Jayden Nunn poured in a season-high 27 points, 18 in a hot-shooting first half, as No. 12 Baylor roared to a big halftime lead and rolled to a 79-62 win over No. 25 Oklahoma on Tuesday in a key Big 12 Conference game in Waco, Texas.
It was the Bears’ 11th consecutive regular-season win over Oklahoma and the final scheduled game between them as Big 12 rivals.
Baylor (18-6, 7-4 Big 12) took charge over the final 6 1/2 minutes of the first half, busting open a tied game by scoring 20 of the final 27 points before halftime to lead by 13. The Bears expanded their lead to 18 points early in the second half, by 21 at the 8:08 mark and never let Oklahoma get closer than 16 points the rest of the way.
All five of Baylor’s starters scored in double figures, as Jalen Bridges tallied 14, Yves Missi 12, RayJ Dennis 11 and Ja’Kobe Walter 10. The Bears have won four of their past five games.
Rivaldo Soares led the Sooners (18-7, 6-6) with 17 points, with Milos Uzan, Jalon Moore, Javian McCollum and Otega Oweh adding nine points each. Oklahoma had a two-game winning streak snapped.
Oklahoma led 7-4 early on after a putback jumper from Sam Godwin at the 17:36 mark of the first half, but the game was all Baylor after that point. The Bears reeled off the next eight points capped by two free throws by Nunn to go up 12-7.
The Sooners rallied to tie it at 20 on Uzan’s 3-pointer with 6:48 to play in the half before Nunn canned a pair of 3-pointers and Bridges hit another from beyond the arc to give Baylor a nine-point advantage. Nunn’s jumper with eight seconds left in the half staked the Bears to a 40-27 edge at the break.
Nunn led all scorers with 18 points before halftime while hitting four of his five shots from long range. Baylor outshot the Sooners 59.3 percent to 39.1 percent in the half while forcing seven turnovers that it converted to 13 points.
Uzan and Soares paced Oklahoma with seven points each in the half.
–Field Level Media
