By Jackson Posey | Sports Editor
Baylor never found its rhythm Saturday afternoon, missing 24 3-pointers and allowing 21 points off turnovers in a College Basketball Crown semifinal bout with Oklahoma. The Sooners secured the bag in Las Vegas, 82-69.
Baylor (17-17, 6-12 Big 12) entered the game having won 11 of the past 12 against Oklahoma (20-15, 7-11 SEC). Saturday marked the teams’ first matchup since the Sooners left the Big 12 for the SEC in 2024.
Baylor missed three of its first four free throws early as the Sooners ran away with the offensive glass and turnover margin. The Sooners ripped off a 9-0 scoring run in less than two minutes to take a 14-6 lead.
“I would say, 10:30 [a.m. local] tip time, it took a half-hour for everyone to wake up,” head coach Scott Drew said in a timeout interview.
The slow push back to contention was led by sophomore guard Isaac Williams IV, an Oklahoma City native who countered the blitz with an off-kilter transition layup and a lob to senior center Caden Powell, a Waco native who flushed it home to cut the lead to four.
The Bears drew within a single point multiple times but couldn’t overcome the turnover differential. Oklahoma won the first-half takeaway battle 8-2 and outscored Baylor 13-0 off turnovers.
Sooner guard Xzayvier Brown took off at the end of the half, scoring the team’s final nine points of the first half to finish the frame with 16 points and four assists. The St. Joseph’s transfer finished with 21 points and a half-dozen rebounds and assists.
Redshirt sophomore Cameron Carr, who missed his first six 3-point attempts, drained a pull-up jumper from Reno to tie the game at 48-all, putting the exclamation point on a 13-3 Baylor run to open the second half.
After shifting into a zone look, Baylor freshman Tounde Yessoufou swatted a Derrion Reid layup from behind, corralled the ricochet, and went coast-to-coast to give the Bears a 52-51 lead, their first advantage since 6-5.
They never led again.
Baylor made one field goal in the final 6:45, a garbage-time putback by Carr with 30 seconds remaining. The green and gold missed 11 of their final 12 shots and lost the overall assist battle 19-8. In a season full of injuries, depth again came back to bite the Bears, who ran out of gas late in the fourth quarter.
The loss ends the Bears’ season with a .500 winning percentage, marking the program’s first season without a winning record since 2006-07 (15-16), the last year before Drew took Baylor to its first NCAA Tournament appearance since 1987-88.
All eyes will now turn to Carr and Yessoufou, both of whom are potential first-round NBA Draft picks. Their decisions will set the tone for Baylor’s offseason strategy. The rest of the roster will begin to take shape after the transfer portal opens Tuesday.
