No. 12 Bears Give Sooners a Fond Farewell 79-62 (2024)

WACO, Texas — Jayden Nunn had a career night as the No. 12 Baylor Bears (18-6, 7-4) romped the Oklahoma Sooners (18-7, 6-6) in the Foster Pavilion 79-62.

Nunn’s 27 points were the second most of his career as he was 6-9 from three and 8-12 overall. He had a game-dominating impact with great defense at the top of the zone to cause turnovers and transition opportunities, something the Bears have not been great at creating very often this season. He was absolutely unconscious all night, but totally in control.

Ja’Kobe Walter (10 points, 6 rebounds), seemed to have a sense that this was coming from Nunn. “You see all the behind the scenes work that he’s been putting in lately, trying to be more consistent knocking down shots every day. Today, I think you could see it on the court. We were all smiling every time he hit a bucket…Now that’s his identity.”

The key to this game was the defense. Baylor’s zone worked well to neutralize Oklahoma’s driving game. In the first half it forced an 8-0 run in which Oklahoma was 1-7 with several turnovers. Even when the Sooners guards could get the ball to the high post, Dennis and Nunn did a great job of digging down from the top for steals.

Porter Moser came away very impressed with Baylor’s defensive effort. “They have a long zone. They play well, they’re really long,” he said. “We couldn’t get it to the soft spots…They played hard. That’s the key to a zone. You gotta play hard and communicate.”

What Drew likes the most in his team’s defense is how flexible the team has been to move towards more zone as the season has gone on. The buy-in is a testament to the team’s humility. “That’s one thing that’s really great about this team is they let us coach,” Drew noted.

Nunn, too, remarked how it’s been a learning experience to learn the new scheme. “This zone is really something new for me. I’ve never, never seen this zone. It’s like a matchup zone, but I’ve never seen this zone before in my years of playing college basketball.”

The Bears built their lead down the stretch of the first half, sparked by a torrent of threes and some inspired play from Nunn. His defense gave Baylor opportunities to play in the open floor, and he was able to capitalize on OU’s scrambled defense by raining down threes, then by driving inside to the rim. He was 6-8 from the floor and 4-5 from three, and Baylor enjoyed a 16-3 run that Oklahoma just couldn’t answer.

From there, the second half was on cruise control. Baylor continued mixing man and zone defense; Nunn continued hitting threes; and Oklahoma just couldn’t maintain control of the ball. Oklahoma finished the game with 12 assists to 12 turnovers. Baylor had 16 assists to a mere 5 turnovers. This was a welcome sight for Drew after turning it over 21 times on Saturday against the Kansas Jayhawks.

“16-5 is a lot more true to what we’ve been taking care of the basketball than the 21 we had in Kansas, so hopefully we left the turnover issue up there,” Drew said afterwards

Don’t think this was Baylor taking advantage of a lesser opponent, either. Oklahoma came into the game ranked 25th in KenPom and has been in and out of the AP Top 25 all year. Tonight’s game was a matter of schematic advantage (Baylor’s zone neutralizing the Oklahoma guards) and the continuing impact of Yves Missi’s size inside. The freshman big finished with 12 points, and while he had just 1 rebound, his presence inside created rebounding opportunities for his teammate (the zone tends to create longer rebounds, anyway, as opponents will take more long jumpers). Whether it was duck-ins from Jalen Bridges (14 points, 5 rebounds) or Missi taking his man off the dribble from the top of the arc, Oklahoma simply had no answer for Baylor’s size.

One last little nugget on why the zone was perfect to deploy on OU: Oklahoma has averaged more than 26 free throw attempts per game in their last five games. The zone cuts down the fouls, and thus the free throws. With the easy points cut off, Oklahoma couldn’t compensate elsewhere.

Baylor had 5 players score in double-digits. Despite the bench getting outscored 22-5 and losing the rebounding battle 26-24, Baylor got that all back in points off turnovers (22-6) and in second chance points (13-3). RayJ Dennis led the game with 8 assists along with his 11 points.

Oh, and wondering where Baylor would turn to for bench scoring with Langston Love out a second straight game with an ankle injury? That would be Austin Sacks, who led the Bears in bench scoring by nailing a filthy step back in his defenders face in the closing seconds of the game.

Baylor will be on the road the next two games as they travel the breadth of the country, first traveling to Morgantown on Saturday before the quick turnaround in Provo, Utah on Tuesday night. This will be the only regular season meeting between the Bears and the Mountaineers, and BYU will be looking to avenge a near loss back on January 9th.