Remember that decade when Texas beat Baylor like it was preordained?

Those days are a forgotten piece of history for this high rolling Baylor team.

With Quincy Acy putting on a dunkfest and LaceDarius Dunn burning the Longhorns inside and out, the No. 21 Bears romped to a 92-77 win before a record Ferrell Center crowd of 10,562 that didn’t want to see Saturday afternoon end.

Baylor’s Quincy Acy dunks over Texas’ Dexter Pittman in the second half Saturday.
Michael Bancale/Waco Tribune-Herald

During the final minutes, the Bear Pit student section chanted, “Scott Drew owns you” over and over. After Texas coach Rick Barnes won 24 straight games in the series beginning in 1999, the Bears have won the last three games starting with last year’s upset in the Big 12 tournament semifinals.

With their first regular-season series sweep of Texas since 1998, the Bears (24-6, 11-5) sent seniors Tweety Carter and Josh Lomers out in style to earn the No. 3 seed in the Big 12 tournament, starting at 8:30 p.m. Thursday in Kansas City.

“That’s how a senior day is supposed to end for the home team,” Drew said. “This team showed how much they really care for Tweety and Josh because they laid it all out on the line for those two. We had a record crowd and we didn’t want to let them down.”

Picked 10th in the Big 12 preseason coaches poll, Drew’s squad will be the first in Baylor history to receive a first-round bye in the Big 12 tournament.

“When you are picked 10th and finish third in a league that’s No. 1 in the nation, you really have to look at the upperclassmen and recognize what a great job they did with the leadership of the team,” Drew said.

Acy has been a dunking machine since he was a freshman last year, but the 6-7 forward took it to a new level with 10 slams against the Longhorns en route to a career-high 24 points. Drew expects to see some of those dunks among the top 10 plays on ESPN’s “SportsCenter.”

“Quincy should be all over the top 10,” Drew said. “He was phenomenal.”

With Carter constantly dishing to him in the paint, Acy hit 12 of 15 shots.

“I got a little connection with Tweety,” Acy said. “My teammates found me and I finished.”

The Longhorns (23-8, 9-7) had no success stopping Dunn, who buried four of seven 3-pointers and finished with 30 points. Carter also delivered a solid game with 16 points, 10 assists and one turnover in 38 minutes, and repeatedly got the ball to the right places to help the Bears shoot 54.5 percent.

Baylor guard LaceDarius Dunn drives between Texas defenders Avery Bradley (left) and Gary Johnson on his way to a 30-point performance in Saturday’s regular-season finale at the Ferrell Center.
Rod Aydelotte/Waco Tribune-Herald

“Texas is a great defensive team, but we stayed solid and aggressive especially in the second half,” Carter said. “Quincy and Lace came to play. This was a big game for us and we got the win. We seized our opportunity today, and now we just have to get prepared for the conference tournament.”

After the Bears squeezed out an 80-77 overtime win over the Longhorns Jan. 30 in Austin, the rematch came much easier. Attacking the basket all afternoon, the Bears scored a whopping 54 points in the paint.

“Are you kidding me?” Barnes said. “I’m not a little disappointed in our defense, I’m very disappointed. I don’t know of any game where we gave up so many dunks. We had too many guys sitting around watching. I’m not sure if there was anybody on our team that they didn’t drive by.”

The teams traded baskets for the first 14 minutes before the Bears closed the first half with a 12-4 run to open up a 42-34 halftime lead.

Carter started the streak with a drive to the basket before Acy got the crowd on its feet by driving the baseline for a slam. Carter then threw an inbounds pass to Dunn for a dunk.

Acy showed his stuff on the defensive end by blocking Avery Bradley’s driving shot into Baylor’s bench. The Bears closed the first half with Ekpe Udoh’s outside shot, another Acy dunk and Dunn’s drive for a basket.

The Longhorns stuck close to Baylor for the first six minutes of the second half before Acy resumed his dunking show when he took a pass from Udoh. Next it was Carter’s turn to find Acy as he threw an alley-oop pass for another slam. With Udoh’s outside shot, the Bears stretched their lead to 57-44 with 12:27 remaining in the game.

“We’ve had great chemistry all year long,” Drew said. “The more a team has good chemistry and likes each other, the harder they are going to compete for each other. We are fortunate to have players during the year that have all stepped up and contributed to wins.”

Though forward Gary Johnson scored a career-high 25 points and Damion James and Jordan Hamilton scored 18 apiece, the Longhorns couldn’t overcome 18 turnovers and shoddy defense.

Tweety Carter, a Baylor senior, gets emotional while speaking to fans after his final game at the Ferrell Center.
Rod Aydelotte/Waco Tribune-Herald

“The most disappointing thing was the turnovers,” Barnes said. “They were careless, careless turnovers. If I had the answer, obviously we wouldn’t let it happen.”

After the Longhorns cut the lead to nine with 5:46 remaining, Acy got loose inside again, Dunn hit a pair of free throws and Carter drove for a basket to give the Bears a 75-60 lead with 4:31 left in the game. This time, the Longhorns had no comeback left in them.

Baylor and Texas will hold a rematch in the Big 12 tournament if the No. 6 seed Longhorns beat No. 11 Iowa State in the first round Wednesday night.

With a first-round bye, Baylor could have its best shot to win the conference tournament after losing to Missouri in the championship game last year in Oklahoma City.

“For us, we knew a first-round bye would be huge,” Drew said. “There’s a reason why no one has ever won the tournament without a first-round bye. This year it will be tougher to win four games in four days with the competition.”

BEAR FACTS: Baylor set an all-time attendance record at the Ferrell Center with 119,305 fans this year while averaging 7,457 in 16 home dates. The Bears went 15-1 at home, losing only a 76-74 decision to Kansas State on Jan. 26.

jwerner@wacotrib.com

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