WACO, Texas (AP) Jared Butler scored 16 of his 21 points in the first half, and top-ranked Baylor never trailed while tying the longest winning streak in Big 12 history at 22 games with a 70-59 victory over No. 14 West Virginia on Saturday.
The Bears (23-1, 12-0 Big 12) cruised without second-leading scorer MaCio Teague, a junior whose streak of 90 consecutive games ended because of a right wrist injury.
Baylor led by 19 in the first half and answered a scoreless stretch of nearly four minutes before halftime by starting the second half on a 20-3 run for its biggest lead at 53-25.
Taz Sherman scored a season-high 20 points for the Mountaineers (18-7, 6-6), who had 11 of their season high-tying 22 turnovers in the first 12 minutes and shot 35% in a third consecutive loss.
Matthew Mayer had a flying dunk off a nifty spin move on the baseline and finished with 13 points and eight rebounds for the Bears, who matched Kansas’ record run in the Big 12. The Jayhawks started 22-0 in 1996-97, the league’s first season.
Butler was 5 of 7 from 3-point range as Baylor extended the longest winning streak in school history while breaking the school mark with a 12th consecutive conference win, topping the 1945-46 team in the old Southwest Conference.
The Mountaineers were coming off a 58-49 loss to No. 3 Kansas when they led by seven midway through the second half. West Virginia, which got 11 points and 12 rebounds from freshman Oscar Tshiebwe, hadn’t lost consecutive games this season before the current skid.
BIG PICTURE
West Virginia: An 8-0 run to finish the first half gave the Mountaineers a sliver of hope, but they missed their first 11 shots after halftime to ruin any chance of getting back in the game. When they finally started making shots, the Mountaineers were down 28 points with 10 minutes to go.
Baylor: The Bears have a nation-leading six wins without a loss against Top 25 opponents. Their four-week run atop the poll is the longest for a Texas school since Houston over the final eight weeks in 1968. It’s sure to reach five weeks after a blowout of the team that beat Baylor a day after it reached No. 1 for the first time in January 2017.
UP NEXT
West Virginia: Oklahoma State at home Tuesday.
Baylor: At Oklahoma on Tuesday.
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For more AP college basketball coverage: https://apnews.com/Collegebasketball and http://twitter.com/AP-Top25
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