West Virginia vs. Baylor: Score, Highlights, Reaction from 2016 Regular Season

There's a reason why it's called "Press Virginia." On Saturday afternoon, No. 10 West Virginia forced 16 turnovers on its way to a 69-58 victory over No. 19 Baylor in Waco, Texas. 

With a three-point halftime lead, West Virginia's full-court defense gained control and took the ball away from Baylor 10 times in the final 20 minutes. It helped secure a win for an offense that wasn't firing on all cylinders, especially from the starters. 

The Mountaineers bench accounted for 35 of West Virginia's 69 points Saturday, led by Jaysean Paige, who scored a team-high 14.

Offense was at a premium in the first half. Baylor was held to just two points in the first 10 minutes, while neither team could hit a field goal.

In the game's first four minutes, the two teams combined to go 1-of-10 from the field with five turnovers. 

West Virginia was able to get a solid contribution from its bench early, as it scored 24 of the team's opening 30 points to help build a three-point halftime lead. West Virginia's starters went 2-of-12 from the field in the first half, while the bench went 7-of-11. 

The MetroNews' Allan Taylor tried to sum up the first half as best he could:

West Virginia came out firing in the second half and went on an 11-2 run in the first five minutes. It opened up a 12-point lead, with Esa Ahmad putting the exclamation point on the run, as West Virginia Basketball noted:

Baylor didn't get its first field goal of the half until six minutes had passed, but once it got going, it showed why it's such a tough team to put away.

After starting the game 0-of-9 from three-point range, Baylor hit five straight to bring it back to single digits. Forward Taurean Prince fueled the Bears' comeback effort, as he hit three straight three-pointers within a two-minute span.

When Baylor was able to break West Virginia's press, Prince was left wide open on the perimeter, and he was able to take advantage on his way to a game-high 19 points.

The Bears continued to struggle with turnovers, though, as they followed up a first half of six giveaways with 10 in the second half. West Virginia, meanwhile, committed just four turnovers in the final 20 minutes, which helped it clinch the win.

This season is West Virginia's best in the Big 12 since it joined the conference in 2012. The Mountaineers have never finished higher than fifth place in the conference, but they'll be headed to Kansas City, Missouri, for the Big 12 tournament as the No. 2 seed. 

Baylor has now lost three of its last four games, which could doom the team to a first-round exit. With this loss and a possible Iowa State upset over Kansas on Saturday, Baylor could sink to the sixth seed and play either West Virginia or Oklahoma.  

Postgame Reaction

Thanks to his defense, West Virginia head coach Bob Huggins was able to provide a happy recap on his radio show after Saturday's game, via Chris Anderson of 247Sports.com:

"

We’re getting smarter at the defensive end. We’re not having to think about things. It seemed like every time (Baylor) made a run, we came up with a steal and a loose ball… I’m looking forward to winning a game or three in the conference tournament. I look forward to staying longer than we’ve been staying. I like where we are.

"

He realized though that his offense wasn't quite there against Baylor: "We didn’t play very well the first half. We didn’t run offense."

But he was quick to give Baylor a lot of credit for their defensive efforts: "They are really long and really athletic, so we tried to spread them out a little more in the second half…It’s kind of like we always do. You never know who is going to make plays, but somebody always does.”

For Baylor's seniors, it was a tough way to go out in their final home game as forward Rico Gathers spoke with the media after the game, via Shehan Jeyarajah of the Dallas News:

There's still plenty of basketball left to be played though as the Big 12 Conference tournament looms in the coming week. West Virginia has something special in its defense and depth that could fuel them to a deep run in March, while Baylor has shown the resiliency to battle back against steep odds. 

With those kind of intangibles, both teams could be making plenty of noise during the madness this spring. 

Stats courtesy of ESPN.com