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In the first half, Baylor built an 18-point lead at 40-22 on the strength of Johnathan Motley's paint presence, a very active zone defense, and hot shooting. The next time the lead would get closer than that came with 4:24 left on the clock in the second half when Tevin Mack hit a 3 to make it 70-53. From there, Baylor simply salted out an impressive road win over one of the hottest teams in the Big 12 to get to 9-5 in conference play and potentially move back into the #3 spot. According to ESPN, 9-5 is tied for our best start in program history through 14 Big 12 games.
The star of the game from Baylor's side is undoubtedly Motley, who, in addition to scoring 24 points on 12-13 shooting, had a handful of rebounds and several key blocks with Rico Gathers still limited by illness. When he wasn't lighting up Texas, Taurean Prince was, particularly during a key stretch in which he had back-to-back and-1s to extend Baylor's big lead.
As usual, I'm going to leave most of the true #analysis up to Pocket Change since that's his thing (and clearly not mine), but I will say how nice it is to see Baylor respond to losing 3/4 games with back-to-back wins over ranked opponents. I didn't have a lot of confidence going into this game for a lot of reasons, but Baylor started out fast, played extremely well, and kept it going for a big win. Great job, guys!
| starters | MIN | FG | REB | AST | PTS | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| T. PrinceF | -- | 5-10 | 3 | 1 | 17 | ||||||||
| J. MotleyF | -- | 12-13 | 4 | 0 | 24 | ||||||||
| I. WainrightG | -- | 1-2 | 5 | 5 | 4 | ||||||||
| A. FreemanG | -- | 3-6 | 4 | 2 | 8 | ||||||||
| L. MedfordG | -- | 6-10 | 2 | 3 | 13 | ||||||||
| bench | MIN | FG | REB | AST | PTS | ||||||||
| R. GathersF | -- | 3-5 | 4 | 0 | 6 | ||||||||
| T. MastonF | -- | 0-1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||
| J. LindseyG | -- | 1-3 | 3 | 1 | 4 | ||||||||
| K. McClureG | -- | 1-1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | ||||||||
| J. AcuilF | Did not play | ||||||||||||
| J. HeardF | Did not play | ||||||||||||
| A. MillsG | Did not play | ||||||||||||
| M. LecomteG | Did not play | ||||||||||||
| W. MitchellG | Did not play | ||||||||||||
| TEAM | 32-51 | 27 | 12 | 78 | |||||||||
| 62.7% | |||||||||||||
| starters | MIN | FG | REB | AST | PTS | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| C. LammertF | -- | 4-6 | 0 | 3 | 9 | ||||||||
| P. IbehC | -- | 1-2 | 4 | 0 | 4 | ||||||||
| J. FelixG | -- | 1-7 | 1 | 3 | 6 | ||||||||
| I. TaylorG | -- | 4-7 | 1 | 3 | 10 | ||||||||
| K. YancyG | -- | 0-4 | 5 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||
| bench | MIN | FG | REB | AST | PTS | ||||||||
| S. CleareF | -- | 6-9 | 5 | 1 | 14 | ||||||||
| D. HollandG | -- | 0-1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||
| T. MackG | -- | 2-4 | 0 | 0 | 5 | ||||||||
| E. Davis Jr.G | -- | 3-10 | 3 | 0 | 11 | ||||||||
| K. Roach Jr.G | -- | 1-3 | 1 | 2 | 5 | ||||||||
| R. McClurgF | Did not play | ||||||||||||
| D. NewsomeF | Did not play | ||||||||||||
| C. RidleyC | Did not play | ||||||||||||
| J. SchwartzG | Did not play | ||||||||||||
| TEAM | 22-53 | 20 | 12 | 64 | |||||||||
| 41.5% | |||||||||||||
Tweets:
Baylor never trailed at any point as the Bears take down Texas in Austin. pic.twitter.com/L7yOJSdknr
— ESPN College BBall (@ESPNCBB) February 20, 2016
Three defenders aren't enough to stop Johnathan Motley.
— ESPN (@espn) February 20, 2016
No. 25 Baylor is ROLLING over No. 24 Texas on ESPN: https://t.co/QCi4h8UMZL
Baylor goes to Austin and punches Texas directly in the mouth. Bears are the six seed that can wind up in the Sweet 16. Happened in 2014.
— Jon Rothstein (@JonRothstein) February 20, 2016
Should probably be called the "Scott Drew Special" at this point.
Baylor was 13-of-17 for 26 points in the paint in first half against Texas.
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) February 20, 2016
Longhorns scored 22 points overall. pic.twitter.com/IW5Nje8vmt
#Baylor comes out swinging and destroys a Texas team playing better than anyone in the Big 12. A huge test Tuesday as Kansas comes to Waco.
— Tim O'Donnell (@TimODonnell25) February 20, 2016
Get there if you can!