No. 20 Baylor 54, Texas Tech 49: Taurean Prince scored a season-high 22 points as the visiting Bears held on to avoid a devastating upset.
Lester Medford scored 10 points and Royce O'Neale added nine points and six rebounds for Baylor (19-7, 7-6 Big 12), which snapped a two-game losing streak and won for the fifth time in its last six trips to Lubbock. Rico Gathers was limited to two points on 1-of-3 shooting and grabbed six rebounds for the Bears.
Devaugntah Williams scored 15 points and Zach Smith added 10 for Texas Tech (12-15, 2-12), which has lost four straight and six of its last seven. Norense Odiase contributed nine points and nine rebounds as the Red Raiders shot 35.4 percent and failed to reach 60 points for the 10th time in their last 12 contests.
Baylor trailed by as many as six points early, but Prince scored eight points in less than 90 seconds to key a 13-0 run. The Bears extended their advantage to 34-26 at the break on O'Neale's 3-pointer with less than 30 seconds left in the half.
The Bears went cold coming out of the break, and Williams and Toddrick Gotcher made back-to-back 3-pointers before Smith's putback tied it at 41 with just under 10 minutes to play. Texas Tech failed to capitalize on two opportunities to take the lead before Kenny Chery fed Prince for a bucket to make it 45-43 and found O'Neale for a triple and Baylor closed it out.
GAME NOTEBOOK: Smith (38) recorded two of Texas Tech's seven blocked shots and broke the school mark for blocks by a freshman, surpassing Will Flemons' total of 37 in 1989-90. … Baylor has held opponents to 30 or fewer first-half points in 20 of its 26 games. … Prince's 18 first-half points are the most by a Baylor player since Brady Heslip had 20 before the break against Long Beach State on March 20, 2013.
Baylor | Texas Tech | |
Taurean Prince 22 | Scoring | Devaugntah Williams 15 |
Kenny Chery 4 | Assists | Keenan Evans 2 |
Rico Gathers 6 | Rebounds | Norense Odiase 9 |
Kenny Chery 4 | Free Throws Made | Norense Odiase 5 |
Taurean Prince 3 | Steals | Keenan Evans 3 |
Rico Gathers 1 | Blocks | Keenan Evans 2 |
Team | Points | FG% | 3PM-3PA | FTM-FTA | Assists | Rebounds | Blocks | Steals | Turnovers |
Baylor | 54 | 38.3 | 8-24 | 10-13 | 7 | 29 | 2 | 6 | 16 |
Texas Tech | 49 | 35.4 | 5-24 | 10-16 | 9 | 24 | 7 | 10 | 10 |