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Texas continues winning ways with road ‘W’ over No. 24 Baylor

Prince Ibeh, Cory Jefferson

Texas center Prince Ibeh (44) scores over Baylor forward Cory Jefferson (34) in the first half of a NCAA college basketball game, Saturday, Jan. 25, 2014, in Waco, Texas. (AP Photo/Waco Tribune Herald, Rod Aydelotte)

AP

Texas owns a five-game winning streak and has three consecutive wins when facing top-25 opponents. The Longhorns continued their winning ways on Saturday as they thoroughly outplayed No. 24 Baylor on the way to a 74-60 win over the Bears for a Big 12 road win.

In a must-win home game for Baylor after starting Big 12 play at 1-4, the Bears came out completely flat. Baylor shot 3-for-17 from the three-point line, shot 32 percent from the field overall, and head coach Scott Drew was out of timeouts with seven minutes left in a game in which Baylor (13-6, 1-5) trailed by double-digits -- at home -- for much of the second half.

Texas (16-4, 5-2) relied on stingy defense and the scoring pop of Isaiah Taylor to carry them from there. Taylor had 27 points for the Longhorns and, on the interior, Rick Barnes has to be pleased with the play of Jonathan Holmes and Cameron Ridley during conference play.

After Holmes and Ridley played very well last week against Iowa State, the duo imposed their will against Baylor as Holmes went for 14 points, eight rebounds and four assists and Ridley tallied eight points and 14 rebounds. Ridley has been solid in Big 12 play as the sophomore big man has double-digit rebounds in three of the five wins during Texas’ winning streak and he’s averaging 8.8 rebounds per game during Big 12 play.

Texas is in great shape at 5-2 in the Big 12 and they’re one of the biggest surprises of this season.

Baylor, on the other hand, needs to figure things out quickly. The Bears own solid wins over Colorado and Kentucky, but at 1-5 in the Big 12 with their three games after hosting West Virginia coming against ranked opponents -- at Oklahoma State, vs. Kansas, at Oklahoma -- the Bears don’t have a lot of time to keep playing this poorly.

Baylor is still talented enough to win some of those games and rally, but right now they’re playing flat and uninspired ball in the middle of the conference season and that is never a good sign.

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