No. 10 MBB Breezes By No. 20 Texas, 80-63

Saturday, February 12

Waco, Texas

11 AM

Baylor

21-4,9-3Big 12

Texas

18-7,7-5Big 12

Texas

Baylor

No. 10 MBB Breezes By No. 20 Texas, 80-63

2/12/2022 1:28:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score Final Book (PDF)

Bears win their 11th game in last 12 tries against the Longhorns

By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
            Adam Flagler flashed his trademark smile after hitting four 3-pointers and scoring a game-high 20 points in 10^th-ranked Baylor's 80-63 win over the No. 20 Texas Longhorns Saturday afternoon at the Ferrell Center.
            The junior guard knows how hard wins are to come by in the Big 12, "we're always going to celebrate."
"But, when you have a brother down, it's definitely frustrating and sad to see," Flagler said of junior forward Jonathan Tchamwa Tchatchoua suffering a significant knee injury in the first half.
            "I'll give y'all a smile," he said, "but it's very difficult to see our brother on the floor."
            In what Baylor coach Scott Drew described as "one of those plays you don't like looking at," Tchamwa Tchatchoua's left knee buckled as he was running back down to the defensive end of the floor at the 11:41 mark.
Coming off a career-high 21-point performance in a road victory at Kansas State, Tchamwa Tchatchoua couldn't put any weight on his left foot as he was helped off the floor by teammates Zach Loveday and Jordan Turner.
            It was another tough blow for a Baylor team (21-4, 9-3) that lost freshman Langston Love to an ACL injury before the season and has seen four other players miss games over the last month and a half.
            "I think all parents can relate to, whenever you see your child or one of your players get hurt like that, and they've worked so hard," said Drew, whose Bears beat the Longhorns (18-7, 7-5) for the 11^th time in the last 12 meetings. "Don't know the severity of it, but obviously didn't look good. So, our prayers and our heart go out to him and hope for the best."
            Baylor led by just four when Tchamwa Tchatchoua left the game, but Flagler scored seven points in a 13-0 run that was capped by a pair of Dale Bonner free throws that put the Bears up 31-15
            "Really proud of the team's effort, really proud of how they stepped up when Jon went out," Drew said. "Obviously, Jon is so likeable and everyone was hurting and feeling it. But, they did a great job in saying, 'We're going to pick this up for you, Jon. We're going to win this for you.'''
            That was especially true for senior Flo Thamba, who usually rotates with Tchamwa Tchatchoua at the inside position. Playing a career-high 30 minutes, Thamba recorded his first double-double with 12 points, 11 rebounds and four blocked shots.
            "I was kind of down when it happened," Thamba said. "There was a moment when I had eye contact, and it was hard. I'm just proud of the guys. They showed up. When Jon went down, it just gave us extra motivation to go out there and play."
            Flagler carried the load in the first half, scoring 13 of his 20 points and helped the Bears go into the half with a 44-31 lead. Courtney Ramey hit a contested, off-balance baseline jumper at the end of the half to get the Longhorns back within 13.
            "I find myself continuing to expand my range," said Flager, who was 4-of-5 from outside the arc, including one from deep. "Guys are guarding me at the 3-point line, so if I can extend, I can be a lot more effective and help my teammates."
            Senior point guard James Akinjo did most of his work in the second half, when he scored seven-straight during one stretch and 11 of his 15 points. Bouncing back from a rough game in last Saturday's 83-59 loss at Kansas, Akinjo added seven assists, six rebounds and two steals.
            "James is really starting to get back to himself after that tailbone injury," Drew said. "You can always tell when he's back to himself, because he's doing his extra workouts and he's always drenched coming into practice. He's a rep guy. So, the more reps he gets in, the better he plays, the better he feels."
            Scoring the first six points of the second half, the Bears led by double-digit points the rest of the way. When the Longhorns got within 62-51 about midway through the second half, Baylor answered with a 13-2 run that pushed the lead back out to 73-54 on a Flagler trey with 5:39 left in the game.
            "They came ready to play, we didn't. We let the Kansas game be our championship," Ramey said of the Longhorns' 79-76 win over the 8^th-ranked Jayhawks on Monday. "We needed this game to stay in the race. They wanted it more, and it showed tonight. I think all 13 players can say we played soft today, and they didn't."
            With LJ Cryer missing his fifth-straight game, the Bears were down to a rotation of seven when Tchamwa Tchatchoua went out. Kendall Brown and Matthew Mayer chipped in with 10 points apiece, while Andrew Jones scored all 11 of his points in the second half to lead the Longhorns.
            "This wasn't just about Texas not giving our best effort today," said first-year Texas head coach Chris Beard. "This was also about Baylor playing great. Baylor basically beat us with seven players when Jonathan went down. We tried 12, 13, we tried to find a spark, and their seven beat our 12."
            Baylor goes back on the road to face ninth-ranked Texas Tech (19-6, 8-4) at 8 p.m. Wednesday in Lubbock. The Red Raiders, who had won three-straight before a 70-55 loss at Oklahoma, came back from a double-digit deficit to beat TCU, 82-69, in Lubbock.