Bears able to pull away late, handle Horns
WACO — The pace Saturday night was at first frantic, a whirlwind of activity between two teams desperate to begin Big 12 play the right way.
Baylor guard Mark Vital kickstarted the chaos, jumping into a passing lane to intercept Jase Febres’ pass. He finished with a soaring one-handed dunk then sprinted down the other end and hammered Texas guard Matt Coleman’s layup off the backboard, prompting a fiery fist pump from the Bears’ 6-foot-5, 230-pound bull.
As Vital caroused near half court, Texas forward Jericho Sims sprung skyward and pinned guard MaCio Teague’s ensuing shot against the glass. This chaos endured for some time before both teams settled down — which is precisely when sixth-ranked Baylor began asserting itself.
Texas (10-3, 0-1 Big 12) couldn’t topple its in-state rival this time. It couldn’t even push the game to overtime, as it did while squandering a 19-point lead in an onepoint loss last season. The Longhorns mucked up this contest enough to stay within striking distance well into the second half before Baylor (11-1, 1-0) pulled away to win 59-44 at the Ferrell Center.
“At the end of the day we talk about having the fight, the will and responding,” UT junior guard Matt Coleman said. “But at the same time you gotta make plays. You gotta make plays on the road and have the fight, the will, the response and be all for one.”
As far as aesthetics go, this battle lacked much in the way of beauty and grace.
Texas shot 34.6 percent from the field, 18.8 percent from 3point range and 33.3 percent from the free-throw line. Baylor shot 31.3 percent, 29.4 percent and 87.5 percent, respectively.
Four times Baylor endured a stretch in which it missed at least five straight shots, culminating with a game-high eight in a row over a five-minute span from the end of the first half into the second. It didn’t matter.
The Longhorns couldn’t manufacture points for much of the game. Credit Baylor’s inspired, physical defense, but the Longhorns
missed their fair share of open looks — passed away plenty, too.
To wit: During one possession early in the first half, UT coach Shaka Smart bobbed up and down on the sideline, shouting for sophomore forward Kamaka Hepa to stop playing hot potato and hoist one of the many open 3-pointers available.
But Hepa rid himself of the ball so quickly you’d have thought it carried an infectious disease. UT came up empty that possession and Baylor scored on its next.
In 29 minutes, Hepa went scoreless and attempted only two shots. The teammate he replaced in the starting lineup, sophomore Gerald Liddell, didn’t fare any better by going scoreless in six minutes.
“I think some of our guys need to be more assertive and aggressive,” Smart said. “It’s obviously something that we really emphasize to them. But when they get in the game, they have to have it in them to step up and shoot the ball.”
Baylor owned a substantial edge in rebounding (48-35), offensive rebounding (19-9), second-chance points (21-5) and points off turnovers (16-5). Senior big Freddie Gillespie and Vital combined for six blocks and 19 rebounds, 12 on the offensive end.
All of that outweighed the sloppy shooting and inefficient offense. The Bears’ misses never mattered much because they grabbed 43 percent of the rebounds, and if they didn’t, it was likely Texas would give it right back on the other end via miss or turnover.
“I don’t know if we’ve ever had a team that we’ve done more rebounding drills with,” Smart said. “Maybe the whole practice should be rebounding. At the end of the day, we actually made them miss a lot on their first shot. And when you make a good offensive team miss, you can’t let them get it back 19 times — it was a huge difference tonight.”
There were times Texas looked ready and willing to do what was necessary to beat one of the nation’s toughest teams.
Junior forward Jericho Sims gave the Longhorns a fleeting lead with a surprising drive, spin and slam in the game’s opening minutes. Sims scored 13 points on 6-of-10 shooting and grabbed a season-high 15 rebounds in 38 minutes.
Sophomore guard Courtney Ramey had some success finishing in transition and setting up teammates, with a lob to Sims for a soaring two-handed dunk one of Texas’ few highlights during an otherwise miserable night.
“He’s the one guy tonight who really grabbed the ball,” Smart said of Sims. “And there were some possessions where he didn’t and we needed him to, but we need some other guys on our team to step forward and join him.”
Texas will get a chance to wash this putrid taste from its mouth Wednesday in its conference home opener against Oklahoma (10-3, 1-0).