By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
 
WACO, Texas – With part of the "family" back, the 13^th-ranked Baylor Bears used a decisive 13-0 second-half run to defeat Grant McCasland's 23^rd-ranked Texas Tech Red Raiders, 79-73, Tuesday night before another sellout crowd at Foster Pavilion.
 
A walk-on guard at Baylor in the 1990s, McCasland was an assistant under Baylor coach Scott Drew for five seasons (2011-16) and is in his first season at Tech (16-6, 5-4).
 
"Never easy playing family," said Drew, whose Bears (17-5, 6-3) strung together their third-straight win to stay within a half-game of fifth-ranked Houston (20-3, 7-3) in the race for a Big 12 championship. "Honestly, once the game starts, you're just locked in on the game."
 
Drew even invited McCasland, who's been under the weather along with several of his players, to spend the night at his house.
 
"I knew he was sick, so I didn't want to spend a lot of time with him," Drew said. "But I'll show you how much he loves me, only fist-bumped and kept me away. This is a really competitive job, and it's hard when you play family. But at the same time, I know we wouldn't be where we're at without his contributions here. Always cheering for him and (Kansas State coach Jerome) Tang as long as we're not playing them."
 
RayJ Dennis scored a game-high 21 points, adding five assists, four rebounds and four steals, while freshman 7-footer Yves Missi had 17 points and Jayden Nunn 14 for the Bears.
 
"I think RayJ has been trending up and getting used to Big 12 basketball and the grind required of it," Drew said. "He probably could have had eight or nine assists if we had made some shots. What excites me is we haven't played our best basketball yet. At some point, that's our goal. We haven't been the best we can be on both ends of the court at the same time."
 
There were at least brief moments of that nirvana in the second half, when the Bears shot 65% overall (13-of-20) and scored 43 points.
 
"Happy about us second half offensively," Drew said, "really were efficient. First half, I thought we had a lot of good looks. We didn't make them, but we did a great job getting to the glass. Wish we would have been more efficient with second-chance points, but couldn't fault their effort. And I thought the crowd gave us a great lift for a midweek game."
 
Tied at 51-51 midway through the second half, Baylor took control with 13 unanswered points in a 3 ½-minute stretch that saw Tech turn it over four times and go 0-for-4 from the floor.
 
After Jayden Nunn drained a 3-pointer to give the Bears the lead for good, Missi drove by 6-8 Tech forward KyeRon Lindsay and threw down a one-handed dunk with authority.
 
"I'm not necessarily looking for (a SportsCenter-worthy highlight), it just happens to be big," Missi said. Whenever I can make an extra play that can boost up the team, I'll be sure to do it."
 
Back-to-back layups by Nunn, a pair of free throws by Missi and a johnny-on-the-spot layup by freshman Ja'Kobe Walter capped off the run and gave Baylor a 64-51 lead with 6:38 left, forcing McCasland to call his final timeout.
 
"You don't take timeouts with you," he said. "We felt like if we could keep the game close enough . . . I was just trying to give those guys as much as we could. We'd come out of a time-out, and we didn't want to let Missi go right. But then, we just him go right and dunk it. Those are scouting mistakes you can't make in a game like this."
 
The Bears extended the lead to as many as 15, going up 72-57 when Dennis fed Josh Ojianwuna for a layup with 3:40 to go. But Tech didn't go away quietly, hitting three-straight 3-pointers and closing the gap to 76-71 on a three-point play by Joe Toussaint, who had 18 points and six assists.
 
On the Red Raiders' next offensive possession, a fast-charging Toussaint fouled out when Nunn took a charge. Baylor struggled late, missing five free throws that could have put the game away.
 
Dennis said the key to the late run by the Bears was "getting stops."
 
"They were scoring pretty much at will," he said. "We were trading baskets a lot in the first half, and they even went up six points or something like that. And then, we started getting six stops in the second half and converting and running in transition."
 
Toussaint led four double-figure scorers for Tech, with Darrion Williams adding 17 points, Chance McMillian 15 and Pop Isaacs 11.
 
Drew said the crowd "gave us a great lift for a midweek game, especially coming off an emotional game," referring to Baylor's 70-68 win over then-No. 12 Iowa State.
 
"It's hard to come back and play right away after an emotional game," he said. "You see it every night in college sports. The team has a great win and everybody's bragging about them. North Carolina lost tonight and everybody was talking about their win (over Duke). I know Kansas was so impressive against Houston. K-State beats them at home, and what makes our league so tough. If you're not ready each and every night, you got no chance."
 
In the first of two matchups in the last eight regular-season games, Baylor will face fourth-ranked Kansas (18-5, 6-4) at 5 p.m. Saturday at Allen Fieldhouse in Lawrence. The Jayhawks are 12-0 at home this year, but are coming off a 75-70 overtime loss on Monday at Kansas State.