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In a conference this tough, you have to defend your home court. Baylor did that tonight as it rained down threes and got to the line while forcing Texas into more jump shots than they would have liked.
Baylor started the game on a 12-0 run and made their first eight shots from the floor. As expected, they then proceeded to go 1-12 from the field and saw their lead shrink down to 4 with three minutes left in the first half. Baylor then closed the half on an 11-3 run to get the lead back out to 12, largely thanks to aggressive driving and free throw shooting.
In the second half, Baylor opened things up on offense. Kenny Chery dropped 5 threes in the 2nd half on the Horns. Oh, and he dropped some Horns.
GIF: Chery with the handles & all net again. #SicUT pic.twitter.com/f0YYo7ixRL
— Baylor Basketball (@BaylorMBB) February 1, 2015
Chery had this to say on the play after the game:
"He's a pretty big dude, couldn't miss him falling in front of me" -Chery on whether he saw Ridley get shaken
— Shehan Jeyarajah (@ShehanJeyarajah) February 1, 2015
Royce O'Neale had a great bounce back game after no-showing in Stillwater. He finished the game _7-14 for 20 points, 8 rebounds, and 5 assists. He was aggressive from the start and contributed from all over the floor. He punished Texas' small shooting guards inside, made his open threes, and got to the line, where he was 4-6.
Lester Medford (6 points, 7 assists) was masterful all game at driving into the paint, drawing in the UT defense, and kicking out to the open shooters. Taurean Prince benefitted twice from Medford's defense-bending drives.
Rico Gathers finished with 8 points and 15 rebounds, his 17th game with double-digit rebounds.
The Baylor defense was stout. They did a good job most game of containing Isaiah Taylor and preventing him from driving into the paint, where he likes to dump off passes to the big guys. Myles Turner was completely shut down, as he could not handle the strength of Gathers and Johnathan Motley. Turner finished the game with 2 points on 5 FGAs.
Here are the stats, per ESPN:
| Texas Longhorns | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| STARTERS | FGM-A | 3PM-A | FTM-A | OREB | DREB | REB | AST | STL | BLK | TO | PF | PTS | ||
| Cameron Ridley, C | 6-12 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 7 | 4 | 11 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 12 | ||
| Connor Lammert, F | 0-5 | 0-2 | 0-0 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 0 | ||
| Jonathan Holmes, F | 8-16 | 1-7 | 0-0 | 3 | 3 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 17 | ||
| Demarcus Holland, G | 2-5 | 1-3 | 0-0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 5 | ||
| Isaiah Taylor, G | 7-18 | 1-4 | 1-1 | 1 | 5 | 6 | 10 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 16 | ||
| BENCH | FGM-A | 3PM-A | FTM-A | OREB | DREB | REB | AST | STL | BLK | TO | PF | PTS | ||
| Prince Ibeh, C | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | ||
| Myles Turner, F | 1-5 | 0-2 | 0-2 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 2 | ||
| Kendal Yancy, G | 1-3 | 0-2 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | ||
| Javan Felix, G | 2-6 | 2-6 | 0-0 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 6 | ||
| TOTALS | FGM-A | 3PM-A | FTM-A | OREB | DREB | REB | AST | STL | BLK | TO | PF | PTS | ||
| 27-70 | 5-26 | 1-3 | 18 | 21 | 39 | 21 | 5 | 7 | 10 | 18 | 60 | |||
| 38.6% | 19.2% | 33.3% | ||||||||||||
| Baylor Bears | ||||||||||||||
| STARTERS | FGM-A | 3PM-A | FTM-A | OREB | DREB | REB | AST | STL | BLK | TO | PF | PTS | ||
| Royce O'Neale, F | 7-14 | 2-5 | 4-6 | 5 | 3 | 8 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 20 | ||
| Rico Gathers, F | 3-12 | 0-0 | 2-5 | 6 | 9 | 15 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 8 | ||
| Johnathan Motley, F | 4-7 | 0-0 | 5-6 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 13 | ||
| Kenny Chery, G | 9-12 | 5-7 | 0-1 | 0 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 23 | ||
| Lester Medford, G | 2-6 | 2-4 | 0-2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 6 | ||
| BENCH | FGM-A | 3PM-A | FTM-A | OREB | DREB | REB | AST | STL | BLK | TO | PF | PTS | ||
| Taurean Prince, F | 5-10 | 3-6 | 0-0 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 13 | ||
| Deng Deng, F | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Al Freeman, G | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | ||
| TOTALS | FGM-A | 3PM-A | FTM-A | OREB | DREB | REB | AST | STL | BLK | TO | PF | PTS | ||
| 30-62 | 12-22 | 11-20 | 17 | 26 | 43 | 24 | 6 | 1 | 9 | 10 | 83 | |||
| 48.4% | 54.5% | 55.0% | ||||||||||||
This was an outstanding win for the Bears. They'll have a chance to get above .500 in Big 12 play for the first time this season on Wednesday when they face TCU in Waco.
Sic'em Bears!