By Jerry Hill                                                          
Baylor Bear Insider
 
WACO, Texas – Baylor basketball's first-half numbers in Saturday night's game against the Oklahoma State Cowboys just didn't add up.
 
How in the name of James Naismith can you miss seven free throws (8-of-15) and shoot 23.5% overall, including 2-of-17 from outside the arc, and still lead by two at the half?
 
"That means your defense is pretty good," Baylor coach Scott Drew said after the Bears (17-12, 9-9) overcame a shaky start to snap a three-game losing streak and defeat the visiting Cowboys, 71-61, before a packed house of 7,500 at Foster Pavilion.
 
Recognized during a pregame Senior Night presentation and then prayed over by Baylor chaplain Mark Wible following the game, seniors Jeremy Roach, Jayden Nunn and Norchad Omier combined for 42 points.
 
"I want to thank God for a great Senior Night," Drew said. "Coaches always stress and worry about losses on Senior Night. I think it's different this year moving it up a game, but timewise, it allowed a lot of parents to be here with an earlier game."
 
Yeah, that 9 p.m. tip for next Saturday's regular-season finale at home against No. 4 Houston (25-4, 17-1) will make for a late night on the Brazos.
 
A Duke transfer playing his one and only season at Baylor, Roach went 4-for-7 from 3-point range and scored a season-high 21 points. Omier had 10 points and 13 rebounds for his 17^th double-double of the season and 85^th career double-double, the fifth-most in NCAA history, while Nunn hit three from distance and scored 11 points.
 
Playing Mr. First Half to Roach's second-half heroics, freshman Robert O. Wright III had 12 of his 16 points in the first 20 minutes.
 
"We were getting good looks," Drew said. "I would have been a lot more concerned if we didn't have any good looks. But we've been a second-half team most of the year. And to have the lead and shoot that poor, I didn't think we would shoot that poor again. Credit Oklahoma State's defense for causing turnovers. But if you don't turn it over, usually you can get some pretty good looks."
 
With the Bears' early shooting woes, the Cowboys (14-15, 6-12) took a double-digit lead, 17-7, on a 3-pointer by Arturo Dean. The OSU point guard added a three-point play with a floater and follow free throw to make it 20-10 with 6:56 left in the half.
 
But starting with a Wright second-chance bucket off an offensive rebound by fellow freshman VJ Edgecombe, the Bears closed the half on a 14-2 run and went into the locker room up by two, 26-24.
 
"It was all of us, just working together and staying united," Wright said of being able to dig out of the early deficit. "We were getting good looks, but we weren't making them. We knew to keep trusting ourselves and get downhill and get the other team in foul trouble, make free throws and stuff like that."
 
Tied a little over two minutes into the second half, Omier started a 12-0 run with a sweet hook shot over 6-10 Abou Ousmane, who had just nine points and six boards after exploding for 25 points in OSU's upset of ninth-ranked Iowa State on Tuesday.
 
Back-to-back layups by Nunn and Roach, followed by a pair of Roach 3-pointers stretched the lead to 41-29 with 14:12 left in the game.
 
"Obviously, that run was huge," said Roach, who scored eight of the 12 points. "It was good for my confidence, good for the team's confidence. It was big-time. We've got to keep it going."
 
Keeping that double-digit lead for most of the second half, the Bears had to get it going again when the Cowboys went on a 6-0 run and got to within four, 63-59, on a pair of free throws by Bryce Thompson.
 
Scoreless for almost two minutes, Baylor scored eight unanswered points on a Roach layup and six free throws to put the game away. Despite a distinct size advantage by OSU at pretty much every position, the Bears won the battle of the boards 41-33 and scored 14 second-chance points off 16 offensive rebounds.
 
"People think we're small. Obviously, we've got Norchad down there," Roach said of the 6-7 Miami transfer, who had to move to center when 6-10 Josh Ojianwuna suffered a season-ending knee injury. "But (crashing the glass) has to be our identity, especially going into March. We've got big-time games, big-time players in there. Every possession matters. If we're getting second-chance pints, that's big for us."
 
OSU's only double-digit scorer, Thompson scored 13 of his team-high 19 points for the Cowboys in the second half, going 4-for-8 from the floor and a perfect 5-of-5 from the line.
 
Baylor struggled mightily from the free throw line, going just 19-for-34, and had to hit six of its last eight from the field to get up to 39% shooting percentage overall. Edgecombe was 6-of-11 from the line and 1-of-6 from the floor, finishing with eight points, 10 rebounds and three steals.
 
"You lose three in a row, you need a win," Drew said. "And normally, you lose a couple in a row, it just takes some of that swag, some of that confidence. That's why I always prefer to play a team coming off a loss. Good thing is we got one, now we'll see what we can do in the last two."
 
Baylor goes back on the road to face TCU (16-13, 9-9) at 7 p.m. Tuesday in Fort Worth before returning home to host fourth-ranked Houston at 9 p.m. next Saturday. The Frogs, who handed the Bears one of their two homecourt losses back in January, snapped their own two-game losing streak with an 89-78 win over UCF on