RECAP: Cowboys Run Out of Gym, Lose 76-60 to Baylor

Well, that was ugly.

If the game would have ended after the first 20 minutes, the Cowboys would have came away with a 1-point victory. Unfortunately for Mike Boynton’s team, you have to play 40 minutes in NCAA Division I men’s basketball.

While the Baylor Bears looked ready for the second half, the Cowboys simply didn’t.

Baylor outscored the Cowboys 50-30 in the second half, thanks to the sudden reemergence of Manu Lecomte. In the preview, I mentioned Lecomte was shooting less than 25 percent from the floor. Tonight was the Lecomte we were used to seeing. He shot 11-of-17 from the floor, including 7-of-12 from behind the arc. 25 of his career-high 30 points came in the second half.

Jeffrey Carroll couldn’t hit water if he fell out of a boat tonight. The senior captain was 2-of-12 from the field, and he missed all five attempts he took from deep. It was Cam McGriff who was a surprising positive for the Cowboys tonight, dropping 16 points on 7-of-10 shooting.

Tavarius Shine was the other bench player in double figures, scoring 14 points on 4-of-9 shooting. Yankuba Sima had 10 boards, but only tallied one point on the evening.

I thought Sima did a pretty good job overall limiting Jo Lual-Acuil Jr. on the evening. The Australian 7-footer finished with 12 points on 4-of-12 shooting, with four points coming from the free throw line. Sima held his opponent to seven rebounds, which is a lot less than I anticipated.

Baylor passed the ball well, dishing 20 assists to the Cowboys’ 10. However, they also took care of the ball. The Cowboys force an average of 16 turnovers tonight, but Baylor only committed eight tonight.

It’s a frustrating loss to say the least, and now the Cowboys are 2-4 in Big 12 play and 12-5 overall. They now have the rest of the week to rest up for No. 4 OU in the second, and potentially final, round of Bedlam in Stillwater on Saturday.

It doesn’t get any easier after that, as they then face No. 8 Texas Tech in Lubbock before traveling to Fayetteville for the Big 12/ACC challenge.

The Cowboys need to find the magic switch and flip it ASAP, otherwise they may not only miss the NCAA Tournament, but the NIT as well.