Allen's two-way effort, Rice's late flourish puts No. 10 Texas past No. 11 Baylor, 76-71

No. 10 Texas led for the entire second half thanks to Timmy Allen‘s best two-way performance of the season and clutch shots late from Sir’Jabari Rice, but the Longhorns had to convert at the line late in order to seal a win in the final minutes over No. 11 Baylor.

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Baylor never fell behind by more than 10 in the second half, and cut the margin to under five points in the last three minutes. But clutch free throws from Allen and Rice, plus a confident jumper from Marcus Carr in the final 30 seconds, iced the game 76-71 in the Longhorns’ favor and improved Texas’ Big 12 record to a conference-leading 7-2.

Allen was the tip of the spear on both ends of the floor for the Longhorns. He scored 18 points on 7-of-10 shooting and was 4-of-5 at the line, including two free throws in the final minutes to keep the margin at four. He also drew the assignment of star Baylor freshman Keyonte George.

“The challenge was for Timmy to go out and guard a pro right now,” Texas interim head coach Rodney Terry said. “He’s going to be guarding pros next year. We needed to have him give us his best tonight, and I thought he did that.”

Allen called it one of the harder days he’s played since arriving in Austin. The effort was evident throughout the game.

“I just tried to make him earn shots,” Allen said of guarding George. “I’ll take tough ones. If he makes it, cool. Head down, next play. Make him work. Make him run, make him sweat. Make him get frustrated, try to get up in on him a little bit but credit to him. He still got it going.”

The Longhorn defense relied on Allen to keep George at bay. It was mostly successful, with the star freshman needing 18 shots to score 17 points, equivalent to his season scoring average.

The start was a slight bit auspicious for Texas as BU quickly put down dunks and hit open threes in the first few minutes. But Texas’ early defensive strategy proved to be effective at keeping the Bears on the perimeter for much of the game.

Problem for Texas was, Baylor was able to keep pace in the first half thanks to their three-point shooting volume. Drew’s team shot 40 percent from beyond the arc in the first half, slightly better than the 39-percent mark they posted from the field. LJ Cryer and Adam Flagler were both 2-of-4 from three, while George and Jalen Bridges both hit one shot from deep.

However, the UT defensive pressure eventually made perimeter shots tough to come by for Baylor in the second half. Cryer and George still got theirs on occasion, but thanks to Allen leading the defense Texas didn’t let either get hot from anywhere on a possession-to-possession basis and BU was just 2-of-11 from distance in the second half.

Allen ended up plus-6 in his 35 total minutes on the floor.

“Keyonte started 0-for-7 or 8 and Allen caused a lot of that,” Baylor head coach Scott Drew said.

Allen’s offensive contributions were just as important as those on the defensive end. In addition to his late free throws, he was the catalyst for the UT offense at important points in the second half. He nailed a jumper to cap a 6-0 run that gave the Longhorns an eight-point lead just out of the halftime break. In addition to his scoring total he added four assists over two turnovers.

“Timmy, a lot of times in our games, we’re able to play through him,” Terry said. “He calms us down.”

Baylor would try to battle back after halftime, but that’s when veteran sixth-man Rice stepped in. Rice scored 15 of his 21 points in the second half. It was his second consecutive outing with 20-or-more points and tied his season-high recorded in Knoxville on Saturday.

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Nine of his 21 arrived at key junctures in the final 10 minutes of the contest, with all nine the result of three-point shots. One occurred with 9:11 left to extend Texas’ lead to seven. The next once again extended the lead to seven with just over five minutes left. The third arrived with just over three minutes left to, of course, extend the lead to seven.

Thought quiet for most of the evening, Carr nailed a step-back jumper with 27 seconds remaining to give Texas a three-point lead. After George’s attempted response on a distant three was off the mark, Rice was fouled and stepped to the line to seal the game. He calmly hit both free throws, led a defensive stop on the opposite end, and jubilantly dribbled out the remainder of the clock to complete the 76-71 win.

Triple zeroes on the scoreboard marked Texas’ first win over Baylor since the 2018-19 season and vaulted the Longhorns into the top spot into the Big 12 standings.

“This Big 12, it’s a monster now every night,” Terry said. “You get it for one night, you keep a win or a loss one night and it’s onto the next, challenging, really good opponent that’s well-coached.”

Texas travels to Kansas State on Saturday then faces Kansas in Lawrence on Monday. It’s a tough stretch of conference games, but Texas began it with a win.

“We have to continue to take it one game at a time, 40 minutes by 40 minutes,” Terry said.