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Baylor was down 18 points in the first half, 14 points at the break and five points with less than eight seconds remaining in the second overtime. Time and time again, the Bears looked beaten.
And yet they won.
Despite everything in that first paragraph being true, Baylor pulled out an incredible 99-98 double-overtime victory against St. John’s on Thursday in the semifinals of the Baha Mar Championship in the Bahamas. In simple terms, St. John’s gave one away lots of different ways — most notably when Zuby Ejofor missed a pair of free throws with 4.1 seconds left in a two-point game, which allowed Baylor an opportunity to grab an offensive rebound, race up the court and try to force a third OT or end it.
You’ve probably already seen what happened next.
If not, enjoy.
“Jeremy Roach is a big-time player,” said Baylor coach Scott Drew. “He’s a winner.”
As evidence, consider that before transferring to Baylor this past offseason, Roach started 108 games over four years at Duke while making two Elite Eights and one Final Four. He won an ACC regular-season title in 2022. He won an ACC Tournament title in 2023. Roach has said he didn’t necessarily want to move on from Duke as much as he was made to feel it was just time to move on from Duke. Fortunately for Drew, Roach decided to move on to Baylor — and his buzzer-beating 3-pointer allowed the Bears to remain No. 15 in Friday morning’s updated CBS Sports Top 25 And 1 daily college basketball rankings.
Next up for Baylor?
That’s Friday night’s title game of the Baha Mar Championship against Tennessee, which spent Thursday beating Virginia 64-42 despite shooting just 37.9% from the field. The Vols are No. 11 in the Top 25 And 1. Baylor-Tennessee is scheduled to tip at 9:30…
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