By Foster Nicholas | Sports Editor
Graduate forward Norchad Omier logged his 19th double-double of the year, and seventh in a row, with 13 points and 16 rebounds as Baylor men’s basketball came up short against No. 3 Houston 65-61 Saturday night at the Foster Pavilion.
Head coach Scott Drew and the Bears (18-13, 10-10 Big 12) led for 17 1/2 minutes before the Cougars (27-4, 19-1 Big 12) stumbled upon a 20-4 run in the second half to build its only double-digit lead of the night. The green and gold rallied back to bring the game within two but couldn’t overcome a 34% shooting night.
“Margin of error is thin with this team,” Drew said. “That’s just because of our depth and where we’re at. We’re playing in a great league and playing great teams. But at the end of the day, we always talk about control what you can control. And we took care of the ball and we rebounded.”
Former Bear LJ Cryer lit up his former team in the first half. The graduate guard made his first five 3-pointers and had 15 of his 23 points by halftime. Cryer was hot out of the gate while a chorus of boos rained down on him, opening a 10-6 Houston lead five minutes in.
“I already expected it to be like that because [of] last year,” Cryer said. “I felt like last year was worse, honestly. This year wasn’t so bad to me, but I mean, of course, when I hear the things, I feel like little stuff like that can get me even more locked in. So, thank you, I guess.”
Freshman guard VJ Edgecombe countered Cryer’s scorching half, scoring nine points in the first half. Edgecombe gave the Bears the lead back with 9:05 in the half, knocking down a pull-up three, 16-15. Edgecombe finished with a team-high 23 points on 6-of-14 shooting with three steals.
“I’m not surprised,” Omier said of Edgecombe’s 23-point night. “I know what he’s got to give every night, so I’m not surprised. I mean, we’re in March and I’m happy he’s playing that way. I’m feeling good. We still haven’t played the best — I don’t think he played his best game today, and he had 23. So yeah, I’m feeling good.”
Junior Houston guard Milos Uzan gave the lead right back to the Cougars, though, with a corner 3-pointer of his own. Uzan, who had airballed his previous three, stared down and pointed at the Baylor bench, earning him a technical foul that knotted the game back up.
With the Foster Pavilion crowd back into the game, furiously booing Cryer, who already had four 3-pointers, the green and gold fumbled the ball around with a one-point lead. Cryer took the steal and ran in transition but was chased down by Edgecombe, who had his eyes glued to the ball.
Edgecombe caught up with Cryer and swatted his layup off the backboard, queuing an explosion of cheers from the Baylor faithful. Just two minutes later, Cryer shut down the eager crowd with his fifth 3-pointer of the half to tie the game 26-26 with 3:27 on the clock.
Redshirt junior guard Langston Love, one of two Bears left on the team who played with Cryer, responded with a 3-pointer to give Baylor the edge. Both teams were held scoreless for the final three minutes of the half and the green and gold took a 29-26 advantage into halftime.
“I feel like it just came down to just a couple things we have to clean up,” Love said. “Our team is progressing well, and I’m happy with the progress that our team has been making. Playing against a team like that, they’re a top-three team in the country. Just to be in that position with them, knowing that gives us a lot of confidence, knowing that we can play with anybody.”
The halftime break didn’t cool off Cryer, who drilled his sixth 3-pointer of the game on Houston’s first second-half possession. But just as Cryer heated up, his old buddy Love caught fire too. Love made two long balls in response to give Baylor a 39-32 lead with 17:23 on the clock — its largest lead of the game.
As quick as it came to fruition, it vanished.
“Just playing with LJ, I know he’s a great player, great shooter,” Love said. “He got a couple easy looks at the start of the game. So, for a shooter, that’s money. Once you hit those, a lot more shots will start falling.”
The Cougars went on a 6-0 run before Edgecombe threw down a flashy poster dunk and encouraged his rowdy teammates on the bench. Over the next three minutes, Houston opened up another 8-0 run and led 46-41 — forcing Drew to use a timeout with 10:14 on the clock.
Being blitzed by a handsy Houston defense, Edgecombe tried to break free on offense and hit junior guard Emanuel Sharp in the face. The offensive foul was reviewed and upgraded to a flagrant-1, and the Cougars expanded their run to 20-4, which created their largest lead to that point: 54-45.
But the Bears had one last push left in them. Houston made just one more field goal in the final eight minutes and Edgecombe took control of the offense. He scored nine of the last 16 points for the Bears and cut the deficit to four with a 3-pointer with 2:04 on the clock, 60-56.
“A lot of teams have maybe already played their best basketball this year, and it feels like we’ve been in an uphill battle,” Love said. “We haven’t even reached our best basketball. So this is just a great time to do it.”
Going into the foul plan, Uzan went 1-of-2 at the stripe and senior forward Jalen Celestine knocked down a triple to cut the lead to two. Earning one more stop, the Bears had one final shot to tie the game, but Edgecombe missed the game-tying fadeaway floater. After two more free throws, Houston iced the game 65-61.
“We beat Kansas at home, that’s a good win,” Drew said. “Beating St. John’s, [the] sixth-ranked team [in the nation], that’s a good win. So I think we’ve had some quality wins. But you’d like more and I would, too.”
The Bears will be back in action as the No. 7 seed in the Phillips 66 Big 12 Championship. They will pick up the action in the second round against the winner of No. 15 Colorado versus No. 10 Kansas State at 6 p.m. Wednesday at the T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, Mo.
