Nothing ever seems to come easy in a Big 12 Conference that at one point had all 10 teams projected to make the NCAA Tournament field. Not even a 17-point lead with less than three minutes remaining. That was the position seventh-ranked Baylor found itself in Monday night at Gallagher-Iba Arena.
Surviving a late 15-2 run by the Oklahoma State Cowboys that included three-straight 3-pointers, the shorthanded Bears held on for a 74-68 win to nail down a top-4 seed for next week's Big 12 Tournament and keep alive their faint hopes of a third-consecutive conference title.
"Well, that's the Big 12, a game can't be decided until it gets down to five points with under a minute to go," said Baylor coach Scott Drew, whose team improved to 22-8 overall and all alone in third place at 11-6. "Credit Oklahoma State for tremendous fight down the stretch. Credit them with 22 offensive rebounds. They competed, they played hard."
Already missing freshman guard Keyonte George with a sprained ankle, the Bears lost redshirt freshman Langston Love early in the first half with a scratched cornea on his left eye.
For the second game in a row, senior guard Dale Bonner came to the rescue. After coming off the bench to score 13 points in Saturday's win over Texas, Bonner topped that with a Baylor career-high 15 points to go with four assists and two steals in 33 minutes.
"Dale, another tremendous game," Drew said of Bonner, who scored in double-digit figures in back-to-back games for the first time in his two seasons at Baylor. "Gave us a huge lift. Hopefully, we can get Langston's eye right. He could only see with one eye."
LJ Cryer and Adam Flagler both hit three 3-pointers and scored 15 and 13 points, respectively, while Jalen Bridges had back-to-back 3-pointers in a second half run and scored 14 before fouling out late.
"Credit our guys for a lot of fight," Drew said. "We didn't have Keyonte, Langston went out with an eye injury, and then we had several guys foul out. Next man up really helped us."
After Baylor jumped out to a 14-4 lead in the first six minutes, Oklahoma State (16-14, 7-10) got back within three, 19-16, when Caleb Asberry knocked down a pair of free throws after Drew was whistled for a technical foul.
Shooting a sizzling 55.6% in the first half and 8-of-16 from outside the arc, the Bears took their first double-digit lead, 32-20, on a 3-pointer by Adam Flagler and went into halftime up 41-30.
And while the shooting cooled off considerably in the second half – 28.6% overall and 3-of-15 from distance – Baylor was still able to stretch the lead out to 65-46 with a run that included back-to-back 3-pointers by Bridges and a pair of free throws by Flo Thamba.
Still trailing by 17 with under three minutes to go, OSU scored nine unanswered points and whittled the deficit to single digits, 67-59, on a 3-pointer by John-Michael Wright. With back-to-back treys by Bryce Thompson and Wright, the Cowboys pulled back within 69-65, with 35 seconds left.
"I think the gas was completely out," Drew said. "We were cruising to the finish line. Take away the last four minutes, and we really had a great second half. They trapped, and we had some wide-open 3's and probably should have gotten to the paint."
But with the game on the line, Bonner and Flagler made 5-of-6 free throws in the last 25 seconds to seal the win. The Cowboys, who came into the night as the "last team in" for ESPN analyst Joe Lunardi's latest bracketology, dropped their fifth-straight and have lost the last eight to the Bears in Stillwater.
Baylor finished off the season series sweep of OSU, which got 12 points apiece from Caleb Asberry and Quion Williams, and picked up its fifth conference road win.
The Bears will close out the regular season with a Senior Day matchup against Iowa State (17-12, 8-9) at 11 a.m. Saturday. The Cyclones lost their second-straight at home and fourth overall, falling to West Virginia, 72-69, Monday night in Ames.
