Texas and Baylor’s bad blood reached its boiling point Thursday night. In the Longhorns’ 86-67 loss — their fourth straight to the Bears — players on both teams broadcast their internal feelings for one another.
Four minutes into the game, Damion James got into a verbal altercation with Tweety Carter.
LaceDarius Dunn intervened in an attempt to break them up, but that just ruffled more feathers. J’Covan Brown, who was on the bench at the time, started mouthing off at Baylor players, and he and Dunn were each handed technical fouls.
Dunn had accumulated a total of three fouls at this point, so Baylor coach Scott Drew was forced to bench him for the rest of the half.
Despite Dunn’s absence, the Bears were able to handle Texas quite nicely. Ekpe Udoh was unstoppable, leading Baylor with 12 points in the first half.
The rift between the teams continued when James and Carter exchanged a few more words before each team went into their locker rooms at the break.
Dunn only picked up one more foul, and Baylor surged in the second half. By the end of the first three minutes of the half, the Bears were up 51-41. The Longhorns were rattled and couldn’t string passes together. They gave up two turnovers in those first few minutes and ended the game with 11.
Texas was down by 15 points when Brown made his first official appearance, and things looked like they were about to turn around for the Horns. Brown took hold of the reigns, moving swiftly through traffic and shooting good jumpers. He cut the lead to 10 points with 14 minutes left.
Brown then helped get Texas within five points of Baylor as he drove inside for layups and passed inside to Dexter Pittman. With 8:11 to go, Texas had closed in on Baylor’s lead, 64-59.
Unfortunately for the Longhorns, Udoh and Dunn had no time for a Texas run. The two responded, and a killer trey by Dunn widened the Bears’ lead, 74-63, with five minutes left.
Udoh ended with a career-high 25 points and eight rebounds. Dunn finished with 19 points and nine rebounds.
Texas’ loss will have important implications on its NCAA tournament seeding, which will be announced Sunday.
