Men's Basketball edges Baylor, 68-67
WACO, Texas -- Kevin Durant struggled for more than half the game and fellow Texas freshman D.J. Augustin stumbled badly at the end. And the Longhorns still beat Baylor for the 19th straight time, 68-67 on Saturday night. Durant finished with 20 points and 14 rebounds despite going more than 20 minutes without scoring, and Augustin had three turnovers and two missed free throws in the final 71 seconds before Baylor missed a desperation shot at the buzzer. "We made it hard," Texas coach Rick Barnes said. "It's February, you take road games any way you can get it. But we made it harder at the end than we should have." Texas (19-7, 8-3 Big 12) didn't score again after Connor Atchley made his first free throw with 1:40 left to make it 68-60. Durant rebounded when Atchley missed his second attempt, but Augustin committed an offensive foul. Baylor (12-13, 2-10) missed a shot, but Augustin gave it right back when he was stripped by Tweety Carter with 44 seconds left and made a layup. Carter stole it from him again 18 seconds later, this time in the backcourt after a jumper by Curtis Jerrells that followed two missed free throws by J.D. Lewis. Carter's second steal led to a 3-pointer by Henry Dugat that got Baylor within a point before they fouled Augustin with 11 seconds left. "The last few mistakes, I put that on me," Augustin said. "I didn't control the game like I should have." Augustin missed both free throws, but Baylor had no timeouts to stop and set up a play. Dugat and Jerrells both touched the ball, but little-used forward Mark Shepherd had it with time running out. He threw up an awkward shot that hit the backboard and the rim. "The way we drew it up was score, win and storm the court," Baylor coach Scott Drew said. Instead the Bears lost again, like they have every time since Barnes became the Texas coach before the 1998-99 season. The Longhorns have a 149-75 lead in the most-played series for both schools. Atchley had 15 points and eight rebounds. A.J. Abrams scored 12 points and Augustin had 11, but also had nine of the Longhorns' 15 turnovers. Durant, who came in averaging 30 points and 13 rebounds in Big 12 games, scored seven quick points. His tip-in basket with 14:58 left in the first half put the Longhorns up 9-8. But Durant then missed eight straight shots (and finished 5-of-16 shooting), and didn't score again until 14:52 left in the game -- when he was fouled making a basket to tie the game at 42. "They kept people at him, trying to keep a body on him and make it tough," Barnes said. "Obviously, he's a special player," Drew said. After Durant's tying basket, the Longhorns didn't go ahead until Augustin's alley-oop pass off the backboard to Durant with nine minutes left made it 53-52. Durant grabbed the ball with one home and slammed it, though the ball hit the rim and bounced up before falling through the net. Baylor led only once more after that, when Dugat converted a turnover into a breakaway slam. But Atchley then had consecutive layups, the second after Durant's rebound on the defensive end. Baylor pushed ahead 52-45 when Tweety Carter made a 3-pointer, but Texas scored eight straight. The Horns' spurt started with two free throws by Durant and ended with his go-ahead basket. Durant hit 9-of-10 free throws -- all after halftime. Jerrells finished with 18 points and Dugat had 15 for Baylor, which lost its fourth straight and eighth in nine games. Carter and Kevin Rogers both had 10 points, with Rogers also grabbing 11 rebounds. "I won't say we were lucky," Abrams said. "We did some things well on offense and defense." Then Abrams paused for a second. "I don't want to say it's luck," he said. "But it kind of is." POSTGAME NOTES Connor Atchley A.J. Abrams D.J. Augustin Kevin Durant Damion James Justin Mason
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