WACO, Texas — There was a barrage of 3-pointers, alley-oop passes for highlight dunks, a huge rebounding advantage and all those assists for No. 4 Baylor.
And finally a breather for the Bears, who remained undefeated with a 106-65 victory over Oklahoma State on Saturday.
“That’s just the depth we have. We have a lot of confidence in each other. We know how to play with each other,” Perry Jones III said. “It’s just having guys on the floor that you’re comfortable with, and everybody’s comfortable with everybody. So that’s a plus for us.”
Jones, the preseason Big 12 player of the year, had 19 points on 8-of-12 shooting with 12 rebounds. Freshman Quincy Miller had a season-high 21 points and newcomer Pierre Jackson scored 18 points with five of Baylor’s season-high 15 3-pointers.
Baylor (17-0, 4-0) extended its school-record winning streak to 17 games in advance of a big test Monday night at No. 10 Kansas. The Bears went into Saturday as one of three undefeated teams in major college basketball, along with No. 1 Syracuse and No. 15 Murray State
“They played great. We played bad. There you go,” said Cowboys coach Travis Ford, who answered only one question in his postgame news conference that lasted less than 30 seconds. “They played really, really, really well. Really, really, really well.”
It would certainly be hard to argue with him.
The Bears scored their most points ever in a Big 12 game that didn’t go to overtime. It was their most 3-pointers in a game since making 15 against Prairie View on Dec. 13, 2008, but still five short of the school record set in 1995.
Baylor, coming off a 75-73 victory at Kansas State that was its third two-point win in five games, had a 48-25 rebounding advantage along with 25 assists against Oklahoma State. The Bears shot 53 percent overall (36 of 68) and 52 percent on 3-pointers (15 of 29) and were well in control by halftime despite a slow start.
Keiton Page and Markel Brown each had 15 points for the youthful Cowboys (9-8, 2-2), whose primary eight-man rotation includes five freshmen and only one senior.
“There are not a lot of games where you have everybody play and everybody contributes,” Baylor coach Scott Drew said. “Everybody that played gave something to the team, did something for the team that made us better. As a coach, that’s when you’re happiest, when you players are all happy.”
Six Bears made 3-pointers, nine scored and 10 had a rebound.
Quincy Acy had 15 points, six rebounds and two blocked shots, swatting one away with so much force midway through the second half that the ball wound up landing on the Oklahoma State bench.
“Just relieving some anger,” Acy said. “I had like six turnovers, it was just all bad.”
A couple of minutes later, Acy made a 3-pointer and walked away holding up three fingers toward his teammates.
The Bears already had eight 3-pointers by halftime, when they led 46-31. Jones then started the second half with a short baseline jumper.
Jones put the Bears up 61-41 with 13:52 left when he made a layup after an alley-oop pass from Miller was just mistimed.
But everything worked out perfectly on a highlight play in the first half. Jackson moved around a defender near the free throw line, but instead of taking the open shot threw an alley-oop pass to Jones for a monster dunk and a 33-23 lead.
Ford quickly called a timeout and was on the court almost before the play was done.
The Cowboys have dominated the series, including a 22-7 advantage since 1998. But Baylor has won the last six meetings in the Ferrell Center, including Saturday.
Things were going so good for Baylor that Jackson made a 3-pointer late in the first half after the ball rolled around the rim a few times. When the ball finally dropped through the hoop for a 41-27 lead, the 5-foot-10 Jackson did a pirouette-like move near halfcourt.
Brady Heslip then stole the ball from Cezar Guerrero, who was still face-down on the court when Acy slammed the ball home.
Jackson made another 3-pointer from the top of the key in the final minute of the first half.
Baylor got off to a slow start, even though Miller hit a 3-pointer in the opening minute of the game. The Bears didn’t score again until Heslip made a 3-pointer to tie the game at 6 with 16:36 left, and then went another 2 minutes before Jones hit a jumper that made it 8-6 and put them ahead to stay.
Jones dismissed the idea of this being a statement game for Baylor before going to Kansas.
“No, not at all. Just taking it one game at a time,” Jones said. “Not looking ahead until it’s time. Now it’s time to get ready for Kansas. And that’s what we need to focus on now.”
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