Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
 
WACO, Texas – Langston Love says the Baylor Bears are built for a game like Saturday afternoon's overtime affair with the visiting West Virginia Mountaineers.
 
Love certainly is.
 
Even with a solitary West Virginia booing his every shot, Love calmly sank 12-of-12 from the line – four in overtime – and scored 17 points to lead the Bears (16-9, 8-6) to a thrilling 74-71 overtime win over the Mountaineers (15-10, 6-8) before a packed house at Foster Pavilion.
 
"These are just the games that you live for," said Love, who added four rebounds, one block and a steal in a career high-tying 42 minutes. "We just thank God for the opportunity . . .  God couldn't give us a better chance to glorify Him in overtime. Going into overtime (coach Scott Drew) was telling us to just keep pushing, keep fighting. We were tired, but we were built for this."
 
Leading by as many as nine in the first half, Baylor had its chances to put this one away in regulation. But freshman Robert O. Wright III, who hit his first six shots from the floor, missed a floater in the lane that would have ended it right there.
 
"That was strictly for the fans," Drew said jokingly. "We wanted to thank them for being here and give them an extra five minutes. Our end of game, we did what we wanted to do and executed how we wanted to execute down the stretch."
 
For all practical purposes, this one came down to the free throw line. The Bears scored all nine of their overtime points from the charity stripe and shot a phenomenal 84.4% overall (27-of-32), while West Virginia was just 11-of-17 and ended the game with two misses by Toby Okani with 2.6 seconds left.
 
"We hear it," Love said of the loud boos coming from the lone West Virginia fan. "But at the same time, we've got the crowd noise in practice. So, we already know what it is."
 
Neither team had much luck creating offense in the overtime period, combining to go just 2-for-12 from the floor. But the Bears scored the first four points on free throws by Love and Wright and were up by four with less than a minute to go.
 
Baylor did leave the door cracked, missing three of six free throws in the last 40 seconds. But when he was fouled by Norchad Omier with 2.6 seconds on the clock, Okani missed both free throws, Jayden Nunn grabbing the game-clinchng rebound as time expired.
 
"Everybody plays a part," said Omier, who recorded his 13^th double-double of the season and 81^st of his career with 17 points and 10 rebounds. "Jeremy (Roach) coming off the bench, that's a great lift. Jalen (Celestine's) 3-point shooting out there is definitely good. It opens up the court. Just a blessing to have almost everybody on the court."
 
Love and Omier shared team-high scoring honors with 17 points apiece, while Wright and Celestine had 16 and 10 points, respectively. Freshman VJ Edgecombe struggled from the floor, hitting just 3-of-12, but finished with seven points, eight rebounds and six assists.
 
West Virginia's Javon Small scored a game-high 22 points and added six assists for the Mountaineers, who have lost six of their last eight. Okani was 3-of-4 from 3-point distance and finished with 19 points, seven rebounds, three assists and two blocks.
 
Baylor improved to 12-1 at home and 3-1 in overtime games and beat West Virginia for the seventh-consecutive time to go up 18-8 all-time in the series.
 
In another quick turnaround, the Bears will host 13^th-seeded Arizona (17-8, 11-3) at 9 p.m. Monday at the Foster. The Wildcats dropped their second in a row on Saturday, falling to sixth-ranked Houston, 62-58, at home.