WACO, Texas (AP) - Scott Drew was asked if he is worried about the mentality of his No. 12 Baylor Bears.
It was a fair question after a 66-64 home loss Saturday to No. 25 Oklahoma that ended the Bears’ 13-game home winning streak and dropped them to 1-3 in Big 12 play before playing at No. 15 Kansas on Monday night.
“I think any team who loses no matter what you say, they are affected. You can say we’re going to come out and they’ll be (ticked) off,” Drew uncharacteristically responded. “It’s just basketball. There’s parity. When you are winning, you’ve got swag and things are going better. When you are losing, you just can’t second-guess yourself.”
Buddy Hield scored all 19 of his points after halftime for Oklahoma (14-4, 3-2 Big 12), which shot only 23 percent in the first half and was down by eight points after Cory Jefferson made an inside basket on Baylor’s first shot of the second half.
The Sooners then reeled off 16 consecutive points, going ahead on a 3-pointer by Hield before Isaiah Cousins and Cameron Clark also hit from beyond the arc to cap that spurt.
Baylor (13-4, 1-3) was down 65-58 after Oklahoma freshman Jordan Woodard made two free throws with 29 seconds left. But Baylor’s 7-foot-1 center Isaiah Austin then hit a 3-pointer from the top of the key before Woodard, a 78 percent free throw shooter, missed after being fouled with 18 seconds left.
Austin hit another 3 from pretty much the same spot and Woodard had the ball again and was fouled. Woodard made the second of two free throws with 9.1 seconds left, leaving Baylor with one more chance.
Point guard Kenny Chery brought the ball down the court and got it to Royce O’Neale, whose pass toward Austin was deflected by Clark. O’Neale came away with the ball and turned for a shot, but it came after the buzzer and the basket that would have forced overtime didn’t count.
“Nine seconds is a long time,” Oklahoma coach Lon Kruger said. “Seconds are precious at that point, and the deflection kind of used up just enough time for the horn to go off before they got control of it.”
Oklahoma got into the AP poll this week for the first time since November 2009, then promptly lost 72-66 at Kansas State while shooting a season-worst 33 percent. The Sooners were even worse than that in the first half Saturday, shooting only 23 percent (7 of 30), before getting on target with their big run and hitting 58 percent (15 of 26) shots after halftime.
“In the first half we were tremendous defensively but we needed more separation at the beginning of the second half. We didn’t come out with the same defensive intensity and they made shots,” Drew said.
Chery knows where the blame goes for the letdown for the Bears, whose only non-conference loss was to No. 2 Syracuse.
“It’s on us as players,” Chery said. “You can’t teach effort.”
Clark had 14 points, 10 after halftime, and Woodard added 10 points with eight assists for Oklahoma. Ryan Spangler, the Gonzaga transfer, had seven points and nine rebounds.
Chery had 16 points and five assists for Baylor while Austin had 12 points and nine rebounds. Jefferson had 11 points and eight rebounds.
Baylor regained the lead on a putback by Jefferson with just over 9 minutes left. The lead then changed hands three more times and the game was tied three times before Hield’s 3-pointer with 4 minutes that put the Sooners ahead 58-57.
“I thought we did a better job of moving the ball in the second half,” Kruger said. “And of course, Buddy knocking down some 3s there, kind of jump-started everyone’s confidence, and that was great.”
The Bears were deliberate on their opening possession of the second half, making several passes before finally finding Jefferson inside for a basket that made it 32-24. They then went 5½ minutes before Jefferson scored again.
At one point, Drew ripped off his jacket in obvious anger with Austin down on the court after being elbowed in the face without a foul called. Drew even took two 30-second timeouts trying to slow down the Oklahoma run.
“I honestly don’t know what happened,” Jefferson said. “We just didn’t come out ready (in the second half). Not like we did in the first half.”
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