By Greg DeVries
Sports Writer
Sophomore Perry Jones III recorded his second-straight double-double to lead the No. 6 Baylor Bears past the Texas Longhorns 76-71 on Saturday.
Jones III finished with 22 points and 14 rebounds.
“Trying to do it as many times as possible is my mindset,” Jones III said about producing his stats. “I’ve got to have a double-double to help my team win.”
Rebounding was the driving force behind Baylor’s victory. The Bears outrebounded the Longhorns 37-24 in the game. In addition to Jones III’s effort, senior Quincy Acy also recorded a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds.
Acy and Jones III combined to grab as many rebounds as the entire Texas team did.
The free-throw shooting was also excellent for the Bears. Baylor shot 27-34 from the line, which is just shy of 80 percent.
In the final eight minutes of the game, after Texas tied the score at 54, Baylor shot 16 of 18 from the free-throw line to pull away.
Texas’ J’Covan Brown led all players with 32 points.
“He’s a great player. We were talking all week [that] we’ve got to know where he is in the zone. But he’s coming off some ball screens, and they’re spacing the floor well. I thought we did a good job in the first half, but in the second half he got it going,” sophomore Brady Heslip said. Heslip finished with 11 points.
Freshman Quincy Miller once again proved himself a reliable scorer. Miller finished with 18 points, including 8-10 from the free-throw line.
“For the first few games of the season, I didn’t think it was that hard. Then when Perry [Jones III] came back it got hard. It’s just getting easier and easier. I’m getting better every game,” Miller said.
The main area to improve upon according to head coach Scott Drew was the turnovers. Baylor turned the ball over 18 times to Texas’ nine.
“I think the game-ending turnovers we can definitely improve in those areas in the future,” Drew said. “As far during the course of the game, the 20 points off turnovers to four, that was a big disappointment for us. We’ve been doing so much better in assists to turnovers and taking care of the ball. That’s what makes coaching so challenging. One game, you look like a million bucks, the next game you’re like, ‘What happened?’”
Baylor will head to College Station on Wednesday to play its final conference game against the Texas A&M Aggies. The Aggies were picked by many to win the Big 12, but injuries and bad losses have since changed these opinions.
“Every game in the Big 12 is an important game,” Heslip said about the schedule.
Texas A&M is currently in eighth place in the Big 12 with a 3-5 conference record. In Baylor’s previous meeting with the Aggies on Jan. 2, the Bears won, 61-52.
