Baylor muscled away Arizonaβs 52-game homecourt nonconference winning streak Saturday, outrebounding the Wildcats by 31 to win 58-49.
The Bears also ran a zone defense that helped keep UA to just 35.8-percent shooting on the other side of the court.
Baylor outrebounded the Wildcats 50-19, allowing them to stay in the game in the first half when the Bears made just 27.6 percent of their shots. And then, when its offense heated up and its zone held the Wildcats to just 35 percent shooting after halftime, the Bears began to pull ahead.
They led by up to 11 points in the final minutes while fans began streaming out of McKale Center.
UA (7-4) had not lost a home nonconference game since San Diego State beat the Wildcats in 2011-12. Baylor improved to 6-3.
Brandon Randolph had 15 points to lead UA in scoring but the only Arizona frontcourt player to collect more than two rebounds was reserve forward Ira Lee, with five. Center Chase Jeter had just two rebounds, forward Ryan Luther had only one while Emmanuel Akot did not get a rebound.
MORE: 'Not tough enough': Arizona Wildcats destroyed on boards in home loss to Baylor
Makai Mason led Baylor in scoring with 22 points while Mark Vital had 16 rebounds.
The Bears collected 18 offensive rebounds, and scored 19 second-chance points off them.
UA had brief but similarly costly troubles on the glass in their 76-73 loss at Alabama on Sunday, when the Wildcats allowed the Crimson Tide to collect five offensive rebounds in the final six minutes of the game and score 10 points off them.
βWhen they needed second shots the most down the stretch of the game, they got them,β Miller said of Alabama after that game, and the same thing applied for the entire game Saturday with Baylor.
After Baylor took a 37-31 lead entering the final 12 minutes, a pair of 3-pointers from Dylan Smith helped pull the Wildcats within two points, 39-37, with 9:42 left in the game.
But Mario Kegler scored inside for Baylor and later hit a 3-pointer from the right corner to put the Bears back up by seven with 7:35 to go and UA came no closer than six points the rest of the way.
With UA also shooting under 30 percent against the Bearsβ zone defense over the first 16 minutes of the second half, Baylor extended the scoring into a 9-2 run that gave them a 48-39 lead entering the final four minutes.
The Bears continued their dominance on the glass early in the second half, collecting the first six rebounds and outrebounding Arizona 11-3 after halftime to help go on an 8-0 run that gave them a 37-31 lead with 12:20 left.
Devonte Bandoo started the run by scoring inside after Baylor collected an offensive rebound, while Mario Kegler then put back his own miss to score another second shot. Makai Mason then drove inside twice for layups to give the Bears a six-point lead.
PHOTOS: Baylor 58, Arizona 49, NCAA men's basketball
In the first half, Arizona hung on for a 23-20 halftime lead after Baylor shot just 27.6 percent from the field and hit only 2 of 13 3-pointers but outrebounded the Wildcats 27-11. Baylor converted 13 offensive rebounds into eight second-chance points.
Randolph and Akot had five points each to lead Arizona but Akot, Jeter and Luther had just one rebound each in the half.
Baylor was shooting just 25-percent from the field with eight minutes left in the first half but still trailed only 16-14 because it was outrebounding Arizona 18-6 at that point.
Arizona later went ahead 21-16 on a 3-pointer from Randolph but a driving layup from Baylorβs Tristan Clark cut it to 21-18.
The pattern was established throughout the half. Midway through the first half. UA led 11-10 even as Baylor was outrebounding the Wildcats 13-5 at that point, because the Bears hit only 4 of their first 13 shots from the field.
Akot hit a 3-pointer early to give UA a 7-4 lead but Baylorβs Makai Mason hit a 3 to tie the game at 7-7 entering the first media timeout and the Bearsβ rebounding kept the game close the rest of the half.
The Wildcats have two more home nonconference games remaining before breaking for Christmas and then preparing for the Pac-12 season: On Wednesday against Montana and on Dec. 22 against UC Davis.
