By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
 
MEMPHIS, Tenn. – Agonizing over the missed free throws with 36.2 seconds left in Sunday's heartbreaking 72-64 loss to Clemson, all Baylor freshman Ja'Kobe Walter could do was pull his No. 4 jersey over his head to hide the pain and the tears.
 
"Extremely tough," said Walter, who scored 20 points in the NCAA Tournament second-round game at FedEx Forum. "We work on free throws all the time, so just missing them really hurts, for sure.
 
"But as a team, we all just stayed together. We know what we've been through the whole season, so we didn't doubt in our minds at all that we were going to be able to come back and make it a game."
 
Trailing by 15 with 6 ½ minutes to go, Baylor (24-11) did indeed come back.
 
Toledo transfer RayJ Dennis, who scored a game- and season-high 27 points, went coast to coast for a driving layup after grabbing a defensive rebound that started a 16-3 run that got the Bears within two with under a minute to play.
 
"We had been in that position a couple times before this year," said Dennis, who added six rebounds, three steals and two assists. "Starting with the coaches, trickling down all the way through to the last guy on the roster, everybody kept their composure. And we were confident that we could come back and make it a game."
 
Less than 30 seconds later, Walter drained a pull-up 3-pointer, followed by back-to-back buckets by Dennis that made it a two-possession game, 61-55, with 4:19 still left. That also completed a 9-0 run in a stretch of less than two minutes.
 
In a poor-shooting first half that saw the Bears trail by 10 at the break, 35-25, Baylor coach Scott Drew said Clemson's size affected them.
 
"Not many people have a 6-10 (small forward, Jack Clark) and a frontline that big," Drew said. "I don't know if that affected some of our shots, but I'd give them definitely credit for it."
 
But in the late-game comeback, "we started to get the pace, we started to get a couple of stops."
 
"I thought we started moving better. And unfortunately, in basketball, it seems when you make shots, everything seems to go better."
 
Chase Hunter slowed the Baylor comeback with a pair of free throws for two of his team-high 20 points, but it was a fleeting break and the Tigers' only points in a four-minute stretch.
 
Dennis hit a turnaround jumper, then senior forward Jalen Bridges canned a pair of free throws that made it a 63-59 game. When Hunter missed one of two free throws with 2 ½ minutes left, it opened the door even wider for the Bears.
 
Animated on the sideline during a timeout with six minutes left, Drew said the challenge to the team was to "have the best comeback of the NCAA Tournament."
 
"I think they were excited about that," said Drew, whose team overcame a 25-point second-half deficit against North Carolina two years ago before falling in overtime in the second round. "We couldn't change anything that happened before, but the last six minutes, we could change that."
 
Twice in the last 2 ½ minutes, the Bears got within two points, the first one coming on a three-point play by Walter that cut it to 64-62. And then with 1:02 left, Dennis hit two free throws after getting fouled by Clark after a backcourt steal.
 
"Coaches did a great job making sure we were battle-tested and put in positions like that so we don't panic when we're down 10," Dennis said. "Everybody stuck to the plan, we stayed together, and we leaned on each other. And that's how we were able to make it a game."
 
Fouled with 36.2 seconds left after another turnover by Clemson, Walter went to the line with a chance to tie the game for the first time since 3-3. But the 6-5 freshman, who also missed the front end of two one-and-ones, missed both free throws.
 
"If you take the front ends, I think we're (16-for-30)," Drew said of the Bears' free-throw struggles. "And the irony is we spent more time shooting free throws with this group than any other group. We've really made a lot of strides and a lot of improvement, but today we got snake-bit. Ja'Kobe has been one of our best free throw shooters, has been all year. if it was late in the game, we'd try to get him the ball."
 
Clemson's RJ Godfrey, who was 56% on free throws coming into the game, calmly sank two to push it back to a two-possession game and then iced it with two more with 8.2 seconds left.
 
"It's hard to finish off games," Clemson coach Brad Brownell said. "For us, it was a guy off the bench (Godfrey), not a great free throw shooter by the stats. But two months ago, I told one of our assistant coaches in a staff meeting, 'I want him in the gym every day for 20, 30 minutes for extra shooting.' All that hard work paid off for RJ today.
 
"Again, sometimes the basketball gods smile at you. And today was one of those days for us."
 
It was anything but smiles in the Baylor locker room, where every player cried over the end of what has been a season of joy.
 
"It's definitely (a brotherhood) for life," Walter said. "It's home. The group of guys, the staff, it's just really hard. Every game, I just went out and put my body on the line because I loved my teammates so much, love the coaches so much. I never looked ahead. I always just wanted to be in the moment, because this is really hard. We had big plans, and I know we could have done them."
 
Bridges, who added 10 points and five rebounds for the Bears, said this was "probably my favorite team I've ever played on at any level, just the relationships that I have with the guys."
 
"I'd say my number one best decision was coming back to school (for my senior year). My second-best decision in my life was probably transferring to Baylor. It was definitely special."
 
Clemson (23-11), which also got 13 points from Joseph Girard III and 11 points apiece from PJ Hall and Ian Shieffelin, advances to the Los Angeles Regional for a Thursday semifinal matchup against second-seeded Arizona (27-8).
 
"I hurt for them," said Drew, whose team ended the season with a third-straight loss in the Round of 32 after winning the 2021 national championship. "I hurt that we won't be together with them. Great leadership, great upperclassmen.
 
"I just thank God for giving us an opportunity to work with them. And I thank my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, for what He did this week for us. I'm proud of these guys."