MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Coach Scott Drew jumped on Mark Vital’s back after Baylor won the Big 12 championship, pointed his finger at the sky and ran out of the court in front of his players to prepare for an even more raucous celebration.
“I managed to get them to the locker room, get the water ready and get them, ” said Drew.” I also prepared cold water for them. ”
Jared Butler scored 25 points before dropping out, Davion Mitchell hit the basket in overtime, and third-placed Bears won No. 6 West Virginia 94-89 on Tuesday for the first title of the Bears regular 12 major .
Baylor (19-1, 11-1 Big 12) recovered in great shape from his only loss of the season at No. 13 Kansas on Saturday. The Bears struggled in their two previous games, coming off a three-week stoppage because of problems with COVID-19 on the show.
After achieving just 58 points against the Jayhawks, Baylor maintained his energy and touch points until the end against the Mountaineers (17-7, 10-5).
“Probably the number one moment in Baylor,” said Butler, who suffered a foul in overtime just to return to the court after the match was over to embrace all the teammates in sight.
Drew, whose 18 seasons in Baylor were spent watching other teams, especially Kansas, take the title home, joked that he jumped on Vital’s fifth-year back because “Mark is the only one who has been in Baylor the longest than me”.
Butler finished with 25 points. Mitchell scored four of Baylor’s 13 points in overtime and finished with 20. Matthew Mayer had the season’s 18-point record for Bears.
Taz Sherman left the bench to set the record for his career with 26 points for the Mountaineers. Miles McBride added 19 points and Sean McNeil scored 18, including 15 after the break.
West Virginia got just one field goal in overtime.
Baylor jumped to a quick double-digit lead and for a time the game looked like a defeat. But the Bears were goalless for almost six minutes before the break, allowing West Virginia to keep the score closed for the rest of the game.
“It was a grinder, I’m not going to lie,” said Butler. “We are still a little rusty. We are still a little out of shape, especially me. But we fight it. We knew it would be difficult. We knew that West Virginia would give us its best.
Butler’s layup with 2.7 seconds remaining in regulation took the game to overtime tied at 81. But he failed at 1:15 from the end of overtime.
“It was extremely difficult, ” Butler said.” I just couldn’t watch the game. ”
Sherman hit one of two free throws to put the Mountaineers ahead 89-88, before Mitchell’s tray 59 seconds from the end of extra time put Baylor ahead to stay. Mitchell then attacked McBride 27 seconds from the end, and Mitchell hit two free throws 18 seconds from the end for the final margin.
“I think in overtime we just lost that fire and energy, and we let it slip away, ” said McNeil.
Moving from that defeat in Kansas to the conference champion in a matter of three days was an instant solution to Baylor’s prospects.
“When you lose, it’s like a storm cloud over your head,” said Butler. “Wherever you go, everything is not the same.
“This victory and what we achieved at Baylor will change the whole atmosphere of the program. It gives us our confidence back. ”
It is the first conference title for the Bears since they won the 1950 Southwest Conference championship. The Bears has improved to 4-0 against the top 10 teams this season. They shot 51% (36 of 70) from the ground at West Virginia. The best 3-point pitching team in the conference made 13 of them.
Baylor goes for a regular season sweep of No. 17 Oklahoma State at home on Thursday.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.