Houston Hangs on in OT Thriller against Baylor
The marquee noon start time game to watch was a massive Big-12 showdown that featured the second-ranked Houston Cougars traveling less than three hours to Waco to face off against the eleventh-ranked Baylor Bears. Houston jumped out to an early lead to quiet the home crowd and looked to be the far better team in the first half. Senior forward J’Wan Roberts played a large role in the Cougar’s first-half domination, as he had 11 points and a ridiculous five steals at the intermission. Houston’s lead reached 17 at the 12-minute mark in the first half, and they went into the breakup by a score of 41-25.
Baylor Head Coach Scott Drew must have had an excellent motivational halftime speech performance, as the Bears came out of the half with a noticeably different energy and intensity. Baylor went on a 12-0 run to start the second half to cut the lead to just four, but Houston was able to regather themselves and build the lead back up to eight with just five minutes to go. The Bears had to make a run to keep the game within reach, and that is exactly what they did to cut it to a one-point game at the two-minute mark. Houston would find themselves up two after hitting one of two free throws, but Baylor center Yves Missi scored his only basket with just four seconds left to tie the game. Missi was fouled on the play as well, but missed the free throw which ultimately sent the game to overtime.
Houston was the team that was able to find some offensive contributions in overtime, as the Bears were only able to record three points in the first 4:53 of overtime, scoring two lay-ups in garbage time within the last five seconds of the game. The Cougars came out victorious 82-76 to secure a huge road win for the conference standings. Houston now finds themselves at 24-3 (11-3 Big 12 play) and remains the top seed in the Big 12 Conference standings by a game. They are firmly on the one-seed line in current projections of the NCAA tournament field. Baylor drops to 19-8 (8-6 Big 12 play) and can’t be feeling great after losing both games this week, albeit both extremely difficult matchups. They should still be in the mix in the Big 12 but must rebound quickly for an away matchup against TCU.
