Down, but far from out: Shorthanded Bears make fiery comeback to stun No. 11 Kansas

Honestly, as victories go, they don’t get a whole lot bigger for Scott Drew and the Baylor Bears.

Down to just five players in their regular rotation by the end of the game, the Bears demonstrated an inspiring level of grit. Baylor overcame a scary injury to star freshman VJ Edgecombe to erase a 21-point deficit and capture a mammoth 81-70 upset of No. 11 Kansas before a stunned but delighted crowd of 7,500 on Saturday at the Foster Pavilion.

Drew labeled it a “miracle” and called it “God’s win.” But he also gave his shorthanded team plenty of credit, too.

“I’ve been here 22 years, and I don’t know if I’m more proud of a group,” Drew said. “I mean, down to limited numbers. VJ out, what that group was able to do. I’m glad it’s on YouTube. I’ll watch that again someday.”

Drew has been using a seven-man rotation in recent weeks due to injuries to Jeremy Roach (concussion protocol) and Langston Love (lingering ankle soreness). Then with just under 15 minutes to play, Edgecombe crumpled to the court after attempting a driving layup, appearing to roll his ankle. (A Baylor spokesman termed it a “lower leg injury.”) Edgecombe hobbled to the locker room and didn’t play the rest of the way, shortening the BU rotation even further.

Drew had no update on Edgecombe’s condition in the postgame press conference, but was happy to see the freshman on the court celebrating with his teammates in the postgame hoopla.

“VJ will be back when he can be back because he cares about his team, and he wants to win. His intentions are always pure,” Drew said.

Baylor (14-7, 6-4), which trailed by 21 with 90 seconds left in the first half and by 19 at intermission, had a mountain to climb. But freshman guard Robert Wright III served as the team’s lead Sherpa and guided the Bears to the summit.

Wright spearheaded Baylor’s comeback with 20 second-half points, finishing with a career-high 24 for the game while shooting 9-of-16 from the floor and 6-of-6 from the foul line. He also added six assists and two steals.

“It was really cool,” Wright said. “My teammates just kept telling me that they trusted me, and that it was my turn just to take over the game. So, just those guys trusting in me and me just making the plays and trusting myself.”

Baylor shot 27.6% in the first half. Defensively the Bears found themselves consistently bamboozled by Kansas veteran center Hunter Dickinson in falling behind. Drew said the Bears were “embarrassed” by the way they played on both ends and were determined to rectify the situation in the second half.

They must’ve doused themselves in lighter fluid, because they played with a red-hot fire indeed. They looked like a completely different team. The Bears opened the second half on a 17-6 run, showing more aggressiveness defensively and crispness offensively.

At one point, Jalen Celestine buried a corner 3-pointer, then KU’s Dajuan Harris Jr. drew a foul on the other end and proceeded to brick a pair of free throws. That sent the BU students into a frenzy, since it clinched free cupcakes from the Silo Bakery, not to mention helping to contribute to Baylor’s comeback. The next trip down Celestine knocked in another 3, cutting the KU lead to 44-38 and prompting a timeout by Jayhawks coach Bill Self.

The stoppage didn’t slow Baylor’s momentum, though. After the Edgecombe injury, Wright took over, and eventually pushed Baylor in front, 47-46, when he picked up a steal, drew a foul and swished in a pair of free throws with 13:02 on the clock.

But every basketball fan alive has seen this movie before. The shorthanded team makes a comeback and turns it into a game, but runs out of gas as the healthier team responds.

That’s the way it seemed as if it might go, as Kansas (15-6, 6-4) bounced back with a 13-2 run, taking a 59-49 lead following a bucket inside from KJ Adams.

“We’ve all been around a lot of games, and you exert so much energy to get back, and then you don’t get over the hump, and then they stretch it back, and you don’t have anything in the tank,” Drew said. “I mean, that’s the normal story. That’s where a miracle comes in when they get it back to 10. And then we made another run and then finished it.”

Indeed, much to the satisfaction of the rocking home folks, the Bears had the last laugh. Baylor stormed back to tie the score at 63 on a slick step-through bucket from Wright, whose aggressiveness attacking the basket seemed to increase with each additional basket.

Then the Bears just kept coming. They regained the lead at 66-63 when Celestine dodged a flying KU defender, reset his position with a sidestep dribble and knocked in another 3-pointer.

Down the stretch, Baylor’s big men Josh Ojianwuna and Norchad Omier attacked the defensive glass to keep KU from getting any second-chance opportunities. Then those guys went to the other end and knocked down free throws when the Jayhawks played the foul game to stop the clock.

By the time Ojianwuna got a runout dunk after the Bears broke a Kansas full-court press, the party was on for the Bears.

“It was a great win, great win by our guys,” Wright said. “Great for Norchad and Josh making those free throws at the end, closing the game up. We just fought to the end. Guys went down, VJ went down. People probably doubted us even more, but we just stayed together and kept praying and then let God do the rest.”

Omier scored 18 points and yanked 16 rebounds, managing to avoid fouling out despite getting hit with his fourth foul with 10:29 to play.

“I think about it this way: When the other team thinks I’m going to get softer, I just get smarter,” Omier said. “So, that’s how I look at it: be smarter but not less aggressive.”

Edgecombe picked up 14 points, five rebounds and two steals before leaving with his injury. Celestine had 12 points, hitting 4 of 8 from 3-point range, while Ojianwuna went for 11 points and nine rebounds.

Jayden Nunn had a tough shooting game for the Bears, going 1-of-8 from the field, but he had a strong drive to the cup for a layup while drawing contact during the midst of Baylor’s rally. Nunn fouled out with 1:11 to go, leaving Baylor with only five players in its regular rotation.

Still, the Bears survived.

And they enjoyed themselves afterward. Drew grabbed a microphone and thanked the crowd for their support following the game. The student section responded with a “Rob-ert Wright! Rob-ert Wright!” chant, serenading BU’s “other” star freshman guard.

For Kansas, it marked the largest lead the Jayhawks had ever blown in a loss in program history. Afterward, Bill Self joked that Baylor must’ve provided KU with some bad oranges for the locker room at halftime.

Ultimately, though, he said that his team played badly in the second half, and Baylor played fantastic.

“They have a chance to be dangerous when they get all their pieces together,” Self said.

Dickinson had 20 points for Kansas, but his impact was muted in the second half. Harris added 12 points and eight assists in his return to the Jayhawk lineup after a one-game absence.

Things won’t necessarily get any easier for Baylor, which travels to Lubbock to face No. 22 Texas Tech on Tuesday. The Bears might have Roach back for that one, as Drew said after the Kansas game that the senior guard had been trending toward being available before the team got the word late Friday that he’d be out again. Roach suffered his second concussion of the season late in a home loss to TCU on Jan. 19.

But whatever happens in the days to come, the Bears earned the right to savor this one for a while.

“Anytime you beat the top 25 team, let alone Kansas and a Coach Self team that they don’t beat themselves, so much respect for him and what they do and how they do it,” Drew said. “So, obviously the momentum is good, but we’ve got to get guys healthy. … I just want to see what it looks like when everybody’s out there. We work so hard in recruiting to get this group together, and we just want to see what it looks like, and hopefully we’re getting closer to that.”