Box Score MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia overcame a sluggish start and led briefly in the second half, but once again couldn't make winning plays in crunch time in tonight's 83-78 loss to Baylor.
 
In a game full of fouls and free throws, Baylor made four more than West Virginia at the line and that was basically the outcome of the game. The Bears converted 28 of their 36 charity attempts while West Virginia missed nine of their 33.
 
"They made free throws at the end of the game, and we did not make free throws – that was the game," West Virginia coach Bob Huggins said. "In this league all of the games are going to be like that and if we're not going to make free throws at the end of the game it's going to be rough.
 
"It came down to making free throws and finishing around the rim," Huggins added. "We don't finish around the rim very well."
 
Five of West Virginia's missed free throws came after Tre Mitchell's foul line jumper with 7:52 left gave it a 59-54 lead. Mitchell missed the first of two with 6:25 left when WVU was leading by one. Guard Joe Toussaint missed a pair with 5:59 remaining and the game tied, and Mitchell missed another one with 3:29 to go and Baylor leading 64-63.
 
Baylor (11-5, 1-4) appeared to have the game in hand with 34 seconds left after Flo Thamba's free throw, but a Toussaint free throw and a Seth Wilson 3 made it a one possession game (79-76) with 20 seconds to go. 
 
Toussaint fouled Adam Flagler while attempting to get a steal, Flagler made one of two, and Toussaint scored with 11 seconds left to reduce Baylor's lead to 80-78. 
 
Freshman guard Keyonte George, who scored a season-high 32 points, left the door open for WVU when he missed his second free throw, but Toussaint's wild 3 from beyond the top of the key to try and tie the game was retrieved by Flagler and he finished the game at the foul line where he made two more.
 
In all, a combined 53 fouls resulting in 69 free throws were called. West Virginia ended having three of its starters disqualified – Mitchell with 3:26 left, Kedrian Johnson with 1:55 to go and Erik Stevenson with 51 seconds remaining. Baylor had three players with four fouls – Thamba, Flagler and Dale Bonner – but all of them managed to stay in the game.
 
"We scored and remained in the game in the second half by running that flex-action stuff that's been so good to us, but we missed shots that we should make," Huggins said. "They made open shots and we didn't make open shots."
 
West Virginia (10-6, 0-4) shot just 32% in the first half, missing 11 of its 12 attempts from behind the arc, and trailed 33-27 at intermission after George's amazing circus 3 from the corner went in ahead of the horn.
 
George, a freshman, connected on 10 of 18 from the floor and added 7 of 9 at the free throw line for his game-high 32. Flagler chipped in with 19, LJ Cryer got 13 and former West Virginia forward Jalen Bridges contributed 10 points and 11 rebounds.
 
Toussaint came off the bench to tally a season-high 20 while Mitchell added 14 points and 15 rebounds. Wilson had 11, with  Kedrian Johnson and Stevenson scoring 10 each.
 
West Virginia outscored Baylor's bench 37-4 and had a 30-to-18 advantage in the paint.
 
"I thought our guys gave great effort (in the second half) but we continue to put ourselves in a hole where we didn't shoot the ball that well," Huggins said.
 
By winning tonight, Baylor avoids its first 0-4 start in Big 12 play since 2006, coach Scott Drew's third season in Waco, and extends its winning streak over West Virginia to four games. The Bears are now 15-8 overall against the Mountaineers.
 
"That's a very experienced basketball team," Huggins said of Baylor. "Those little guys (Flagler and Cryer) have been there for a long time, and then you throw in a high school All-American (George) and he made some hard, hard shots."

An announced crowd of 11,815 watched tonight's game.
 
West Virginia has had second-half leads in three of its four conference defeats this season. WVU led by 10 early in the second half of its 82-76 overtime loss at Kansas State and fought back from a double-digit deficit to lead by three with 5:25 left in its 67-60 loss at Oklahoma State.
 
West Virginia returns to the road in search of its first conference victory on Saturday at Oklahoma where the Mountaineers have dropped four straight at the Lloyd Noble Center and have not won there since Feb. 5, 2018. 
 
Overall, WVU is just 2-8 in that building.
 
That game will tip off at noon and will be televised nationally on ESPN2.