Keyonte George scored 23 points and Adam Flagler added 20 to help No. 14 Baylor to an 82-72 victory over Oklahoma on Wednesday in Waco, Texas.
The Bears (18-6, 7-4 Big 12) have won eight of their last nine games, while the Sooners (12-12, 2-9) have dropped six consecutive conference games and nine of their last 12 overall.
Baylor led by nine late in the first half but the Sooners fought back early in the second half with a 13-4 run to take their first lead since the early stages on Tanner Groves’ jumper with just less than 14 minutes remaining.
But then Flagler and Jonathan Tchamwa Tchatchoua helped put the Bears back in control.
Flagler bookended Baylor’s 14-6 run with field goals, including a 3-pointer to wrap up the stretch.
Tchamwa Tchatchoua, the 6-foot-8 forward who was playing just his second game of the season after making his return from last season’s devastating knee injury, drained a pair of 3-pointers in the stretch, including one moments after Oklahoma’s Milos Uzan had cut Baylor’s lead to one point with a trey with 10 minutes remaining.
Tchamwa Tchatchoua had made just six career 3-pointers in 85 career games in his first three college seasons but has four in his first two games this season.
After George carried the load in the first half, scoring 15, Flagler controlled much of the second half, scoring 14. Langston Love scored 19 points off the bench for Baylor.
Sooners coach Porter Moser continued to tinker with his lineup, inserting freshman Otega Oweh into the starting lineup for the first time this season, and using transfer Joseph Bamisile in an expanded role for the second consecutive game.
Oweh tied season highs with 10 points and six rebounds, while Bamisile had 10 points and a season-high seven rebounds in 18 minutes.
Grant Sherfield led the Sooners with 15 points.
While Baylor was 19 of 26 from the free-throw line, Oklahoma was just 6 for 12. The Sooners had made just two free throws before the final 3:16.
Baylor’s LJ Cryer suffered a leg injury in the first half and did not return.
–Field Level Media