Cowboys lack horsepower in Baylor’s 71-61 Senior Night win over Oklahoma State

By Jackson Posey | Sports Writer

With no four-year Baylor seniors on the roster, it wasn’t a traditional Senior Night in Waco.

But fifth-year Duke transfer Jeremy Roach took full advantage of the moment, scoring a season-high 21 points — including 15 in the second half — to lead the Bears to a 71-61 victory over Oklahoma State on Saturday night at Foster Pavilion. The win snapped a three-game losing streak.

“You lose three in a row, you need a win,” head coach Scott Drew said. “Good thing is, we got one. Now we’ll see what we can do with the last two.”

Baylor was spared an early 7-0 deficit by Oklahoma State guard Arturo Dean, who cracked the ice with an early triple but flubbed a breakaway dunk in transition, killing the momentum. Freshman guard Robert O. Wright III scored Baylor’s first basket on a floater, but it took nearly six minutes of game time for the green and gold to score again.

“We know we work on those shots,” Wright said. “We were getting good looks, but we weren’t making them. So we just knew to keep trusting ourselves and just get down and get the other team in foul trouble and make free throws and stuff like that.”

Roach made it happen on Senior Night. He pulled up to hit a top-of-the-key 3-pointer, ending the non-Wright cold streak at six missed shots. Roach had struggled with consistency since sustaining a concussion in January but had turned a corner in the past three games, averaging 13.3 points per game over that stretch.

Baylor opened the game looking lost offensively, scoring just seven points in the first 10 minutes. According to KenPom, Baylor entered the game with the No. 6 scoring offense in the Big 12 despite having played the toughest defensive schedule in the nation. The Bears looked pedestrian against an Oklahoma State team that ranks 306th nationally in scoring defense.

Through 12 minutes, Wright had scored or assisted on seven of Baylor’s 10 points. The spark plug freshman seemed to be the only thing working in Waco. By halftime, he was responsible for 15 of the team’s 26 points, along with four rebounds and zero turnovers. His teammates shot 4-for-23 with seven turnovers.

“Rob did a great job in that beginning of the game when we were struggling to get anything,” Drew said. “He kind of kept us in it with his 16 points.”

A combination of stellar defense and sloppy ball control sent Oklahoma State spiraling in much of the same way Baylor did early. A 20-10 lead soon slipped to 24-17, and before long, Norchad Omier yammed one home from the dunker’s spot, giving the home team its first lead of the game during what became a 9-0 run to end the half. Back from the dead, Baylor led 26-24.

“We knew we were getting good looks,” Roach said. “We just knew the shots were going to fall. Those are stuff that we work on. Just gotta keep the confidence up throughout the whole game.”

The torrent continued in the second half, mostly behind Roach, who made a season-high eight shots. Baylor also managed to out-rebound the Cowboys on the offensive glass, 16-7 — just the second time they’ve done so since losing Josh Ojianwuna to a season-ending knee injury. Drew said crashing the offensive boards has been a concerted strategy in his absence.

“Most definitely,” Drew said of the increased emphasis on rebounding. “Especially after our first two, three games without him, because you don’t get those [wins].”

Baylor’s lead hovered around 10 points throughout the second half as Oklahoma State failed to convert a 3-pointer after the 9:35 mark of the first half. The Bears held the line on shot volume alone — a vintage rebounding performance from Omier (13 rebounds) and 10 more high-flying boards from freshman VJ Edgecombe allowed Baylor to take 10 more shot attempts than the Cowboys.

A late comeback attempt never fully materialized. Two Bryce Thompson free throws brought the Pokes within four, but Dean missed a layup that would’ve made it a one-score game. He fouled out moments later, sending Omier to the line to seal it with a pair of free throws.

The 71-61 victory put the Bears back in the win column in regulation for the first time since Ojianwuna went down. They’ll look to stay there in their final two games of the season: Tuesday at TCU and Saturday against Houston.