Sherman

Nearly all of West Virginia’s points and offense was being provided by the three-pronged scoring of Malik Curry, Taz Sherman and Sean McNeil.

As the game wore on, Baylor couldn’t find the rapid-fire dunks, but used the three-point production of Matthew Mayer and LJ Cryer to stay close even when the Mountaineers, cheered heartily by the student body and other faithful in the crowd of over 12,000, moved ahead for the first time at 45-44.

Baylor, which had held tight to the poll’s No. 1 ranking while sailing along undefeated until the second week of January, would not relent as Mayer and Cryer pestered West Virginia with three-pointers.

With six minutes remaining, the resilient Bears went back on top — and stayed there, making free throws and continually denying West Virginia much scoring except from Curry, Sherman or McNeal.

McNeil

Baylor’s 77-68 victory shoved its two-game losing skid to the shadows and gave the Mountaineers a two-game skid that was begun with an 85-59 loss at Kansas.

In hindsight, the clearest difference between the two teams was with each side’s half-court offense.

The confident Bears had four of their five dunks while pasting WVU with a withering 24-5 run of points in the opening half. Struggling mightily to generate much of anything during Baylor’s crowd-silencing move, the Mountaineers never scored in close and all too often had to force pressured passes to players not in any position to attempt high-percentage shots. The Bears were successfully contesting every pass, dribble and WVU shot-attempt.

How the Mountaineers were only behind, 37-33, at the half was puzzling.

When the dunks no longer bubbled Baylor’s score sheet, it appeared to be mortal. And WVU erased its deficit and took a well-received lead. However, WVU’s lack of inside scoring never was solved, and the bouncy Bears found little spurts of points to finally nose back into a lead they would not cede again.

Curry

Without much of an inside presence, the Mountaineers showed there was little or no room for error anywhere else. Major college players hustle and at times savagely compete. All five players on the court at any time simply have to contribute in some way. And scoring or rebounding are the best ways. Baylor had more scorers than did the Mountaineers. And the Bears had a more useful half-court defense.

Fallow minutes from any player or segment of a team can often bring losses — especially when playing any team or at any arena in the sometimes brutally competitive Big 12 Conference.