Cryer, Bonner help No. 7 Baylor top Oklahoma State 74-68

STILLWATER, Okla. (AP) — LJ Cryer and DaleBonner each scored 15 points, and No. 7 Baylor held off OklahomaState for a 74-68 victory on Monday night.

Jalen Bridges had 14 points and Adam Flagler added 13 for Baylor(22-8, 11-6 Big 12), which earned its second straight win sincedropping consecutive games at Kansas State and Kansas.

The Bears played without leading scorer Keyonte George, whosprained his right ankle during Saturday’s 81-72 victory overTexas.

John-Michael Wright scored 17 points for Oklahoma State (16-14,7-10). Caleb Asberry and Quion Williams finished with 12 apiece.The Cowboys also lost 74-58 to the Bears on Jan. 14.

Oklahoma State trailed 67-50 after Bonner made two foul shotswith 4:01 left in the rematch. But Moussa Cisse responded with twofree throws, sparking a 15-2 run for the Cowboys.

Bonner made three more from the line and Flagler also made twofouls shots to help Baylor close it out in the final seconds.

Baylor coach Scott Drew credited his veteran backcourt forhelping his team hold off Oklahoma State’s furious last-minuterun.

“With Adam and LJ, it makes it easy to sleep at night. Dale wastremendous down the stretch,” Drew said. “It starts with yourbackcourt, they’ve got experience, they made free throws, they takecare of the basketball, so you really trust them.”

With the Bears losing two frontcourt starters to fouls in thefinal minutes, Cryer said it was up to the guards to takecharge.

“Just not to panic because things were going left,” Cryer said.“At the end of the day, we still had the lead and control of thegame, even though they were on their run. It was like, we just haveto take care of the ball and finish the game.”

The Bears got off to a solid start, taking a 41-30 halftimelead. Baylor shot 56% (15 for 27 ) from the field in the firsthalf, including 8 for 16 from 3-point range.

Oklahoma State dropped its fifth straight, and coach MikeBoynton says it is impossible for his team not to think about theirneed to finish the conference season with a win at Texas Tech andthen win at the Big 12 Tournament to secure their spot in the NCAATournament.

“We don’t dance around this stuff. We show them the standings.This is where we are, this is what we’ve done, this is what we havein front of us,” Boynton said. “If you’re a basketball player,that’s what you think about and you’re one of the teams that peopleare talking about being on the line. That’s why I don’t pretendthat it’s not a real thing.”

TIP-INS

Baylor: George will be evaluated again before the regular-seasonfinale against Iowa State. He is averaging 16.3 points per gamethis season, which ranks fifth among freshmen in NCAA Division I.He has 12 games of 20 points or more this season.

Oklahoma State: The Cowboys outrebounded the Bears 40-32 andenjoyed a 34-18 advantage in points in the paint. But the Cowboyswent 5 for 9 at the line, compared to 17 for 20 for the Bears.

UP NEXT

Baylor: Hosts Iowa State on Saturday.

Oklahoma State: Visits Texas Tech on Saturday.