After three upsets in as many days, his Bears are on the verge of making all those struggles a distant memory.
LaceDarius Dunn made the go-ahead 3-point shot with 1:12 remaining and Baylor ended a 24-game losing streak against Texas, advancing to the Big 12 Conference Tournament championship game for the first time with a 76-70 victory Friday night.
One more win and the Bears will be NCAA Tournament-bound, just as they thought they’d be at the beginning of the season - even if it seemed all but impossible as recently as the start of the week.
“I believe in God, and I know he can do miracles,” said Drew, whose 20-13 team will play No. 14 Missouri - which beat Oklahoma State 67-59 - in the championship game tonight. “So I definitely believe.”
Kevin Rogers scored 20 points and Henry Dugat 17 as the ninth-seeded Bears - who beat Nebraska in the first round and top-seeded Kansas in a quarterfinal - kept their bid alive to become the first team to win four games in four days to win the Big 12 title.
The only team to advance to the title game with a lower seed was 10th-seeded Missouri, which did it in the event’s inaugural year, 1997.
No team seeded lower than third has won the tournament.
“We came into it the underdog, and we took that as a chip on our shoulder,” Dugat said. “We came in, we knew what we had to do and . . . it’s not over yet. We’ve still got one more step to do, and we’re ready and willing to do it.”
A.J. Abrams scored 20 points to lead fifth-seeded Texas (22-11), which had reached the final the past three years. Damion James added 11 points and Gary Johnson 10.
Baylor had not beaten Texas since 1998, before Rick Barnes took over as the Longhorns’ coach and reeled off two dozen wins against the opponent Texas has played more than anyone else in its history.
“I really don’t like that streak,” Drew said. “It’s a situation where you had so many close games with Texas and chances, and you just knew it’s just a matter of time before you’re going to break through.”
After backup guard Varez Ward scored four straight points to put Texas up 65-61 with 2:39 left, the Bears reeled off eight straight points to take a surprising lead.
Dunn had his first 3-point try swatted out of bounds by James at the left wing, but he came right back moments later and hit from the opposite side to put Baylor up 67-65.
Abrams missed a 3 at the other end before Curtis Jerrells hit two foul shots to stretch the Bears’ lead to four. A deep 3 by Abrams got Texas back within 72-70, but Dunn then sealed it with four more free throws. Baylor’s bench players emptied onto the court as players celebrated a long-sought win.
“This time of the year, it’s going to be a very fine line between winning and losing,” Barnes said, “and down the stretch we didn’t make the plays that we needed to make.”
Dunn scored 16 points and Jerrells added 13. The Bears outrebounded Texas 35-27 and had 21 points off of their 18 offensive rebounds.
“We got here for a reason,” Dunn said. “We got here for just leaving it out on the court at the end of the game."
