Texas looks for the resume boost a road win over Baylor could provide

Texas will be looking to bolster its NCAA Tournament resume with a win over No. 15 Baylor when the teams square off in Waco on Monday in a key Big 12 clash. It’s the final regular season game scheduled between the longtime rivals and will have a big say in the seedings for the upcoming conference tournament as well as the spots the teams will be assigned in the NCAA Tournament. 

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The game will tip at 8 p.m. and air on ESPN.

A win for Texas (19-10, 8-8 in Big 12 play) would guarantee a break-even record in the league’s gauntlet with a game to play and produce a season sweep against Baylor. The Longhorns won the first meeting of the year when Tyrese Hunter drove the lane and laid up the game-winner as time expired on Jan. 20.

Baylor, meanwhile, could clinch a top-four seed in the Big 12 Tournament with a victory over the Longhorns. It’s the first time the teams will play in the Bears’ new arena — the compact Foster Pavilion.

The Longhorns head north up I-35 with some momentum built by winning back-to-back games for the first time in five weeks and capturing three of their past four contests. Texas’ most recent outing was an 81-65 home win over visiting Oklahoma State on Saturday afternoon in which Dylan Disu scored 17 points, Chendall Weaver added 16 and Max Abmas hit for 15 points.

“We’re starting to figure out what we have to do on the defensive end of the floor in order to have success in the game overall,” Disu said. “We’ve stepped our game on defense, and that’s led to success.”

The Longhorns dominated the final 12 minutes, producing a 14-0 run to burst away from a game tied at 52 while getting points from five different players. Texas waltzed to the finish line thanks to a 12-1 edge in second chance points after halftime.

“At the end of the day, it’s about getting stops and we really put a big premium on that point of the game, when they went on a run,” Texas coach Rodney Terry said about that key stretch. “I told them, ‘hey guys, we’re taking care of the basketball.’ I think we answered the bell again today.”

The Bears (21-8, 10-6 Big 12) finish their home schedule after holding off No. 7 Kansas 82-74 on Saturday. RayJ Dennis had 14 of his team-high 19 points in the second half and distributed 10 assists for Baylor, which won its second consecutive game after two losses and is now alone in third place in the league standings with two games to play. 

“Throughout March — that’s when you want to be playing your best ball,” Dennis said. “All these games finishing out the regular season and into the Big 12 tournament are important, all the way to the NCAA tournament.”

Baylor reached double-digit conference wins for the sixth straight season and the 11^th time under coach Scott Drew. Prior to Drew, Baylor reached 10 or more conference wins just eight times dating back to when the Bears were members of the Southwest Conference from 1914 to 1996.

The Bears got 18 points from Jayden Nunn, 17 from Yves Missi and 11 from Ja’Kobe Walter as they fashioned a 13-2 run early in the second half to turn a one-point game into a 60-48 lead. Kansas never got closer than four points the rest of the way.

“In March, the whole world is watching college basketball,” Nunn said. “So just take it one game at a time, and just play as hard as you can so that when you look back, you’re not like, ‘I should have done this. I should have did that.’ Just go out there and do it and compete.”

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Texas leads the all-time series 165-97, and the Longhorns are 35-25 against Baylor since the formation of the Big 12 Conference (prior to start of 1996-97 season).