Baylor Bears at TCU Horned Frogs

No. 6 Baylor uses late spurt for 62-53 victory at TCU

Then the Bears finally closed out their 10th straight Big 12 victory over TCU since their instate rival joined the league four years ago.

Ishmail Wainright swished a go-ahead 3-pointer with 4:16 left, and there was then a TCU miss and more than a minute before Johnathan Motley's layup for the Bears. Manu Lecomte added a layup to cap the 7-0 spurt that finally put Baylor (18-1, 6-1 Big 12) ahead to stay.

"This was typical of the Big 12. Hard-fought game, both teams playing extremely hard. The day after the game, it's amazing how drained everybody is," Baylor coach Scott Drew said. "I hope fans enjoy it, because we're worn out."

There were five ties and 13 lead changes after halftime.

The partisan sellout crowd of 7,276 might not have enjoyed it as much, but the Horned Frogs (14-5, 3-4) have shown great progress in their first season under coach Jamie Dixon, the former TCU point guard.

While the Frogs have already won two more games than all of last season, Dixon feels like they have let their last two game slip away late.

"Obviously got some disappointed guys in that locker room, me included," Dixon said. "Really thought we were here to win this game. ... My feeling we were ready to win them, and we were prepared, and we did things right, did things necessary."

Lecomte scored 17 points while Motley had 15 points and eight rebounds, along with a punctuating dunk in the final minute. That came soon after Lecomte's alley-oop pass for a dunk by Jo Lual-Acuil, who finished with 11 points.

Vlad Brodziansky had 19 points and 10 rebounds for TCU, while Kenrich Williams had 16 points and 12 rebounds.

BIG PICTURE

Baylor: This is the first time the Bears have ever been 18-1 overall or 6-1 in the Big 12. They have won their last three games since losing in their first game after reaching No. 1 for the first time in school history.

COMING FROM BEHIND

Baylor is 6-1 this season when trailing at halftime, and has outscored its opponents by more than 10 points in those second halves. "Blessed to have great leadership from the upperclassmen. They don't panic, they don't rattle, they stay together," Drew said. "And they believe in each other."

TCU led only 24 seconds in the first half, but grabbed a 28-26 halftime lead on Williams' 3-pointer with 7 seconds left. Baylor opened the second half with four straight layups.

CATCHING AIR

When asked about Wainright's go-ahead 3, Motley called it a "big shot. I air-balled one, Al (Freeman) too. The fans made sure they let us know. It didn't matter, we just stayed aggressive, and my teammates trusted me to shoot again."

UP NEXT

Baylor is home against Texas Tech on Wednesday before consecutive road games, including the SEC-Big 12 Challenge next Saturday at Ole Miss.

TCU plays its next two Big 12 games on the road, starting Monday at Oklahoma State. The Frogs then host Auburn before going to Kansas State.

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