South Florida Sun-Sentinel Palm Beach (Sunday)
Bears hang on to top Red Raiders
QB Sharpen leads No. 8 Baylor to victory in his 1st career start
WACO, Texas — Baylor coach Dave Aranda was well aware of the Big 12 ramifications for his ninth-ranked Bears in the outcome of a game later in the evening. In many ways, that didn’t really matter to him.
Blake Shapen threw for 254 yards and two touchdowns in his first start, Abram Smith ran for 117 yards with a score and the Bears held to beat Texas Tech 27-24 on Saturday for their 10th win, which kept alive their hopes of making the Big 12 championship game for the second time in three seasons.
Then came the wait for the Bedlam game between No. 7 Oklahoma State and No. 10 Oklahoma.
“Stuff you can’t control, you can’t control,” said Aranda, lauding his team for how it has grown since going 2-7 in his debut last year.
“I think of those things, and so I think in that way we’re a winner,” Aranda said. “All of this stuff is going to be extra.”
Oklahoma State, which beat Baylor 24-14 in October, was already in its first Big 12 title game. A win by the Cowboys over six-time defending Big 12 champion Oklahoma would put Baylor (10-2, 7-2 Big 12) in next Saturday’s game with them.
“We were fully focused on Texas Tech, and we’re ready for whatever comes next,” linebacker Terrel Bernard said. “We’re excited that we won this game ... and we’ll see what happens.”
Shapen hit Trestan Ebner in stride near the 25 for a 61-yard catch-and-run score on the game’s opening drive that put Baylor ahead to stay. Shapen had a decisive 9-yard TD pass to tight end Ben Sims with 7 minutes left to respond to a Tech score.
The Red Raiders (6-6, 3-6) still had one more chance after stopping Baylor on fourth down on its 12 with 1:18 and no timeouts left. They got in position for a 53-yard field goal attempt by Jonathan Garibay, who had plenty of leg but pushed the kick wide left on the final play. Garibay, who was 13 of 13 on field goals, had a game-ending 62-yarder to beat Iowa State two weeks earlier.
“Incredibly proud of our team, the fight that they showed,” Sonny Cumbie said of Saturday and all four of his games as Tech’s interim coach. “It’s so easy when things go against you to take your ball and go home, to take your ball and stop playing and to stop fighting. And if anything, these kids did just the opposite.”