The first twelve minutes of Saturday’s game with the Baylor Bears felt all too familiar for Longhorn fans. Spurred by a hot 4-of-6 start from three-point range, the visitors had jumped out to a daunting 31-17 lead with eight minutes left in the first half. The team looked flat and the arena was dead — if you could manage to ignore the vocal Bear contingent in the upper deck that had bused down I-35 for this Big 12 showdown.

But unlike the debacle on Wednesday, Texas fought back with smart play. There weren’t defensive lapses to kill the comeback push, and there was a welcome lack of momentum-quashing technical and flagrant fouls. The Longhorns used some hot shooting of their own the rest of the way, while holding the Baylor sharpshooters to just 4-of-19 from behind the arc from that point on.

When all was said and done, the Bears had put a scare into the Longhorns for a fourth-straight time. But a much longer streak was still intact, a 21-game string of victories over the Bears dating back to 1998. This Baylor team is good enough to exorcise that demon on February 16th in Waco, but for now the Texas dominance continues.

Rick Barnes didn’t live up to his promise of keeping Damion James out of this one, but did keep him out of the starting lineup. Dexter Pittman earned the starting nod, and played hard-nosed basketball down low before picking up a pair of quick fouls and sitting the rest of the way. The message seemed to be received by James though, as he scored 17 to go along with eight rebounds in his 34 minutes on the court.

Point guard D.J. Augustin had a quiet scoring night, but played a very smart game. He was often turned back by the Baylor posts on drives to the bucket, but was smart enough to pull it back out and reset. Many times this season, Augustin would have pressed on in those situations and had a shot blocked or just turned it over. But in this game, he played much more like a floor general. He attacked the rim and drew fouls when he could, and he dished out seven assists when he couldn’t create on his own.

Justin Mason was tasked with running the point on a few possessions, even some where Augustin was on the floor. It was a new look for the Horns, and it actually seemed to work. It seems like this might be more exhausting for D.J. as he works to get open, but it was reassuring to see Mason handle the ball and finish with only two turnovers in the game. He also made a huge hustle play during a Longhorn run where he sprawled out on the floor to corral a loose ball and call the timeout. It got the crowd fired up, and it kept Baylor from stopping the Texas momentum.

During the initial spurt by Baylor, A.J. Abrams was about the only person performing for the Horns. He hit runners, he hit floaters, and he fueled the offense with 4-of-8 shooting from behind the arc on the night. His 20 points led the way for Texas, and he hit four clutch free throws, including a pair after a technical on Baylor coach Scott Drew.

The re-emergence of Connor Atchley continued, as the lanky forward hit 2-of-4 from long range and grabbed seven boards — six of them on the offensive glass. For a Texas team that is second in the Big 12 in offensive rebounding, Atchley plays a huge role. He keeps possessions going after some of the ill-advised shots that the guards occasionally throw up, and gets a few easy putbacks in the paint as well.

Atchley’s 14 points marks only the second time since the Oral Roberts game that he has reached double digits in scoring. Over that stretch, the Longhorns went 6-4, winning both of his 10+ point games. Clearly he is a key part of the offense, so one can only hope that this performance carries over to a tough test against a solid Oklahoma frontcourt on Wednesday.

Perhaps the biggest story of the night, however, was a solid outing from Gary Johnson. Apart from a good game against St. Mary’s, Johnson has struggled with his baptism by fire in the Big 12. He’s often appeared lost on defense, been out of position on rebounds, missed a ton of bunnies, and was abysmal at the line. Against Baylor, he attacked the bucket, drew fouls, and finished with a great 12/7 line. He even improved his free throw shooting, going 6-of-10 from the charity stripe after starting the year with a painful 4-of-16. Like Atchley, Gary is going to be needed down low on Wednesday night, and we hope that this is a sign of things to come for the affable freshman.

Clint Chapman was the only other Horn to play, as Coach Barnes used his shortest bench of the year. Chapman didn’t make a huge impact in the contest, seeing the court for only seven minutes to give some of the other bigs a breather. While he didn’t steal the spotlight, his role was important with Alexis Wangmene serving an unofficial suspension for his elbow against Texas A&M. Chapman was needed to simply eat up some minutes without making mistakes, and he was able to do that.

Texas certainly needs to work on sticking shooters a little tighter coming out of the gates, but we’ll leave the bitching for another day and just enjoy the victory while we can. It was reassuring to see the Longhorns battle through after taking it hard on the chin to start the game, and it was also great to see them bounce back from a 52% night at the line in College Station.

With the exception of next Saturday’s game against Iowa State, the rest of the month is going to be an absolute nightmare for the Horns, so every win is huge. This puts them in third place in the Big 12 with a chance on Wednesday to knock off one of the competitors nipping at their heels.