Rice, Allen lead No. 10 Texas over No. 11 Baylor 76-71

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Sir’Jabari Rice scored 21points and Timmy Allen added 18 to send No. 10 Texas to a 76-71 winover No. 11 Baylor on Monday night, ending the Bears’ six-game winstreak and keeping the Longhorns in a share of first place in theBig 12.

Rice made four 3-pointers in the second half and his two freethrows with 16 seconds left put Texas ahead by five with the finalpoints.

Baylor had closed to 72-71 on Keyonte George’s three-point playbefore Texas answered with Marcus Carr’s fallaway jumper with 27seconds left. It was Carr’s first basket of the second half andjust his second of the game.

Rice, a 29% 3-point shooter in Big 12 play, was 4 of 5 shootingfrom long range. Allen was 7 of 10 from the floor and made two freethrows in the final minute that put the Longhorns (18-4, 7-2) aheadby four.

“That’s what this league is about. You have to put your hat onevery day and come to work. That was one of the hardest games I’vebeen in since I got here,” Allen said. “In the Big 12, that’s whatit takes every night. ”

Baylor had fought back from nine points down in the first halfto tie it at 38 on the opening possession after halftime. Texasanswered with a quick 8-0 run punctuated by a 3-pointer by TyreseHunter, a put-back dunk by Dillon Mitchell and Allen’s short jumperover two defenders.

Rice’s 3-pointers kept any chance of a Baylor rally in check andTexas never trailed in the second half.

LJ Cryer scored 19 points to lead four Baylor players in doublefigures.

Baylor (16-6, 5-4) trailed 70-68 with a chance to take the leadin the final two minutes, but Adam Flagler threw up a quick3-pointer that missed before Allen made his two late freethrows.

“It’s hard to have long winning streaks in this league,” Baylorcoach Scott Drew said. “You can play well and lose games.”

Baylor had won 12 of the previous 13 matchups with theLonghorns.

“They’ve had our number,” Texas interim coach Rodney Terry said.“We needed to find a way to get this thing done. We were athome.”

MISSING POINTS

Carr, Texas’ leading scorer this season, had a rare off night asa shooter. He was just 2 of 8 from the floor and didn’t score indouble figures for just the third time this season, and the firsttime since Dec. 12.

“Guys picked each other up,” Rice said. “Obviously Marcus didn’thave the game everybody’s used to him having, but he still madesure we sure we were playing defense ... Things like that got usthe win.”

BIG PICTURE

Baylor: The Bears fell in love with the 3-pointer and couldn’tbreak out of it against a Texas defense that denied shot after shotnear the basket. Baylor was 8 of 26 from long range and made justtwo in the second half.

“We can’t let them dictate what we do,” Cryer said.

Texas: The Longhorns were coming off a loss at No. 2 Tennessee,when Terry complained the Longhorns let themselves get pushedaround in a physical matchup. They had no such problems against theBears, nearly matching the Bears in rebounding and points in thepaint.

“(Terry) challenged us on defense. He challenged us to bebetter. We’re not a team that’s used to getting out-toughed. We hadto respond physically, mentally,” Allen said.

UP NEXT

Baylor hosts Texas Tech on Saturday.

Texas plays at No. 7 Kansas State on Saturday.