By Gio Gennero | Sports Writer, Pierson Luscy | Broadcast Reporter
No. 9 Baylor men’s basketball sent West Virginia University home empty handed as the Bears defeated the Mountaineers 79-67 Monday night in the Ferrell Center. Baylor’s fourth-straight victory helps the Bears improve to 20-6 overall and 9-4 in Big 12 play, also putting them tied for first in the conference with No. 6 University of Texas.
If No. 5 University of Kansas wins on Tuesday versus Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, Okla., then it’ll be a three-way tie for first between the Jayhawks, Bears and Longhorns.
“[It was] a good night for the Baylor Bears,” head coach Scott Drew said. “From starting out 0-3 and now tied for first place, the real fun begins. There’s a lot of basketball left to be played.”
Baylor also secured its fifth-straight season of 20-or-more wins.
Junior guard LJ Cryer led all scorers with 26 points, his fourth-straight 20-point game, after piling in a career-high eight made threes. Cryer finished two points shy of his career high in points (28), which was set on Nov. 20 against then-No. 8 University of California, Los Angeles.
“[The ball] felt great coming out of my hands, I got a lot of good looks, so credit to my teammates. Anytime I get those looks I feel like I’m going to knock them down,” Cryer said.
Kenneth Prabhakar | Photo Editor
Redshirt senior guard Adam Flagler finished with 13 points and six assists. Junior forward Jalen Bridges and senior forward Jonathan Tchamwa Tchatchoua contributed 12 and 11 points, respectively. Freshman guard Keyonte George dropped just six points, but impacted the game in a different light with nine assists and seven rebounds, both team highs. Baylor shot 51% from the field and 52% from 3-point land.
The first five minutes of play were slow as the first timeout was called with Baylor down 9-3. In this stretch, the Bears shot 1 of 6 and turned the ball over five times. Flagler once again came to the team’s aid as he rolled in a three and on the next possession converted a three-point play to keep the Bears around early.
With eight minutes to go in the half, Baylor capped off an 8-0 run with a possession where the ball flew around the court before eventually finding Bridges who hit from beyond the arc. This helped the Bears retake the lead at 20-18.
In the last 10 minutes of the half, Baylor forced West Virginia to miss 12 of 14 shot attempts, including a nine-minute field goal drought. Despite the defensive efforts, the Bears held on to just a 36-29 lead. At the half, Cryer led all scorers with 11 points and Bridges followed with seven. Despite forcing seven West Virginia turnovers, Baylor had eight of their own.
Cryer started off the second half on fire, hitting back-to-back threes to open up Baylor’s lead to 42-31. Around halfway through the second, Cryer and Flagler connected on consecutive threes, helping the Bears take control of all momentum at 55-39.
This gap was enough for Baylor, as its lead hovered around this throughout the remainder of play. With three minutes to go, the green and gold sparked the Ferrell Center crowd once more as it forced an opponent’s shot clock violation ahead 78-60. The Bears never looked back on their way to their tenth win in 11 games.
Up next, the Bears are back on the road for a top-10 matchup with No. 5 Kansas inside Allen Fieldhouse in Lawrence, Kan. Baylor defeated the Jayhawks (20-5, 8-4 Big 12) earlier this season at home, and now face this challenge with both teams seeking a Big 12 title.
