By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
 
DALLAS – Baylor coach Scott Drew describes VJ Edgecombe as simply "a winner."
 
After struggling mightily in his collegiate debut, the 6-4 freshman guard nearly had a double-double with 11 points, eight rebounds and team-high five assists and made the winning plays down the stretch to help the 12^th-ranked Baylor men hold off No. 16 Arkansas, 72-67, Saturday night at the American Airlines Center in a matchup of old Southwest Conference rivals.
 
"A lot of freshmen, you want to hear that they scored 30," said Drew, whose Bears (1-1) had a dramatic bounce-back victory after getting blown out by No. 6 Gonzaga just five days earlier. "But if you look at VJ, he's got eight rebounds . . . five assists, one turnover against this pressure. Defensively, he was tremendous. He's somebody who impacts the game in every facet."
 
With the game on the line in the final minute, Edgecombe skied to grab an offensive rebound off a missed 3-pointer, leading to a second-chance free throw by Jeremy Roach with 33.9 seconds left.
 
And then, when Arkansas (1-1) cut it to 70-67 on a 3-pointer by freshman guard Boogie Fland, Edgecombe drained a pair of clutch free throws with 14.9 seconds left that all but iced it.
 
"At the end of the day, coaches want to coach winners," Drew said. "(VJ) shot it a lot better than he shot in the first two games, so we're not worried about that. I think him, Rob (Wright) Jason (Asemota) are just getting used to top-25 environments and the physicality and speed and toughness and the pact that things are played with.'
 
Five players scored in double figures for the Bears, led by senior guard Jayden Nunn with four 3-pointers and 16 points. Miami transfer Norchad Omier recorded his 69^th-career double-double and first at Baylor with 15 points and 12 boards, while Roach and Wright had 13 and 10 points, respectively.
 
"It was very satisfying to get this (win), for sure," said Nunn, the Bears' only returning starter. "I feel like the hustle plays really just changed the momentum of the game. We needed those hustle plays at the end. I'm a sore loser, so I'm going to make all the hustle plays I've got to do for the team, like dive on the floor, get back on defense, trying to get a steal. I'll do it all just to win."
 
John Calipari, in his debut season at Arkansas after a run at Kentucky that included the 2012 national championship, said he talked to Gonzaga coach Mark Few after the Bulldogs' 101-63 win over Baylor on Monday.
 
"Mark Few and I talked, and I said, 'Well, thanks. Appreciate you doing that. Now, I've got to play them,''' Calipari said. "And we knew they were going to be alert. They lost that game (to Gonzaga), and now they're coming back here (to Texas), and they played good. They did some good stuff."
 
When Arkansas tied it twice in the first five minutes of the game, Nunn had the answer both times. He had a tip-in off his own miss and then drained the first of his four 3-pointers to give the Bears the lead back, 11-8.
 
Baylor led by as many as 11 in the first half, going up 26-15 on a Josh Ojianwuna dunk off a feed from Edgecombe. And then matched that three minutes later on a pair of Edgecombe free throws to go up 33-22.
 
Arkansas scored nine-straight points and pulled within 33-31 on a 3-pointer by Bland. But the Bears closed the half on a 9-2 run and went into the locker room with a 42-33 lead when Roach drained a 3-pointer.
 
Drew said the Bears got back to playing "Baylor basketball."
 
"We took care of the ball, we shared it a lot more, took much better shots, defended a lot better," he said. "Just across the board, it was a typical Baylor game. That's why that first game was the worst loss since 2007. Some of our guys weren't born, I don't think."
 
Roach and Nunn scored 10 points apiece for the Bears in the first half, while Adou Thiero had 10 and Fland nine for the Razorbacks, who were just 2-for-12 from 3-point range in the first 20 minutes.
 
"Here's the thing, when you have new players, they're learning what you want to do and how to run stuff," Drew said. "So, they're thinking. And if they're thinking, they're not playing. Returning players already know what you want, so they're able to play. That's why these guys will all perform better, shoot it better, as the season goes on, as they're more comfortable in what they're looking for. Rather than figuring out where am I supposed to go, what am I supposed to do?"
 
The Bears stretched it back out to a double-digit lead midway through the second half, going up 61-50 on a 3-pointer by Jalen Celestine for the Cal transfer's only points of the night.
 
Arkansas, which never led from tip to the final buzzer, got back within three twice in the last six minutes. The last one came on the 3-pointer by Fland with 24 seconds left to make it 70-67.
 
Fouled by Thiero, who scored a game-high 24 points, Edgecombe buried both free throws to push the lead back to five. Thiero missed a drive at the bucket and grabbed an offensive rebound but wasn't able to get off another shot.
 
Nunn said the Bears were having fun and played with much better energy than they did against Gonzaga.
 
"Just having passion," he said. "Basketball, you never know when it's going to be your last time playing. We've got life ahead of basketball; this is only just a short period of time. I feel like we've just got to have fun and everybody has got to be energy, whatever we've got to do. We just had the energy passing around through the whole team."
 
Baylor returns home to host Sam Houston (1-1) in Tuesday's 7 p.m. home opener at the Foster Pavilion. The Bearkats bounced back from a season-opening loss at Nevada to blow out Tarleton, 91-62, Saturday night.