By Jackson Posey | Sports Editor
Baylor almost overcame Hilton Magic on Saturday in Ames, Iowa, playing No. 7 Iowa State to the wire before dropping its eighth conference game, 72-69.
The Bears (13-10, 3-8 Big 12) nearly pulled off one of the biggest upsets of the Big 12 season so far, forcing 14 turnovers and ending the game on an 11-0 run, but fell just short of history.
Big performances from redshirt sophomore guard Cameron Carr (24 points, 5-for-10 from three), freshman wing Tounde Yessoufou (17 points, 5 steals) and fifth-year guard Obi Agbim (15 points) weren’t enough to overcome a lack of depth. Starting guard Isaac Williams IV fouled out in the second half, and the two available reserves, Michael Rataj and James Nnaji, combined to score just two points in 29 minutes.
The loss drops the Bears to 3-8 in conference play ahead of a difficult stretch which includes No. 16 BYU (17-5, 5-4 Big 12) and No. 24 Louisville (16-6, 6-4 ACC).
Baylor started slow in front of a white-out crowd in Hilton Coliseum. The Bears failed to attempt a shot in the first two minutes of the game.
Sloppiness from both teams kept it close, though a combined nine turnovers in the first seven minutes prevented the Cyclones (21-2, 8-2 Big 12) from capitalizing on Baylor’s poor shooting start.
Then Cameron Carr turned on the jets.
The redshirt sophomore guard hit three straight 3-pointers to put Baylor up 24-22. Carr finished the first half with a game-high 14 points on 5-for-7 shooting, going tit-for-tat with Iowa State star Milan Momcilovic, who scored 12 in the first half.
The Bears entered the final media timeout with a 29-27 lead but couldn’t hang on before the break. Four Cyclones scored in the final four minutes, while Baylor only mustered one field goal in that span. Iowa State entered halftime with a 37-33 lead after a string of avoidable mistakes throughout the first half.
From that point on, the yo-yo neared — but never quite reached — a point of comfort for Baylor. The Bears took a 42-41 lead, then fell behind 48-44; they crawled within one point, then promptly gave up a 13-2 run. The team’s lack of continuity and depth, sorely exacerbated by long-term injuries to four would-be rotation players, kept sustainable advantages just beyond reach.
Like Lightning McQueen, Iowa State’s all-gas, no-brakes push spun out of control in the final minutes of the game, allowing Baylor to roar back into contention. The Bears scored 11 straight in the final 1:45, all courtesy of the Carr-Agbim-Yessoufou trio. (Yessoufou also picked up two steals in a four-second span during the run.)
However, poor clock management left no time for the coup de grâce and Iowa State escaped with a narrow victory. The Bears will now look to regroup before hosting BYU Tuesday at Foster Pavilion. Tipoff is set for 6 p.m. on ESPN.
