Live In-Game Updates: Baylor Bears Travel to West Virginia to Face Mountaineers
The Baylor Bears enter Wednesday night's game with the West Virginia Mountaineers outside the top 25 for the first time since March 2019, losers of three straight contests. Last week, Baylor dropped two heartbreakers by a combined three points to top 25 opponents TCU and Kansas State.
While the Bears' struggles have been well-documented, the Mountaineers have also hit a rough patch after a promising start, themselves sitting at 0-3 in conference play. West Virginia will welcome a familiar face to the coliseum, as Bears forward Jalen Bridges played 52 games for Bob Huggins over two seasons in Morgantown before transferring in the offseason.
While Baylor's football program has never won in Morgantown, the basketball program has seen success in the Mountain State, holding a 6-4 record at the West Virginia Coliseum and a 14-8 overall record over the Mountaineers.
The struggles have come on defense for Baylor, allowing over 80 points in each of the last three games. Offensively, their guard play is still carrying them, with Keyonte George and Adam Flagler being named to the Wooden Award Mid-Season top 25, being the only program outside last year's national championship combatants Kansas and North Carolina to have multiple players on the list.
WEST VIRGINIA STARTERS
G Kedrian Johnson
G Erik Stevenson
F Emmitt Matthews
F Tre Mitchell
F Jimmy Bell
BAYLOR STARTERS
G Keyonte George
G LJ Cryer
G Adam Flagler
F Flo Thamba
F Jalen Bridges
FIRST HALF
UNDER-16: Baylor leads 4-2. Jalen Bridges scores the first points of the game 2:03 in with an and-one layup, but misses the free throw. Bears 1-5 from the floor and 0-2 from three.
UNDER-12: Baylor leads 13-9. Keyonte George rattles off five straight points with a step-back three pointer to make the lead 9-2. Mitchell hits a transition layup to end an 8-0 Baylor run. Johnson scores a transition layup on the next possession and finishes the and-one opportunity to make it 10-7. George answers with a straightaway three.
UNDER-8: Baylor leads 18-16. Seth Wilson hits a fadeaway to cut the Baylor lead to one. Cryer answers by driving from the three-point line for the layup then hits a step-back three on the next possession.
UNDER-4: Baylor leads 27-23. Flagler gets on the board with a three to push the lead to seven. After missing their first 10 three pointers, WVU hits their first to cut the lead to two. Bridges answers with an offensive rebound and putback.
Flagler hits fadeaway three with :37 left and George hits a circus fadeaway three in the corner at the buzzer.
HALFTIME: Baylor 33, West Virginia 27
SECOND HALF
UNDER-16: Baylor leads 46-40. Stevenson hits a three-pointer on the first possession of the half. George hits his fourth three and scores six in a row for the Bears, giving him 21 points. Mountaineers hit back to back threes to cut the lead back to one point.
UNDER-12: Baylor leads 48-47. WVU cuts the lead to one on back-to-back possessions, but can not tie.
UNDER-8: West Virginia leads 57-53. After WVU takes their first lead, George throws an alley-oop to Ojianwuna to take the lead back. WVU hits their first field goal in four minutes but has its largest lead of the game at four.
UNDER-4: Game tied at 62-62. Off an offensive rebound, Cryer hits a long two to cut the lead to one. George ties the game with a tough layup to give the Bears their first field goal in nearly three minutes.
Stevenson hits a three-pointer to regain a one-point lead with 2:57 to go. George hits a deep three of his own with just over 2:00 left.
FINAL SOCRE: Baylor 83, West Virginia 78
Covering Baylor for Inside The Bears and the Locked on Baylor podcast. You can follow me for more Baylor content at @realcamstuart on Twitter. Originally from Rockland, Massachusetts and a Baylor alum, so I might mix the occasional bias and/or Boston sports tweet in there every once in a while.