LUBBOCK — In terms of seeding, Saturday’s regular-season finale didn’t mean anything.
Somebody forgot to tell that to the Red Raiders and Bears.
Showing the kind of fight that you’d expect from a rivalry that dates back to the old Southwest Conference days, Baylor and Texas Tech battled to the brink. The 11th-ranked Bears scratched back from a 16-point second-half deficit to take the lead, but the Red Raiders responded with a furious finishing run to take a 78-68 victory before a crowd of 14,432 at United Supermarkets Arena.
“Well, finished the Big 12 season. Never disappoints. … I thought we did a great job of coming back,” Baylor coach Scott Drew said. “Really credit Texas Tech for making some big shots. We had some defensive breakdowns and errors, that’s on us. But (Tech coach Grant McCasland’s) actions and plays caused a lot of that. Never easy losing, but they deserve a lot of credit.”
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Baylor wraps up the regular season with a 22-9 overall record and an 11-7 mark in Big 12 play. The Bears will be the No. 3 seed for next week’s Big 12 tournament and will have the double bye, as they’ll play at 8:30 p.m. on March 14 against an opponent to be determined.
Because of No. 1-ranked and Big 12 champion Houston’s rout of Kansas earlier in the day, the Bears and Jayhawks entered Saturday’s game knowing where they’d be slotted in next week’s Big 12 tourney in Kansas City. Baylor was locked into the No. 3 seed and Tech would finish with the No. 4 seed, win or lose on Saturday.
But who doesn’t like winning? Tech (22-9, 11-7) had no intention of finishing the season a loser on its home court, and the Red Raiders busted out of the gate on a 16-2 run to open the game.
Baylor made its first shot of the game on a jumper from Ja’Kobe Walter, but proceeded to miss its next five shots and commit three turnovers as Tech ran off 16 straight.
Pop Isaacs had it popping, as the Tech guard scored 15 first-half points in propelling the Red Raiders to a 40-27 lead at intermission. Isaacs doubled Baylor’s 3-point output in the first half by himself, as he hit two from deep while the Bears were just 1-for-8 as a team from behind the arc.
Baylor also didn’t give itself a single second-chance opportunity in the first half, tallying zero offensive rebounds.
“We pride ourselves on getting offensive rebounds,” Drew said. “Really credit Tech for doing a great job blocking out. Again, I didn’t prepare us to fight hard enough to get rebounds the first half. Second half, I thought we were more like ourselves. We’re a Top 25-rebounding team for a reason. I don’t know when the last time we had zero offensive rebounds in a half was. I don’t know if it’s ever happened. So, credit Tech.”
Baylor forced some Tech turnovers early in the second half to chip into the lead, but the Red Raiders responded to extend to as much as a 16-point lead.
But the Bears finally started attacking the basket, both with the ball in their hands and when it was bouncing around in the air on rebounds. Baylor had seven offensive boards in the second half.
“I think RayJ (Dennis) was doing a great job getting to the paint,” said Baylor guard Ja’Kobe Walter. “I think we saw when we got to the paint and they started helping out, we had 3s and we had the opportunity to hit them now. In the first half, we weren’t kicking it out. I think that’s probably the adjustment we made. Offensively, we started to move the ball more. But RayJ, when he was getting to the paint, they were crashing, and that’s when he had opportunities to kick it out and shots just started falling.”
Indeed, a Walter corner 3 that was set up by a kickout pass from Dennis gave Baylor a 54-53 lead, the Bears’ first lead since 2-0.
But Tech caught fire, hitting its next three 3-pointers to ignite a 14-2 run and shoot right back to a comfortable advantage.
“Pop (Isaacs) made a big 3 to take that lead back,” Drew said. “Again, I thought Mac did a good job of calling some good plays, they had some good looks. They made them and then they made some tough ones. And when you get on a run, you get the crowd going. That’s tough, especially when you exert that energy to come back. But, again, Tech was tougher than us from the tip.”
Down the stretch, Baylor was forced to play the foul game. That’s almost always a losing proposition when playing Tech, as the Red Raiders led the conference in free throw shooting at just under 78% as a team entering the game. In this one, the Red Raiders hit 17 of 24 (70.8%) and made their final seven in a row.
Isaacs had 20 points for Tech to lead all scorers, while Darrion Williams doubled his pleasure with 16 points and 11 rebounds.
Walter notched 15 points and two steals for Baylor. Jayden Nunn had 14 points, while Dennis finished with 12 points and five assists. Coming off a career-high 32 points the last time out, Jalen Bridges was limited to just five points on 2-of-6 shooting.
On the upside for Baylor, Langston Love made his return to the lineup from an ankle injury and contributed nine points off the bench on 4-of-7 shooting in 22 minutes. He topped Baylor in plus-minus with a plus-11.
“When you first lose somebody, it’s an adjustment, and then when they come back, it’s an adjustment,” Drew said. “It’s good we got Langston back, because we need to start getting some rhythm, rotations.”
With the loss to Texas Tech, Baylor ended up splitting with all five of the Big 12 teams it played twice, those being the Red Raiders, Texas, BYU, Kansas and TCU.
