Around the Big 12: Week 11 (Basketball)
One of the best conferences in college basketball kept on rolling this week, as four of the six ranked teams in the Big 12 are coming off wins. This includes Baylor, which is still riding a 17-game winning streak and just picked up one of its best wins yet over Texas on Tuesday.
Looking further into Baylor, the Bears remain the second best team in the country and are coming off a win against the second best team in the conference and sixth best team in the country in the Longhorns. The game wasn’t close, as the Bears cruised to an 83-69 win. Davion Mitchell played one of his best games with 27 points: just four points shy of his season high. Jared Butler pitched in with 21 points of his own. The Bears have one more game this week against TCU, which ranks third worst in the Big 12.
With the Longhorns now on a two-game losing streak, this sets up a four-way tie for second place in the conference with each team being 3 1/2 games back of Baylor. Both Kansas and West Virginia are coming off wins and will play each other on Saturday.
For the Jayhawks, their last game was a breeze against in-state rival Kansas State. The Jayhawks took control of the second half to win 74-51. It was a balanced effort with four players scoring in double digits, most notably David McCormack, who recorded a double-double.
West Virginia nearly had the opposite fate as Kansas, as the Mountaineers went down to the wire against Big 12 bottom-feeder Iowa State. The Cyclones made a second-half comeback and had a chance to take the lead before Penn State transfer Rasir Bolton turned the ball over, allowing the Mountaineers to sink the game-winning free throws; 76-72 was the final.
Oklahoma suffered a tough road loss to knock itself into the four-way tie. The Sooners couldn’t recover from an 18-point first half against No. 13 Texas Tech. They played great defense on Red Raiders star Mac McClung, who recorded only six points, all coming on free throws. But Umoja Gibson’s 14 points weren’t enough for the Sooners in a 57-52 loss. Oklahoma will look to rebound against Iowa State on Saturday.
As for Texas Tech, the Red Raiders’ win over Oklahoma tallies their current winning streak up to two games. The Red Raiders are now a half game out of second place after wins against Oklahoma and LSU.
Logan Bourandas is a sophomore majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, email lxb5412@psu.edu.
