By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
           
Mario Kegler had trouble sleeping Friday night, thinking about how he had never had a good game against Alabama, losing to the Crimson Tide three times as a freshman at Mississippi State.
           
"I woke up this morning on the right side of the bed and I had a smile on my face," the Baylor sophomore transfer said. "And from the jump ball, I knew I was going to go out and have fun and let the game come to me."
           
That he did. The 6-foot-7 sophomore forward matched his season high with 17 points and added seven boards in leading the surging Baylor Bears (13-6) to a 73-68 win in Saturday's SEC/Big 12 Challenge before a crowd of 7,094 at the Ferrell Center.
           
Makai Mason scored 10 of his 13 points in the second half, including the go-ahead bucket with 3:04 left, as Baylor won its fourth in a row and improved to a league-best 5-1 in the SEC/Big 12 Challenge.
           
"As far as the Challenge goes, great way to start for us.," Baylor coach Scott Drew said. "Last year. We were disappointed with the way we started, 11 a.m. game at Florida. We take it very serious not only how we represent Baylor but also the Big 12. So, I'm very pleased with being able to get a win early in the day for the Big 12."
           
This one was a back-and-forth game that included 12 ties and 12 lead changes, with neither team leading by more than six points.
           
Every time one of the teams threw a punch, the other one countered. Baylor rallied from an early five-point deficit to lead 36-30 at the break, but Alabama (12-7) scored 10 of the first 12 points of the second half and went up 40-38 on a three-point play by Donta Hall.
           
"I just feel like they can't really beat us with twos," said Kegler, who matched the 17 combined points he scored in the previous three games against Bama. "They were scoring, but we were scoring also. At some point, somebody's going to have to get some stops in a row, and it turned out to be the Baylor Bears."
           
Baylor's bench came up with big defensive plays down the stretch
           
With the game tied at 59-59, junior guard Devonte Bandoo stripped Riley Norris, leading to a go-ahead bucket by Kegler, who was 7-of-13 from the floor, 1-of-4 outside the arc and 2-of-3 from the line.
           
After Mason answered a Hall floater with a jumper that gave the Bears the lead for good, 6-10 freshman Flo Thamba blocked a layup attempt by Alabama freshman point guard Kira Lewis Jr. Bandoo missed the mark on a 3-pointer from the wing, but he nailed a baseline jumper on an inbound pass from Mason after an offensive rebound by Mark Vital.
           
"Coach called that play up," said Bando, who had four points, two rebounds, two steals and one assist in 12 minutes off the bench. "It's one of my favorite plays. I knew if I had any space, I was going to shoot it. I came off the screen, and I was wide open and I shot it."
           
Bandoo then came up with arguably the biggest play of the game when he forced another turnover by Norris and finished it with a fast-break layup that put the Bears up by six, 67-61, with 2:01 left.
           
"In any sport, turnovers, they just handcuff you," Alabama coach Avery Johnson said. "Especially when you have the critical ones at the wrong time, or if you turn it over and they run out and score on the other end. When I was in college, when I was about to turn the ball over, I liked to kind of throw it in to the stands, because I didn't want them to score."
           
Norris, who was a perfect 6-of-6 from the floor for a team-high 16 points, made up for his two turnovers by nailing his fourth trey of the game to pull the Crimson Tide back within 69-66 with 31.5 seconds left. It looked like Bama's press forced a Mason turnover when the Bears inbounded, but the officials went the monitor and changed the call.
           
Mason, Kegler and King McClure combined to hit four of six free throws in the last 25 seconds to put the game away.
           
"Every game we've won, it's been a team effort, different people contributing in different ways," Drew said. "As a coach, it's a little trickier, because you don't know whose day it is. At the same time, the great thing is as long as they keep the team first, then they're cheering on each other and it doesn't become an 'I' thing. And that's why we've been winning, too."
           
In familiar patterns, Baylor won a tight rebounding battle, 35-31, and outscored the Crimson Tide in second-chance points, 18-9, grabbing 16 offensive boards. Bama had outrebounded 17 of its first 18 opponents and ranked 21^st nationally in rebounding margin.
           
"We work on rebounding and blocking out every day," Kegler said. "We knew coming into this game that we had to beat them on the boards, so we made up our minds and went out and did it."
           
Drew said the key is that "it's not one guy, it's a team effort. I'm pleased with how we did on the glass today, for sure." Kegler led the way with seven rebounds, but four other players grabbed at least four boards, including Vital with four on the offensive end.
           
"This was the best offensive rebounding team we've faced this year," Johnson said. "There have been some other teams that are bigger and stronger that are great offensive rebounding teams, and we kind of defused those situations. We just didn't do it tonight."
           
Baylor freshman point guard Jared Butler, who spent this summer at Alabama before transferring and getting an NCAA waiver to play immediately, hit two 3-pointers in the first two minutes and finished with nine points, five assists, four rebounds and only one turnover in 31 minutes.
           
"Normally, when it's a rivalry game or you're playing a team that you know a lot of them . . . players try to push and they try to do too much and don't let the game come to them," Drew said. "We actually talked to Jared about that, and he said, 'Nah, I'm going to be relaxed, let the game come to me and not try to do too much.' And that's exactly what he did. I'm really happy with how he played."

In a quick turnaround for the third straight week, Baylor goes back on the road to face Oklahoma at 8 p.m. Monday in Norman. The Sooners were hosting Vanderbilt and coach Bryce Drew, Scott's younger brother, on Saturday.