Baylor Steals One in Stillwater 69-65

Rico Gathers opened the second half by scoring Baylor's first six points, having scored only two in the first. His battle inside with Oklahoma State's Chris Olivier (17 points on 8 FGAs) kept the game close in the second half as neither was able to stop the other. Gathers would finish with 16 points and 9 rebounds.

Jawun Evans continued his success against the Bears in his freshman season, although Baylor did well limiting his scoring. Evans finished with 10 assists but just 9 points on 9 shots. His play was disrupted greatly by the tighter whistle in the second half, which really dragged this game out. Both teams dealt with foul trouble , whether committing offensive or defensive fouls. Johnathan Motley (8 points and 7 rebounds) fouled out with 2:06 remaining, while the Cowboys lost Mitchell Solomon (7 points and 3 rebounds), who had done well scoring against Baylor's zone from the baseline in the first half, with just over three minutes left.

Taurean Prince led the Bears in scoring with 17 points, often bailing out his team late in the shot clock by hitting tough shots over his defender. Prince scored twice by posting up his man under the basket as the ball was reversed up top to Terry Maston (3 points on 1 FGA, 3 rebounds, and 2 assists), who was able to thread the ball just where Prince needed it. Maston also hit a back-cutting Al Freeman with a nice pass from the high post. The sophomore big continues to flash great passing vision.

After playing very little in the first half, Ish Wainwright played a long stretch for Scott Drew in the second and had a key role in Baylor's defensive intensity. Anytime the ball moved to his side, Wainwright had his hands up and feet moving, intercepting passes to cutters, even recovering to the corner to block a three point shot by Leyton Hammonds. For his part, Hammonds finished with 12 points and 6 rebounds. He was particularly good in the first half at finding the creases in Baylor's zone. When the Bears played with greater intensity in the second half, Hammonds' teammates had much more trouble finding him.

In limited time, freshman King McClure filled in well as Freeman rested. McClure played only 9 minutes but managed to snag 2 steals with his great activity at the top of the zone. As a team, Baylor totaled 13 steals. This was Baylor's second conference game tallying double digit steals (14 against Kansas State).

Baylor's offense was very reliant on the defense this game. After being detonated by Oklahoma, it was good for the Bears to win a game on the strength of its defense.

On Saturday the Big XII and SEC face off. Baylor will be hosting Georgia at 5pm. Be sure to get out to the Ferrell and support the Bears!

via espn.com