the first round of substitutions came in, Drew pivoted to a throwback offense centered on two concentric circles of perimeter ball screens. Most recently the Bears’ primary offense in 2022-23, when Adam Flagler, LJ Cryer and Keyonte George ran the show, this new version resulted in several open looks and a Jayden Nunn 3-ball.
“Arizona’s one of the top offensive and defensive teams in the country,” Drew said. “They deserve a lot of credit with their size and length for us not being effective. But we’ll look at film. The first thing is, if they’re playing two bigs, one big is guarding one of our guards. And we’ve got to find a way to offset that.”
Strong defense from fifth-year forward Jalen Celestine, wearing No. 50 after a mid-game jersey change, helped slow an Arizona offensive attack that ranks 22nd in the nation. The Wildcats went nearly three minutes without a field goal as Baylor flipped a three-point deficit, but a 7-0 run spun things back the other way.
The Wildcats continued turning up the heat with a balanced offensive attack. Seven of their eight rotation players scored multiple times in the first half, as primary offensive engine Caleb Love, who scored seven points and forfeited three turnovers in the first half, struggled to find a groove. The Bears were seemingly banking on anyone else beating them; they did. Baylor entered the break trailing 41-33.
The lone consolation? A runway dunk from Edgecombe, who took off from the first hash for a two-handed slam moments before halftime.
The Bears were undoubtedly cold in the first half, shooting 40.0/27.3/54.5. But if that was cold, the early second half was positively frigid. Baylor didn’t make a field goal until the 12:22 mark, and along the way, watched Love leap over Omier for a poster-worthy slam.
Facing a 14-point deficit, Omier and guard Jeremy Roach put the team on their back and crawled back into contention. The pair of fifth-year transfers combined to lead a 12-4 run, bringing the Bears back within two scores.
“It’s a little frustrating shooting at home [and] not hitting shots,” Omier said. “We’ve just got to put more shots up. … We’ve just got to trust ourselves. Confidence. I think we’re gonna be alright.”
Another three-minute field goal drought buoyed the Wildcats lead, but they entered the final 4:30 with a six-point lead, a little too close for comfort.
Edgecombe cut the lead to four. The defense held the Wildcats for 30 seconds, gave up an offensive rebound, then held them again. But the clock’s ticking proved terminable. Despite the late-game scoring heroics from the projected top-five pick, who scored 10 of the Bears’ final 15 points, Arizona hit enough free throws to pull out the 74-67 victory.
“I knew coming in here today that losing was a possibility, and there [would be] no shame in it,” Arizona head coach Tommy Lloyd said. “Scott does an amazing job. But what I also knew was today’s win was important for our season and our team, and we approached it as such.”
The loss drops Baylor to 8-7 in Big 12 play ahead of a winnable stretch of games: at Colorado, vs Oklahoma State and at TCU. The Bears will head to Boulder to take on the Buffaloes at 3 p.m. Saturday. The game will be streamed live on ESPN+.
