By Foster Nicholas | Sports Editor
While outdoor conditions fluctuate around chilly temperatures, Baylor Athletics stayed warm during winter break with a busy schedule. From bowl games to the first meet of the season, now that school is back in session, it’s time to catch up on everything you may have missed since finals.
Here’s a quick rundown to get you caught up from the holiday break:
Football falls in Kinder’s Texas Bowl, 44-31
Redshirt junior quarterback Sawyer Robertson threw for a career-high 445 yards on 30-of-51 passes, but a handful of self-inflicted wounds ate away at Baylor football’s chances to knock off LSU as they fell to the Tigers in the Kinder’s Texas Bowl 44-31 on New Year’s Eve at NRG Stadium in Houston.
The Bears finished the season 8-5 after converting just one of six fourth-down attempts against head coach Dave Aranda’s former team. In addition to late drive woes, Baylor allowed a kick return touchdown, pick-6 and was flagged for multiple penalties on a kick return touchdown of its own that was quickly brought back.
“Way too many mistakes, and it’s just so unfortunate,” Aranda said after the game. “There hasn’t been a game like this in a while. We’ve played complementary football and this was not that. I think you take away just one of the mistakes that we had, and then we’re going to go win the game.”
Baylor football will open up spring camp in late February as it looks to build on a bounce-back 2024 season and introduce a transfer class of 11 players.
Men’s basketball opens Big 12 play 3-3
After a grueling non-conference schedule, head coach Scott Drew’s Bears went through the ebbs and flows of Big 12 basketball in early January. Baylor knocked off Utah and Cincinnati by double digits at home and escaped with an overtime win against Arizona State. However, consistency was hard to come by as the green and gold lost to No. 3 Iowa State and Arizona by a combined 30 points and saw a last-second 3-pointer sink their hopes against TCU.
In each of Baylor’s wins, the Bears held their opponent to less than 70 points while each loss resulted in 70 or more points being dropped on them. Since the start of conference play, Drew has seen the emergence of junior center Josh Ojianwuna. Against Big 12 foes, Ojianwuna has two double-doubles while averaging 8.5 points, 8.2 rebounds, 1.2 steals and one block per game.
The Bears (11-6, 3-3 Big 12) will be back in action against Kansas State (7-10, 1-5 Big 12) at 8 p.m. Wednesday at Foster Pavilion.
Women’s basketball wins five straight in January
Following an 84-61 blowout loss to Oklahoma State on New Year’s Day, the largest loss margin under head coach Nicki Collen, No. 25 Baylor rattled off five-straight wins against conference squads.
The streak opened with four wins over former Pac-12 schools in Colorado, Arizona, Arizona State and No. 23 Utah. The green and gold then returned home and knocked off Houston 70-51 Friday evening. During the hot stretch, the Bears averaged 75 points on 46.6% shooting while holding opponents to 61.8 points on 37.7% from the floor.
Senior center Aaronette Vonleh found a groove as she was the only Bear to finish in double figures during each of the five contests while shooting 66.7% from the floor. The green and gold wrapped up winter break on Monday with a 72-57 loss against No. 1 UCLA in Newark, N.J.
Baylor (16-4, 6-1 Big 12) hits the court again against No. 9 TCU (19-1, 7-0 Big 12) at 2 p.m. Sunday at Schollmaier Arena in Fort Worth.
Track and field opens spring slate with three program records
Baylor opened the spring season setting three program records across the first two meets of the year at the McFerrin-12 Degree Invitational on Jan. 10 in College Station and the Corky Classic on Friday and Saturday in Lubbock.
Graduate student Demar Francis earned Big 12 Athlete of the Week honors after securing gold in the men’s 200m with a time of 20.93 in the Bears opening meet of the season. Graduate student Alexis Brown soared to new heights in her season-opening long jump, defeating her competition with an impressive mark of 21-10.25. The jumps broke the indoor long jump program, meet and facility record.
At the Corky Classic, senior Tiriah Kelly broke the women’s 200m program record with a time of 22.73. Kelly’s mark clocks in as the No. 1 time in the 2025 World Rankings. Freshman JL Van Rensburg shattered the men’s shot put program record in his collegiate debut with a throw of 62-3, good for third in the event.
The green and gold will compete in the DeLoss Dodds Invite at Cliff Rovelto Indoor Track on Jan. 31 and Feb. 1 in Manhattan, Kan.
