KANSAS CITY, Mo. — After overcoming the odds to win a share of the Big 12 regular season championship, the Baylor Bears saw their dreams of a Big 12 tournament title end in a flash, with a 72-67 upset loss to Oklahoma.
Baylor entered the Big 12 Tournament as the No. 2-seeded team in the conference after sharing a regular season title with Kansas. But, in their first game of the postseason, the Bears struggled to assert their dominance.
Oklahoma opened the game on a 7-0 run to put the Bears in an early hole. Baylor spent the rest of the half fighting back from that deficit.
One bright spot for the Bears was their ball security. In the first half, Baylor turned the ball over just one time. They did not allow a single point off a turnover. On the other side of the floor, Oklahoma turned the ball over 11 times, leading to 13 Baylor points.
Those points off turnovers helped the Bears erase their early deficit, and the Bears took the lead before the end of the half on a Dale Bonner three.
Baylor led Oklahoma 33-27 at the break.
In the second half, Oklahoma retook the lead behind a flurry of three point shooting, including a 9-0 run consisting entirely of three-point buckets.
With 3:52 remaining in the game, Baylor trailed 61-56.
James Akinjo then executed a steal-and-score to cut the lead to one. But, that was as close as the Bears would get.
Waco native and former University High basketball star Umoja Gibson sunk the Bears chances with an and-one bucket with less than a minute to play. That gave Oklahoma a two-possession lead, and Baylor never recovered.
With the loss, the Bears will now be forced to await their NCAA Tournament fate.
