Oklahoma basketball: Sooners tip off precarious 7-game stretch at Baylor

The No. 23 Oklahoma basketball men take a one-game winning streak to Waco, Texas, tonight for a nationally televised top-25 matchup against No. 12 Baylor.

The Sooners (18-6, 6-5) have lost six straight games to Baylor (17-6, 6-4) in Waco, but this will be their first visit to the all-new Foster Pavilion, the new basketball home of the Bears. Oklahoma's previous road struggles against Baylor were at the former Ferrell Center, where OU was 14-10 versus Baylor in the Big 12 era.

OU won its first 13 road games and 26 consecutive games (1997 to 2009) against Baylor as members of the Big 12, but the tide has since turned. Since the 2009 season, the Sooners are 11-19 versus Baylor, and they will be going up against an angry bunch of Bears, who are coming off of a narrow 64-61 loss at Kansas on Saturday.

Since the 2009 season, the Sooners are 11-19 versus Baylor, and they will be going up against an angry bunch of Bears who are coming off of a narrow 64-61 loss at Kansas on Saturday. Oklahoma is coming off of a 66-62 home win over Oklahoma State, but other than avoiding what would have been a devastating loss, it was not a particularly strong performance by the Sooners.

Tuesday night's game will tip off at 8 p.m. CT and be televised on ESPN2. Rich Hollenberg will be the play-by-play announcer with Chris Spatola providing analysis.

Five things to know about the 72nd meeting between OU and Baylor

• Baylor is second best in the Big 12 in scoring, averaging 82.7 points a game, and leads the conference and ranks fourth nationally in three-point percentage (39.8). All five starters average 10 points or more a game, led by Ja'Kobe Walter (14.3) and RayJ Dennis (13.3). The Bears have four players who play substantial minutes and shoot close to 40 percent from the three-point line.

• Oklahoma shoots 47.3 percent as a team this season. When the Sooners shoot 50 percent or better, they are 7-0 this season and 30-2 in the Porter Moser era. OU's leading scorer is Junior Siena transfer Javian McCollum (14.2 per game). Otega Oweh is next at 12.5.

• A key matchup in the game is Baylor's three-point shooting versus Oklahoma's three-point defense. While Baylor leads the Big 12 in three-point field-goal percentage and made three-pointers, Oklahoma leads the conference in three-point field goal percentage defense, holding opponents to 27.9 percent from beyond the arc.

• Baylor is 12-0 this season when it shoots a higher field-goal percentage than its opponent and 12-3 when the Bears outrebound their opponent.

• This is the first time since March 1, 2016, that both teams have been ranked in the top 25 at the time the game was played.