By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
            WACO, Texas - On a night when 17 NBA scouts from 15 different teams came to watch Wednesday's Big 12 showdown at the Ferrell Center, TCU's Mike Miles Jr. and Baylor freshman Keyonte George certainly didn't disappoint, scoring a career-high 33 and 27 points, respectively.
            Overcoming a 17-point first-half deficit, 17^th-ranked TCU (13-1, 2-0) pulled out an 88-87 win over the No. 19 Bears (10-4, 0-2) when Miles hit a 3-pointer and then fed Chuck O'Banion for a 16-foot baseline jumper over Adam Flagler with 4.0 seconds left.
            Setting up an out-of-bounds play after Caleb Lohner hit 6-10 freshman Josh Ojianwuna with a deep pass, George seemed to turn the corner coming off a screen, but his layup attempt was blocked by Xavier Cork at the rim and Ojianwuna wasn't able to get up a follow shot before the final buzzer.
            "They made a great play at the rim," said Baylor coach Scott Drew, "because you're hoping for a bucket or a foul, and (Cork) made a great play."
            George, who hit four 3-pointers and 11-of-12 from the free throw line, said he "got a good look at the rim."
            "I had it going all night," he said. "It was a left-handed layup. You've got to finish. That's all I was thinking, I've got to finish and move on to the next."
            It was a "tough night" for the Bears, who started Big 12 play 0-2 for the first time in five years.
            "That's a typical Big 12 game, and that's what it's like when you're on the wrong end of it," Drew said. "I thought Mike was incredible. We knew they were good in transition, and our transition defense was atrocious. And that was the game for us. . . . We can't give up 23-2 fastbreak points. That's really disappointing that we weren't better in transition."
            Behind the hot hand of George, who hit his first four shots from 3-point range, Baylor took a double-digit lead, 39-26, on back-to-back treys by Jalen Bridges and Flagler and went up 48-31 on a Langston Love 3-pointer. But TCU closed the half on an 8-1 run, with the Bears missing their last four shots, and was down by just 10 at the break, 49-39.
            "I know the past couple games, we've let them come out in the second half and get runs," said LJ Cryer, who scored 13 points after missing the previous two games in concussion protocol. "So, we talked about it, to keep our foot on the gas. But they were more aggressive in the second half."
            Miles scored the Frogs' first 13 points of the second half, most of them on fastbreak layups, beating the Baylor defense down the court and getting TCU back within single digits.
            "Mike got them going and was getting downhill, and we couldn't stop them," George said. "We got a lead and blew it. We've got to go back and get better."
            Even though the Bears struggled in the second half, shooting 28.6% overall and just 2-of-11 from outside the arc, George said the offense isn't the issue.
            "We've really got to get connected on the defensive side of the ball if we want to win," said George, who added six rebounds, two assists and a steal in 27 minutes. "We've got it in us. We do it every day in practice. We show flashes, but we've got to put together a good 40 (minutes) to win in this league."
            Baylor had four other players finish in double figures, with Cryer and Flagler scoring 13 apiece, Ojianwuna 11 and Love 10. Eddie Lampkin and Damion Baugh chipped in with 15 each for the Frogs, while Emanuel Miller added 13 points and eight boards.
            With George, Ojianwuna and Love playing a combined 63 minutes, Drew said Baylor is "playing more freshmen (minutes) than anyone else in the league."
            "They're going to get better the more they get used to the competition," Drew said. "Hopefully, Josh improves. Keyonte was very good tonight, but hopefully he gets better throughout the year, and Langston hopefully gets better."
            The Bears welcome longtime assistant coach Jerome Tang and his Kansas State Wildcats (13-1, 2-0) for a 5 p.m. matchup Saturday at the Ferrell Center. K-State knocked off sixth-ranked Texas, 116-103, in a shootout Tuesday night in Austin.