WACO, Texas — L.J. Cryer scored 15 points against his former team, including six free throws in overtime, as second-ranked and Big 12-leading Houston beat Baylor 82-76 on Saturday.
The Cougars (24-3, 11-3 Big 12) blew a 16-point halftime lead, and thought they had won the game on a long 3-pointer by Jamal Shead to end regulation before replay showed the ball was still in his hands when the clock ran out.
Cryer’s two free throws with 3:06 left in OT put Houston back in the lead, and he added four more after that.
Emanuel Sharp had 18 points to lead the Cougars in their fifth consecutive win and 10th in 11 games. J’Wan Roberts had 17 points and eight rebounds, while Shead had 12 points and 10 assists.
Ja’Kobe Walter scored a game-high 23 points for Baylor (19-8, 8-6), while RayJ Dennis had 21. Jalen Bridges had 17 points and 13 rebounds, and Jayden Nunn scored 11 points.
The Bears trailed throughout and didn’t tie the game until Yves Missi, their 7-foot freshman, made a layup while being fouled with 4.4 seconds left in regulation to make it 69-all. Roberts grabbed the rebound of Missi’s missed free throw, and Shead was just a tick late in ending the game without overtime.
Baylor opened the second half with a 12-0 run while Houston missed its first eight shots, a drastic change from the first half. Bridges scored 14 of his 17 points in the second half, including nine consecutive points for the Bears in the final 5 1/2 minutes of regulation.
The Cougars led 41-25 at halftime, scoring 13 points off 11 Baylor turnovers, a spurt of making 10 of 11 shots.
Roberts got that stretch started with a pass from under the basket out to Emanuel Sharp on the right wing for a 3-pointer with 14:26 left in the first half to make it 9-3 and start that hot-shooting run, and the 6-foot-7 forward assisted on the next basket. When Roberts made a jumper with 7:57 left, the Cougars had their largest lead at 27-10.
It was their first meeting as Big 12 foes, and first since the Final Four three years ago when Baylor beat Houston in a semifinal game on way to winning its first national championship. Cryer was then with the the Bears, playing 20 games as a freshman that season and 70 overall the past three years before transferring to Houston.
Cryer was booed every time he had the ball early on, and fans cheered his missed 3-pointer on Houston’s first shot of the game.
UP NEXT
Houston is home Tuesday night against Cincinnati.
Baylor travels about 90 miles north to play at TCU, which won 105-102 in triple overtime on Jan. 27 to become the first and only other opposing team to win at Foster Pavilion.