Box Score By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
            DALLAS – On an uncharacteristic night when the 3-point shots just weren't falling, the 11^th-ranked Baylor Bears had to lean on their defense and some clutch plays by Keyonte George and Adam Flagler down the stretch to pull out a 65-59 win over Washington State Sunday night.
            In the fourth and final game of the Pac-12 Coast-to-Coast Challenge, George hit a late 3-pointer and fed Flo Thamba for back-to-back dunks and Flagler scored seven of Baylor's last 12 points to hold off a Washington State team that never went away.
            "Defensively, everybody was locked-in and did a great job," said Baylor coach Scott Drew, whose Bears (8-2) held their third-straight opponent to 63 points or less. "I thought we were a lot better being aggressive on the ball the last 10 minutes of the first half and the last 10 minutes of the game. I thought that was a big difference."
            George hit three 3-pointers and scored a game-high 19 points, adding four rebounds, three assists, one block and a steal. Flagler hit his last three shots, including two driving layups and a pull-up jumper in the lane, finishing with 12 points, four steals and two assists.
            "He was big against Gonzaga, he was big against UCLA, and he made big plays tonight," Drew said of Flagler, who was held to five points in the first 34 minutes of the game.
            "Offense, we're not going to shoot 6-for-24 from 3. A couple of them were contested, but we're not going to shoot that bad. We've got good shooters, and if they get good shots, they're going to shoot 40 percent."
            Trailing by as many as six early in the game, the Bears scored seven unanswered points and took their first lead on a step-back jumper by Dale Bonner. Going on another 7-0 run, Baylor went into the break with a 31-25 lead.
            The Bears couldn't hold it, though, as Wazzu (4-6) started the second half on a 16-6 run and went up 41-37 when TJ Bamba drained a 3-pointer and Mouhamed Gueye made one of two free throws.
            Answering again, Baylor retook the lead on a three-point play by freshman Josh Ojianwuna and stretched it out to 59-53 with 4:48 left, when George knocked down a corner trey off an assist from Jalen Bridges.
            "That was real fun," George said. "It was a great atmosphere, it felt like a home game. And I was able to hit a big shot like that down the stretch. We had momentum coming our way, and JB trusted me to knock the shot down."
            The Cougars whittled away at the deficit and had a chance to get within one, but Bamba missed a step-back 3-pointer with 15 seconds left.
            Jabe Mullins and Justin Powell combined to hit seven 3-pointers and scored 16 and 12 points, respectively, for the Cougars, who have dropped four of their last five.
            In a tight game that came down to the wire, Bridges clinched it with a pair of free throws with 9.1 seconds left, then Flagler blocked a Bamba shot in the final seconds.
            In a quick turnaround, the Bears will host Northwestern State (8-3) at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Ferrell Center.