Elite Defensive Effort Propels No. 1 MBB to 21st-Straight Win

Monday, February 10

Austin, Texas

8 p.m.

Baylor

22-1,11-0Big 12

Texas

14-10,4-7Big 12

Baylor

Texas

Photo by: Baylor Photography

Elite Defensive Effort Propels No. 1 MBB to 21st-Straight Win

2/10/2020 10:46:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score Postgame Notes

Bears hold Texas to lowest point total at home since 1983

By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
            AUSTIN – Texas has to be happy having the top-ranked Baylor Bears in their rear-view mirror.
            For the second time this year, the Longhorns (14-10, 4-7) struggled to score better than a point per minute in falling to the Bears, 52-45, Monday night at the Frank Erwin Center as Baylor (22-1, 11-0) ran its program-record winning streak to 21-straight.
            It was the fewest points Texas has scored on its home court since a 51-43 loss to Kansas State on Jan. 8, 1983. In last month's conference opener in Waco, the Bears held the Longhorns to their lowest point total in coach Shaka Smart's five seasons (44) at Texas and the fewest in his 11 years as a collegiate head coach.
            "Anytime you play Texas, you know it's going to be a hard-fought game," said Baylor coach Scott Drew, whose team has won nine of the last 10 meetings in the series, including four of five in Austin. "To win on the road in conference, you have to have player-led teams and guys that are mentally tough and normally experienced guys."
            In a low-scoring game that had only a handful of runs, Baylor came up with the biggest one in the second half when the Bears scored 13 unanswered points and stretched their lead to 42-27.
            Sandwiched between free throws by Jared Buter and MaCio Teague, Devonte Bandoo and Matthew Mayer combined to score nine-straight points in a disastrous stretch for Texas that saw the Longhorns go more than eight minutes without a field goal.
            Butler hit a trailing Bandoo for a wide-open 3-pointer at the top of the key, then Mayer drove inside for a layup, fed Bandoo for an easy bucket and capped it with a pair of free throws.
            "It takes a team to win, and each and every night you have different people step up," Drew said. "The great thing is that run was a big difference in the second half. I just know when we share the ball out there, we're at our best. And we shared it better in the second half, for sure."
            Neither team had much luck scoring in the first half, hitting a combined 17-of-59 shots from the field, as Baylor limped into the halftime break nursing a 22-16 lead.
            On the heels of a season-high 13 points in Saturday's 78-70 win over Oklahoma State, 6-5 junior forward Mark Vital scored all eight of his points in the first half and added eight rebounds, two steals and a block.
            With Tristan Clark fouling out in just seven minutes and Freddie Gillespie collecting two fouls in each half, Baylor had to go with a smaller lineup most of the game and sometimes got stuck with sophomore guard Davion Mitchell trying to defend 6-9 Jericho Sims.
            After scoring just two points in Saturday's 62-57 loss to Texas Tech, Sims had nine points and 14 rebounds against the Bears.
            "We did a lot of the same things Tech did," Drew said of trying to contain Sims. "The difference is we couldn't keep him off the glass and he had five offensive rebounds. We blocked him out, he just went up and got them on the 12^th floor, and we were playing on the 9^th and the 10^th."
            Baylor seemed to have the game firmly in control when Bandoo drained another 3-pointer to give the Bears their biggest lead of the game, 45-29, with 7:48 left. But, the Longhorns scored nine-straight points on consecutive 3-pointers by Matt Coleman III and Andrew Jones and a three-point play by Jones that whittled the deficit back to single digits, 45-38.
            Even when Butler knocked down a 3-pointer to end the Baylor drought, the Longhorns had chances to pull even closer, but the Bears had just enough to pull out another tight game on the road.
            "I think divine intervention and God just putting His hand over us," Butler said. "We have a lot of moving parts and a lot of people who have come together from a lot of different places out there. That just shows how special it is. I think you can go 11-0 and 22-1 if you have the right group of guys. It's not about talent, it's not about special abilities, it's just about being the people we are. That's why things have been going so well."
            Bandoo (10) and Teague (11) were Baylor's lone double-figure scorers, while Coleman had 11 points and Jones scored all 10 of his points in the second half for Texas.
            The Bears shot just 34 percent for the game, but knocked down 6-of-16 from outside the arc and 12-of-16 from the line while holding the Longhorns to a dismal 3-of-17 from 3-point range.
            "There's going to be nights when you don't shoot it well, and you have to have some kind of staple," said Butler, who had nine points, five rebounds, two steals and a pair of assists. "I think that for us is our defense. It's a lot more fun when you shoot it well and playing good defense, but I'm just glad we got the win."
            Baylor returns home to host No. 14 West Virginia (18-5, 6-4) at 3 p.m. Saturday. The Mountaineers are hosting third-ranked Kansas (20-3, 9-1) on Wednesday before coming to Waco.