By Kevin Lonnquist
Publisher
Since I wasn’t in a position to be around this game as I normally would with some other things in play, let’s take a look at this Baylor 81-66 victory at Oklahoma State differently.
>To break down the decisive 19-1 run in the second half that changed the game:
First – It started at the 12:22 mark and ended at the 6:32 mark. That’s 5:50 of clock time.
Second – The Cowboys were 0-6 from the field in which half of those shots were blocked. They also committed two turnovers.
Third – Baylor was 8-11 shooting as Jared Butler buried two 3s.
>The eruption of Mark Vital continues. He went 5-5 shooting in the second half and scored 12 of his 18 in the second half. Baylor’s second half was completely different as well. Once it could get around dealing with Oklahoma State’s zone, the Bears shot 53 percent in the second half and 46 percent from 3-point range in the second half.
>Butler is in the zone from the arc. Following his 6-7 Saturday, he’s now 13-16 over the last two games (81.3 percent) and finished with a game-high 22 points. That’s exactly what Baylor needs from him. He had been on this roller coaster in January. First time he’s strung really strong games together.
>In the preview I mentioned that Baylor opponents have committed 247 turnovers coming into this game and just over 50 percent came off of Baylor steals. That trend continued and was even better in this one. OSU had 16 miscues. Baylor had 10 steals and scored 19 points off those turnovers.
>With OSU short-handed with leading scorer Cade Cunningham and Rondel Walker unavailable, it changed how Oklahoma State coach Mike Boynton could use his bench. And maybe fatigue also played a role. He could only use three. In 32 minutes, they contributed only four points. Baylor’s bench scored 22.
>Baylor wasn’t great at the line, 9-14. But OSU didn’t exactly take advantage of its advantage, 16-25.
>Bears have won in Gallagher-Iba Arena for the sixth consecutive trip and have won 10 of the last 11 meetings from the Cowboys and is home to Kansas State on Tuesday for an 8:00 p.m. tipoff.
Key Quotes
Scott Drew on the turning point: “I think it changed right away in my opinion in the second half when we were able to score inside and limit them to one and done. We showed we were going to get stops and not give up second-chance points. Then Jared got hot and it really got us separation. If we had kept scoring and kept getting beat up on the glass and giving them a bunch of shots, there would have been no separation. So the fact that we came out locked in and focused, I think our staff did a great job helping them out defensively. At the end of the day, it’s players raising their level, and that’s what our guys do.”
Davion Mitchell on seeing Butler get hot: “Man, he’s ridiculous. He can really play the game of basketball, and he’s not cocky with it. He loves playing with us. When he was making those shots, he was telling us, ‘good pass.’ He didn’t really care about himself, he cared about his teammates more than himself.”
Jared Butler on facing the largest deficit of the year (34-25): “No, they did a really good job of slowing the game down at the beginning of the game. Our offense was kind of stagnant playing the 2-3 (zone), a lot of stoppage with fouls and stuff like that. It’s just always slow at Oklahoma State, it’s a tough place to play. They do a really good job, they made some huge shots. But, I don’t think there was ever any panic. We knew we were going to find our groove, and we knew they were giving us their best shot, at some point.”
Postgame Notes
Publisher
Since I wasn’t in a position to be around this game as I normally would with some other things in play, let’s take a look at this Baylor 81-66 victory at Oklahoma State differently.
>To break down the decisive 19-1 run in the second half that changed the game:
First – It started at the 12:22 mark and ended at the 6:32 mark. That’s 5:50 of clock time.
Second – The Cowboys were 0-6 from the field in which half of those shots were blocked. They also committed two turnovers.
Third – Baylor was 8-11 shooting as Jared Butler buried two 3s.
>The eruption of Mark Vital continues. He went 5-5 shooting in the second half and scored 12 of his 18 in the second half. Baylor’s second half was completely different as well. Once it could get around dealing with Oklahoma State’s zone, the Bears shot 53 percent in the second half and 46 percent from 3-point range in the second half.
>Butler is in the zone from the arc. Following his 6-7 Saturday, he’s now 13-16 over the last two games (81.3 percent) and finished with a game-high 22 points. That’s exactly what Baylor needs from him. He had been on this roller coaster in January. First time he’s strung really strong games together.
>In the preview I mentioned that Baylor opponents have committed 247 turnovers coming into this game and just over 50 percent came off of Baylor steals. That trend continued and was even better in this one. OSU had 16 miscues. Baylor had 10 steals and scored 19 points off those turnovers.
>With OSU short-handed with leading scorer Cade Cunningham and Rondel Walker unavailable, it changed how Oklahoma State coach Mike Boynton could use his bench. And maybe fatigue also played a role. He could only use three. In 32 minutes, they contributed only four points. Baylor’s bench scored 22.
>Baylor wasn’t great at the line, 9-14. But OSU didn’t exactly take advantage of its advantage, 16-25.
>Bears have won in Gallagher-Iba Arena for the sixth consecutive trip and have won 10 of the last 11 meetings from the Cowboys and is home to Kansas State on Tuesday for an 8:00 p.m. tipoff.
Key Quotes
Scott Drew on the turning point: “I think it changed right away in my opinion in the second half when we were able to score inside and limit them to one and done. We showed we were going to get stops and not give up second-chance points. Then Jared got hot and it really got us separation. If we had kept scoring and kept getting beat up on the glass and giving them a bunch of shots, there would have been no separation. So the fact that we came out locked in and focused, I think our staff did a great job helping them out defensively. At the end of the day, it’s players raising their level, and that’s what our guys do.”
Davion Mitchell on seeing Butler get hot: “Man, he’s ridiculous. He can really play the game of basketball, and he’s not cocky with it. He loves playing with us. When he was making those shots, he was telling us, ‘good pass.’ He didn’t really care about himself, he cared about his teammates more than himself.”
Jared Butler on facing the largest deficit of the year (34-25): “No, they did a really good job of slowing the game down at the beginning of the game. Our offense was kind of stagnant playing the 2-3 (zone), a lot of stoppage with fouls and stuff like that. It’s just always slow at Oklahoma State, it’s a tough place to play. They do a really good job, they made some huge shots. But, I don’t think there was ever any panic. We knew we were going to find our groove, and we knew they were giving us their best shot, at some point.”
Postgame Notes
- Baylor is 1 of 4 remaining undefeated teams (min. 4 games) and the nation’s final undefeated team from one of the Power-5 Conferences.
- Baylor improved to 14-0 for the first time since starting 15-0 on its way to No. 1 in 2016-17.
- The Bears have started a season 14-0 for the 3rd time in program history, all in the last 10 seasons (2012, 2017, 2021).
- Baylor improved to 7-0 in Big 12 play for the 2nd time in the league’s 25-year history (2020, 2021).
- Baylor is the nation’s only team to win every game this season by 8+ points.
- Baylor faced its largest deficit of the season when it trailed by 9 at 34-25 in the first half. BU’s largest previous deficit this season was 4 points (3 games).
- Baylor has built double-digit leads in all 14 games this season.
- Baylor trailed at halftime for just the 2nd time in 14 games this season.
- Baylor has now led by at least 5 points in all 44 games since the start of the 2019-20 season.
- Baylor won its 6th straight game in Stillwater and is 8-2 in its last 10 trips. The Bears were 3-24 all-time in Stillwater prior to 2012.
- Jared Butler (1,067 career points) moved into 28th on Baylor’s all-time scoring list, passing Jerry Mallett (1,053), Winston Moore (1,046) and Kelvin Chalmers (1,045).
- Mark Vital started his 57th career game in Big 12 play, passing Aaron Bruce for 2nd-most in program history behind only Curtis Jerrells (64 games).
- Vital (career-high 19 points) became the 11th different Baylor player to score in double-figures this season, the most of any Power-5 team and tied for 5th-most nationally behind only Murray State (13), UT Arlington (12), Georgia Southern (12) and Illinois State (12).
- Jonathan Tchamwa Tchatchoua had a career-high 4 blocks.
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