WACO, Texas (AP) — James Akinjo scored 25 points and Matthew Mayer had all nine of his points in the closing minutes while putting No. 8 Baylor ahead to stay as the Bears overcame West Virginia 81-77 on Monday night.
Mayer hadn’t scored until his layup with 3:27 left to break a 66-66 tie, and put the Bears (19-3, 7-2 Big 12) in the lead for good. Jeremy Sochan had a steal in the backcourt and passed ahead to Mayer, who seconds later rebounded Sochan’s second missed free throw and made a strong inside basket. He later added a 3-pointer.
Taz Sherman, a Texas native, had a career-high 29 points with six 3-pointers to lead the Mountaineers (13-8, 2-6), who have their first six-game losing streak since the end of the 2012-13 season. Sean McNeil added 16 points.
Sherman didn’t play the final 3:42, staying on the floor for a length period after a turnover before finally getting up and slowly going to the bench.
Sochan finished with 13 points and nine rebounds for Baylor, which was coming off a loss to Alabama in the Big 12/SEC Challenge. Jonathan Tchamwa Tchatchoua had 14 points.
The Bears were without injured guards Adam Flagler (knee) and LJ Cryer (foot). Flagler is a starter averaging 12.7 points a game and Cryer, their leading scorer at 13.9 points a game, missed his second game in a row.
Sherman made two 3-pointers in a 16-1 run by West Virginia over the final 4 1/2 minutes of the first half for a 39-31 lead.
Both of those 3s by Sherman, the first getting the Mountaineers within 30-28 and the other putting them ahead by one, followed missed 3s by Baylor.
The Mountaineers missed their first six 3s and were down 20-10 nearly nine minutes into the game before finally hitting from deep. Sherman’s first two made 3s came in an 11-2 run that got them within one.
That was during a stretch when Baylor built that early 10-point lead despite missing its first seven free throws. Tchamwa Tchatchoua ended that when he finally made two, the first drawing a huge cheer from the crowd.
Big picture
West Virginia: The Mountaineers shot 54.2% overall (26 of 48), and made 11 of 27 3-pointers, but that wasn’t enough.
Baylor: With injured players in and out of the lineup since Big 12 play started, coach Scott Drew and the Bears have found it hard to develop a rhythm in their rotation and what they want to do. Along with the two guards out Monday, Akinjo had missed two of the previous four games after a hard fall on his tailbone, while Sochan played only third game after missing four games in a row with an ankle issue.
Immortal Ten
Baylor marked the 95th anniversary of the Immortal Ten with current players wearing on their back of their jerseys the names of the 10 players, coaches and fans killed in 1927 when the team bus carrying 22 people was hit by a train while traveling to Austin.
Up next
West Virginia: Hosts No. 14 Texas Tech on Saturday.
Baylor: At No. 10 Kansas on Saturday.
