Baylor @ Oklahoma preview

Last Meeting ( Feb 27, 2018 ) Oklahoma 64, Baylor 87

Baylor will take a four-game win streak into Oklahoma on Monday in a quick turnaround for both programs as the Bears and Sooners each came away with Big 12/SEC Challenge victories on Saturday. Baylor escaped with a 73-68 win over Alabama in a tightly-contested matchup that saw 12 ties and 12 lead changes while Oklahoma had an easier time in an 86-55 rout of Vanderbilt.

Since losing sophomore Tristan Clark and his 14.3 points per game to a season-ending knee injury on Jan. 5, Baylor has seen seven players increase their scoring averages including sophomore Mario Kegler, who led the Bears in Saturday’s victory with team-highs of 17 points and seven rebounds. “Every game we’ve won, its’ been a team effort, different people contributing in different ways,” Baylor coach Scott Drew told reporters. “As a coach, it’s a little trickier, because you don’t know whose day it is. At the same time, the great thing is as long as they keep the team first, then they’re cheering on each other and it doesn’t become an ‘I’ thing.” The Sooners used a 19-0 run in the first half against Vanderbilt to avoid having to rally from a large deficit as they had done in their 70-61 win Wednesday against Oklahoma State, battling back from 19 points down. “I thought they came out of the locker room with the right attitude. Playing each possession, continuing to score,” Sooners coach Lon Kruger told the media. “I think that kept the energy level up. Over time, I thought we were pretty solid defensively as well.”

TV: 9 p.m. ET, ESPNU

ABOUT BAYLOR (13-6, 4-2 Big 12): Freshman Jared Butler has seen the biggest improvement in the five games since Clark’s injury as the guard is averaging 6.7 more points per outing and is shooting 42 percent from 3-point range (14-for-33) after connecting on just 10-of-44 from behind the arc through the first 14 contests. Alabama had outrebounded 17 of its first 18 opponents entering Saturday’s contest before the Bears prevailed with a 35-31 advantage on the boards and outscored the Crimson Tide 18-9 on second chance points. Makai Mason was the only Baylor player outside Kegler to hit double figures Saturday as the senior tallied 13 points - the career-best 11th consecutive game he’s scored 10 or more.

ABOUT OKLAHOMA (15-5, 3-4): After finishing with a season-low five points in Oklahoma’s comeback victory Wednesday, senior Christian James bounced back against Vanderbilt with a team-high 21 points on 8-for-15 shooting. James, a 6-4 guard, sits fourth in the Big 12 in scoring (16.8) and rebounding (7.4) - leading the Sooners in both categories. Kruger inserted senior Rashard Odomes into the starting lineup in a Jan. 19 loss to Texas and the guard has not disappointed as he’s combined to shoot 16-for-22 from the floor in his three starts while averaging 12 points in 24 minutes - well above his season marks of 6.8 points and 15.6 minutes.

TIP-INS

1. Oklahoma leads the series 45-15 but the schools have 10 wins apiece since the Bears snapped a 30-game losing streak to the Sooners in 2010.

2. Baylor F Mark Vital entered Sunday sitting sixth nationally in offensive rebound percentage (16.4) and is one of two players in the country with more offensive rebounds (73) than defensive (66).

3. The Bears have scored 73 points in four of their last six games while their opponents have scored 73 in the other two (a 73-68 Baylor loss to Kansas on Jan. 12 and an 85-73 win at West Virginia on Jan. 21).

PREDICTION: Oklahoma 73, Baylor 70