Baylor
Texas
No. 17 Texas Roughs Up Baylor, 60-38
8/1/2000 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Feb. 19, 2000
WACO, Texas - As has been the pattern of much of this season, the Baylor Bears hung close for most of Saturday's game against the No. 17 Texas Longhorns. A six-minute drought by the Bears in the second half turned a close game into a runaway for Texas as the Longhorns prevailed on the road, 60-38.
The Bears (12-11, 3-9 Big 12) kept the game competitive throughout the first half. Baylor had two brief leads early over the Longhorns (19-6, 10-2 Big 12), starting the game with the first basket and then leading 9-8 five minutes into the game. Texas led in the first half by as much as 10, but Baylor closed out the half with an 11-5 run to get within four, 29-25.
Wendell Greenleaf scored 11 points in the first half, including three three-pointers. He finished with 13 points to lead the Bears.
"Wendell gave us some spark in the first half," Baylor head coach Dave Bliss said, "but he made some freshman mistakes in the second half."
The Bears initially picked up after intermission where they had left off in the first half. They cut the Longhorns' lead to three at 33-30 with 15:40 to go, but that would prove to be as close as Baylor would get. After trading free throws, Baylor suddenly lost the ability to score.
Over the next six minutes, Texas put together a 16-0 run. Baylor missed 12 shots in a row from the field during the UT run. The Bears finally scored when Ben Echols blocked two consecutive shots, the second of which started a fast break which was finished off with a lay-up by Tevis Stukes. With six minutes to go, Texas led 51-33, putting Baylor out of the game for good.
"Texas is a real strong team physically, and that wore on us eventually," Bliss said. "For 20, 25 minutes we used our heads and competed. Then they wore on us, and we missed enough shots to get buried."
The Bears went 10 minutes in the second half without a field goal, and only shot 4-of-26 in the second half. Baylor held Texas to its third-lowest shooting percentage of the year at 35.8%, but the Bears shot a season-low 25.0% from the field on the night.
"Our defense was good enough to win, but we just aren't a good offensive team," Bliss said.
Texas' all-America candidate Chris Mihm led all scorers with 17 points, including 9-of-13 from the free-throw line. Mihm also contributed 12 rebounds for his 16th double-double of the year. Darren Kelly added 16 points for the Longhorns.
Baylor next travels to Colorado on Wednesday for an 8 p.m. game against the Buffaloes.
