Chuck O’Bannon Jr. hit a go-ahead jumper with four seconds to play and Mike Miles Jr. scored a career-high 33 points as No. 17 TCU came from behind to beat No. 19 Baylor 88-87 on Wednesday in a Big 12 Conference battle in Waco, Texas.
The Bears led by 17 points with three minutes to play in the first half and 10 at halftime before TCU (13-1, 2-0 Big 12) charged back to go up 76-74 on a layup by Damion Baugh with 4:23 to play. Baylor answered with a 5-0 run punctuated by a 3-pointer by Adam Flagler a minute later.
Miles hit a 3-pointer with 42 seconds remaining to bring the Horned Frogs within a point and then passed to O’Bannon for the deciding basket from just inside the arc. After a series of timeouts, Baylor’s Keyonte George drove to the basket with a chance for the game-winning layup, but his shot was blocked by Xavier Cork to seal the win for TCU.
Baugh and Eddie Lampkin added 15 points each and Emanuel Miller had 13 for TCU, which has won 11 straight games.
George, a freshman, poured in a career-high 27 points for the Bears (10-4, 0-2). Flagler and LJ Cryer added 13 apiece, Josh Ojianwuna scored 11 and Langston Love tallied 10 points in the loss. Baylor shot just 28.6 percent from the floor in the second half.
Baylor’s first four baskets, two of them by George, were from beyond the arc and helped it to an early 12-11 lead. After TCU tied the game at 13 on two free throws by Miles, the Bears ripped off a 12-4 run capped by another 3-pointer by George to build their lead to eight points at the halfway mark of the first half.
The Horned Frogs cut the deficit to four points on three occasions, the last of which came after a Miles jumper made it 29-25 at the 7:39 mark of the half. Baylor then forged a 10-2 spurt to go up 39-26 with 5:16 to play in the half. The Bears eventually led by 17 points before settling for a 49-39 lead at the break.
George led all scorers with 16 points before halftime, as he canned 4 of 5 shots from beyond the arc. Miles paced the Horned Frogs with 12 points in the half while Miller added 11.
–Field Level Media
