No. 11 Texas squandered a 14-point lead in the final 3 minutes but benefited from a mental lapse by Baylor as the Longhorns held off the Bears 82-77 on Saturday.
Damion James had 19 points and 10 rebounds to lead Texas (21-4, 8-2 Big 12) to its fifth straight win, which didn’t come easy.
The Longhorns had three turnovers and seven missed free throws, including three consecutive one-and-one chances during a 10-0 run by Baylor in the closing minutes.
“If we make those free throws, it puts more pressure on them,” Texas coach Rick Barnes said. “We turned it over some. We knew they were going to be aggressive. But it changes everything if you step up and make free throws.”
Still, like they have every time for 10 seasons since Barnes became their coach, the Longhorns beat the Bears (17-7, 5-5), never giving up the lead despite their poor finish.
After D.J. Augustin missed a one-and-one chance with 1:31 left, Tweety Carter and Henry Dugat made consecutive 3-pointers for Baylor.
The Bears were within 77-76 with 28 seconds left when Texas guard A.J. Abrams got trapped in the backcourt, and his pass landed out of bounds.
“I felt like I was in a bad dream,” the Longhorns’ Justin Mason said. “Anything that could go wrong was going wrong.”
Except Baylor returned the favor when Aaron Bruce, trying to inbound the ball with everybody covered, called a timeout the Bears didn’t have and was assessed a technical foul.
Abrams hit the first of the technical free throws, then Carter was fouled and hit a free throw - the last point for Baylor coming with 16 seconds left. Two free throws by Augustin made it 81-77.
Abrams finished with 13 points and Mason had 12. Augustin added 10 assists and eight points, but was only 2-of-12 from the field and missed three of the late free throws.
“Everybody gets tired, but we were out there fighting through it,” Augustin said. “My teammates stepped up.”
LaceDarius Dunn and Dugat each had 19 points for Baylor, which has lost five of six since getting into the national rankings for the first time since 1969.
The Bears spent two weeks in the AP Top 25 but dropped out after their 80-72 loss at Texas two weeks ago, when they blew an early 14-point lead.
“We can’t let a couple of games get us down because there’s plenty of season to go,” said Baylor’s Kevin Rogers, who had 12 points and 14 rebounds. “We can only take things from this game and learn.”
Curtis Jerrells and Tweety Carter had 11 points each for the Bears.
Longhorns freshman Gary Johnson had 12 points and nine rebounds, and Connor Atchley added 11 points on 5-of-7 shooting.
Baylor shot only 24 percent (9-of-38) before halftime. Then when the Bears finally hit a few field goals after halftime, the Longhorns answered each time.
Dugat made a fadeaway jumper and Dunn hit three consecutive 3-pointers in a span of 1:37.
Except Baylor only trimmed one point off its 14-point deficit in that spurt and still trailed 55-42 when Abrams hit a 3-pointer with 14½ minutes left.
Augustin had three of his 10 assists and made a 3-pointer in the first 2:50 after halftime as Texas put together an 11-3 run.
After a nifty pass to Atchley for an easy layup, Augustin had an ally-oop pass to James for a dunk and Baylor coach Scott Drew called a timeout less than a minute into the half. Augustin then hit a 3-pointer before two more baskets by Atchley, the second an ally-oop dunk from Augustin, and another timeout.
Baylor was 0-for-13 on 3-pointers - and 6-for-32 shooting overall - before Dunn hit a rainbow 3-pointer with 4:23 left in the first half.
The Bears shot 60 percent (18-of-30) after halftime, including 7-of-14 on 3s. Texas responded with 63-percent shooting (17-of-27) with six 3-pointers.
“Ironically, when our offense comes on,” Drew said, “Our defense goes off.”
