By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Alabama's roller-coaster ride of a season has included back-to-back wins over 2021 Final Four teams Gonzaga and Houston mixed in with a few head-scratching losses.
Fourth-ranked Baylor (18-3) caught the Crimson Tide on another "up" night.
Jahvon Quinerly and Jaden Shackelford combined for 39 points and helped the Crimson Tide (14-7) shoot a sizzling 59% in upsetting the Bears, 87-78, Saturday afternoon in the Big 12/SEC Challenge at Coleman Coliseum.
Alabama snapped Baylor's streak of 36-consecutive non-conference wins, dating back to the Bears' loss to Washington in the Armed Forces Classic in Anchorage, Alaska, on Nov. 8, 2019.
"Those two were the difference for them tonight," Baylor coach Scott Drew said. "They obviously answered anytime we made a run with a run of theirs. Big shots at big times. Shackelford's 3 with three seconds on the shot clock was a huge play."
Shackelford's 3-pointer was like a dagger to the heart, coming off an inbounds play with three seconds left on the shot clock and giving 'Bama a 75-66 lead with 4:56 left in the game after Baylor had chipped away at a 15-point deficit.
Even after that, the Bears answered with five-straight points on an Adam Flagler 3-pointer and driving layup by James Akinjo to make it a four-point game, 75-71. Striking back, the Crimson Tide went on a 6-0 run on a Noah Gurley layup and back-to-back buckets by JD Davison that pushed it back to a double-digit lead.
"They were just very aggressive," said Baylor freshman forward Jeremy Sochan, who scored a season-high 17 points to go with eight rebounds and two steals. "They played as a team and just attacked us. I think we weren't really being aggressive enough."
Shackelford, who had 19 points, nine rebounds, five assists and three steals, hit back-to-back jumpers in a 9-0 run that give the Tide an early 11-3 lead.
Sochan hit a jumper that put the Bears back on top, 32-31, late in the half, but 'Bama closed on a 7-1 run and took a 38-34 halftime lead when Keon Ellis hit all three free throws when he was fouled by Akinjo on a 3-point shot.
"Our rim protection and rotations weren't where they needed to be," Drew said. "The transition defense, because of our turnovers, hurt us. We lost points off turnovers by 10 (24-14) and lost the game by nine."
The Tide had another 9-0 run in the second half, capped by consecutive assists by Shackelford on an Ellis dunk and Juwan Gary to go up 52-40. Two free throws and a shot clock-beating 3-pointer by Ellis gave Alabama its biggest lead of the game, 57-42, and forcing Baylor to call its second timeout of the half.
"I thought Quinerly and JD (Davison) both made big turns since the Georgia game," Alabama coach Nate Oats said of an 82-76 loss to the Bulldogs, "and hopefully we continue to keep them playing like that. I felt like they were back having fun, being themselves, playing hard, aggressive, and I thought they both made big plays during a lot of the game for us."
Baylor was playing without leading scorer LJ Cryer, who was out with a foot injury. Akinjo had eight points and seven assists after missing two of the last three games, but turned it over six times and was just 4-of-13 from the floor.
Flager hit 4-of-8 from outside the arc and finished with 16 points, while Matthew Mayer and Kendall Brown had 12 and 10 points, respectively. Going small for most of the game, the Bears got only eight points and three boards from their inside duo of Flo Thamba and Jonathan Tchamwa Tchatchoua.
"When they were driving, they ranked and we didn't," Sochan said. "We lost the ball quite a bit. I think that's all of our focus, we have to follow the ball. A couple times, we lost on the perimeter. And turnovers, we can't have that, of course."
In a quick turnaround, Baylor hosts West Virginia (13-7, 2-5) at 8 p.m. Monday in a game that will be broadcast by ESPN. The Mountaineers have lost five in a row, including Saturday's 77-68 loss at Arkansas.