Baylor Beats Texas A&M in Quintuple Overtime

The one thing that distinguishes American sports from those in other countries is the American insistence on a victory or a loss as the only possible outcomes. It has famously been said that a tie is “like kissing your sister.” Cricket, soccer, and ice hockey fans (when the NHL was still a largely Canadian league) are comfortable with a draw. Maybe some who cheer for college basketball can be convinced of calling some games ties, especially after Baylor needed five overtimes to defeat Texas A&M in basketball Wednesday night.

The final was 116-110, a record high score for a team in the Big 12 conference. For Baylor, ranked 25 nationally after being unranked for almost 40 years, the victory over the Aggies, rated 18, boosted their standing in the eyes of many and gives them a perfect record in conference play. They are for real, and they are going to win a whole lot more before this team graduates.

Much of that is due to the coaching of Scott Drew. He’s assembled a team out of some abysmal recent history, and his players will walk through fire for him. The AP report included the line, “’Don't worry,’ players said their coach told them as the overtimes piled up. ‘We can go all night’.” Five men fouled out for Baylor, leaving a lot of running for the others, and they carried on.

For Texas A&M, it was a night of missed opportunities. The Aggies had 59 free throws, and they missed 23 of them. In basketball’s overtime formula, that’s 23 points that could have made all the difference in regulation. Both teams managed just 4 points in the second overtime; again, had A&M put just 5 points up in the period, they would have won.

Referees lost track of how many overtimes they had called. Curtis Jerrells of Baylor didn’t know how long he had played. When he found out it was five overtimes, he merely shrugged and said “That just shows the ability, the dedication and the will of this team. If we put our minds to it, no matter what happens we're going to get it done.”

The last word, though, goes to Coach Drew, “You didn't want to see anyone lose a game like this.”

© Copyright 2008 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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