By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
            When Jase Febres hit one of his seven 3-pointers to give Texas a 19-point lead with about 15 minutes to play, the odds of Baylor coming back to win might not have been a million-to-one. But they weren't good. 
            In fact, at that point, the Longhorns' probability of winning was listed at 99 percent on the ESPN game tracker. 
            Borrowing a line from the movie "Dumb and Dumber," Baylor coach Scott Drew said, "So you're telling me we've got a chance."
            The thing is, Drew actually believed it. 
            Never giving up, the Bears went on a late 19-2 run to tie it up, got two buckets from freshman point guard Jared Butler in the last 63 seconds of regulation and scored nine of the last 11 points in overtime to pull out an improbable 84-83 win over the Longhorns Wednesday night before a Ferrell Center crowd of 5,796. 
            "First thing is the guys never gave up," said Drew, whose team improved to 19-9 overall and 10-5 in the Big 12, just a game behind league leaders Kansas State and Texas Tech. "The second thing is we got a couple stops and made a couple shots and the fans got involved. I think all that feeds off itself, especially when you can start making a run and the crowd is into it and the guys get confidence and they get energy."
            Even after that long uphill climb just to get to regulation, Baylor fell behind 81-75 in the overtime period on back-to-back 3-pointers by Febres and Kamaka Hepa. The Longhorns (15-13, 7-8) shot 50 percent overall and a sizzling 15-of-27 from 3-point range. 
            Butler answered with a 3-pointer from the top of the key in what Texas coach Shaka Smart called "as big of a shot as there was in the game." 
            "If you keep them from making a 3, it's a two-possession game, even if they hit a 2," Smart said. 
            "It was so important," said Butler, who was 3-of-8 from 3-point range and chipped in with 15 points, five rebounds and four assists. "I hit like maybe two 3's, but the other guys were hitting 3's when we needed it, and I felt like I needed to hit a 3 for us, too. I was just trying to help the team out and make winning plays."
            Twice in the last minute, the Bears pulled back within one. Mario Kegler, who scored a career- and game-high 24 points, rebounded his own miss and fed Freddie Gillespie for a dunk. And then, after Febres nailed a jumper from just inside the 3-point line, Mark Vital got a put-back off an offensive rebound to make it an 83-82 game with 9.7 seconds left. 
            Needing a steal or quick foul, the Bears got a gift when 6-11 freshman center Jaxson Hayes caught the inbounds pass and shuffled his pivot foot for a traveling call that gave Baylor the ball back with 7.5 seconds on the clock.
            That's when Kegler, who was feeling it all night, asked to take the last shot. 
            "Oh yes, I needed it at the time," the sophomore forward said. 
            With Baylor not in the bonus yet, Febres fouled Kegler as soon as he caught the ball near the top of the key and then fouled him again as he tried to get to the rim for the go-ahead bucket. Instead, Kegler calmly nailed two free throws to give the Bears the one-point lead with only 3.2 seconds left on the clock. 
            After the long inbounds pass was deflected, Febres was well off the mark with his 3-point heave as he was falling out of bounds near the Longhorn bench. 
            "As a coach, you always want players to want the ball," Drew said. "Mario was feeling it all night. He's played two great games and he's put in the work. He's getting in a good rhythm and a good routine. (Those were) big free throws. There's a lot of games where it comes down to they miss one, they miss two, you don't win the game. I've been on that side a lot."
            Not this time, though. 
            Texas dominated the first half, shooting 59.3 percent, outrebounding the Bears, 14-11, and leading by as many as 14 before going in up 40-29 at the break. 
            "One of our slogans has been Joy – Jesus, Others, Yourself last," Drew said. "And I thought the first half, we didn't make enough plays for others. That I Am Third mentality. And that's why we've been so good in this run is because different people step up."
            Devonte Bandoo was one that stepped up in a big way in the second half. After turning it over three times and hitting two free throws for his only points in the first half, the junior guard was a perfect 5-of-5 from the floor and 4-of-4 from outside the arc in the second half when he scored 16 of his 18 points. 
            "To be honest, I didn't have a great (first) half," Bandoo said. "I had Coach AB (Alvin Brooks) and all the coaches talk to me. Coach Drew came into the locker room and said, 'Who's going to play in the second half?' I just knew in the second half I had to make a difference. I just tried to stay locked-in, and that's what I did in the second half."
            Bandoo and Kegler combined to hit five 3-pointers in that 19-2 run, and Bandoo tied it at 64-64 with a pair of free throws at the 2:52 mark. 
            "I didn't realize it was that bad, (down 19)," Butler said. "But, I kept a faith and kept encouraging, trying to make some plays and not try to win it all at one time. That's what we did with these guys. Everyone on the team stepped up."
            After Bandoo and Keppa traded 3-pointers, Butler gave the Bears their first lead since the 11:37 mark of the first half when he knocked down a floater to put them on top, 69-68. And then, after yet another Febres trey, Butler hit the shot that sent the game into overtime. 
            Kegler, who topped his previous career high of 23 that he scored in Saturday's win over West Virginia, said Drew came in the huddle when the Bears were down 19 and "just starts to laugh and telling us we're good, we're going to win this game. It's just a joy that he has that's unbelievable. I've never seen a guy like him."
            Vital was a perfect 7-of-7 from the line and added 13 points and eight rebounds, while Gillespie had eight points, 11 rebounds and four blocks and helped hold Hayes to just nine points and three boards. Febres had 23, Courtney Ramey had a double-double with 17 points and 10 assists and Hepa and Matt Coleman III had 11 points apiece for the Longhorns. 
            "That's just a heartbreaker," Smart said. "Baylor deserves a lot of credit for the way they battled back. The obvious biggest factor – I don't want to say the only factor, was the way they offensive rebounded. We did a good job in the first half, holding them to four offensive rebounds, but we were not able to grab hold of some of those balls that looked like they were right in our hands. And Baylor did a really good job of making us pay."
            Baylor goes back on the road to face 16^th-ranked Kansas State (21-7, 11-4) at 7 p.m. Saturday in Manhattan.