As far as scripts go, Baylor coach Scott Drew was ready to tear this draft up and do a rewrite eight minutes into Saturday's top-10 matchup at the Ferrell Center.
Not only did the ninth-ranked Bears fall behind 18-4 in the first 8 ½ minutes, they had to mount a comeback against No. 9 Texas without freshman sensation Keyonte George, who left with an ankle injury.
No problem, Baylor (21-8, 10-6) used a double-double from Flo Thamba on his birthday and got a huge lift from Dale Bonner off the bench to knock off the Longhorns, 81-72, Saturday afternoon to snap a two-game losing streak and keep its faint Big 12 title hoops alive.
"Our defense was good enough early on that we weren't down 20 and we figured things out offensively," Drew said. "Once we made a couple of buckets and really clamped down, it's the best defensive stretch we've had for a minute. We had good stretches at Kansas and K-State, but we didn't play 40 minutes. Today, we went 40 minutes, and the crowd gets a big assist for that."
Bonner, who had played double-digit minutes just once in the previous 12 games, scored 13 points in 20 minutes off the bench and added four assists, two steals and another handful of deflections in arguably one of his best games in a Baylor uniform.
"All parents out there, only five can play, so your job on the bench is to be the best teammate that you can and keep working until you get that opportunity," Drew said of Bonner, who made four starts earlier in the year but came in averaging just 3.7 points. "(Dale) was an unbelievable teammate and supported his team, kept working on his game and stayed ready. Today, I couldn't be any more happy and pleased for him."
After Sir'Jabari Rice hit a pair of free throws to give the Longhorns an 18-4 lead at the 11:34 mark in the first half, redshirt freshman guard Langston Love drained a 3-pointer just 16 seconds later to at least end the Bears' long scoring drought.
Texas (22-7, 11-5) answered a 7-0 run by the Bears to push the lead back to double digits, 23-11, on an inside bucket by Dylan Disu, who scored a game- and season-high 24 points.
Replacing LJ Cryer after a turnover, Bonner helped the Bears go on an 18-0 run and go up 29-23 on a dunk by Jalen Bridges off an offensive board. Bridges scored nine of his team-high 17 points and added four blocks and two steals.
"(Keyonte) is young, he has loads of energy. So, when he went out, we just tried to bond together pick up that energy that he would be out there providing," Bridges said, "and really just locking in on defense, get stops. And it just changed the game around for us."
After struggling in the second halves of losses at Kansas and K-State, the Bears wanted to get off to a better start this time, and took the lead for good on a Cryer 3-pointer 2 ½ minutes into the second half.
"The last few (games), we came out very flat," Bridges said. "We. Ade it a point of emphasis to not let that happen three times in a row. We just come out, we had a little bit of an extra-long warmup, got us going and we were ready to go." Bonner, who scored all 13 of his points in the second half, assisted on a 3-pointer by Jonathan Tchamwa Tchatchoua and then buried one of his own to give Baylor its first double-digit lead, 50-40.
"Whether I'm in the game or not, I'm always going to have a good attitude and just be ready whenever my name is called," said Bonner, who finished one point shy of his season high. "Just come in and have energy, have a presence. That's my job whenever I come into the game, I just want to continue to try to do that. Control what I can control."
Baylor took its biggest lead of the game, 63-45, on a three-point play by Love when he scored on a layup off a Bonner assist and made the follow free throw.
The Longhorns did chip away and got back within seven when Marcus Carr hit a 3-pointer with 32 seconds left. But Bonner, Cryer and Adam Flagler sealed it with five free throws in the last 27 seconds.
Thamba celebrated his birthday with his second-career double-double, scoring 12 points and grabbing a career-high 12 rebounds. He was an efficient 3-of-4 from the floor and 6-for-8 from the line, helping the Bears dominate the boards, 37-25.
"I asked him if he could have his birthday on Monday and next Saturday and every other game," Drew said of Thamba. "Had a lot of energy. I told you yesterday, he had a tremendous practice. He dunked on somebody, and I haven't seen that since maybe his freshman year. But I think he really had great juice, great passion. He really worked hard out there."
Flagler and Love scored 14 and 11 points, respectively, while Cryer had nine points, four assists and a steal.
Sir'Jabari Rice had 12 to lead the Longhorns before fouling out late. Timmy Allen added 12 points and nine rebounds, while Tyrese Hunter and Carr had 13 and 11, respectively.
The Bears have won 13 of their last 15 games against Texas and improved to 5-5 versus ranked teams this season.
Baylor goes back on the road to face Oklahoma State (16-13, 7-9) at 8 p.m. Monday at Gallagher-Iba Arena in Stillwater, Okla. The Cowboys led most of the way but fell to 14th-ranked Kansas State, 73-68, on Saturday.
