Bahamian freshman VJ Edgecombe poured in 18 points but that wasn’t enough to prevent his Baylor Bears from suffering a third straight loss with a two-point (67-69) defeat at the hands of the Cincinnati Bearcats on the road on in NCAA Basketball action on Tuesday.

Cincinnati (17-11, 7-10 Big 12) opened up a 13-point lead (39-26) at halftime before a spirited Bears comeback, spearheaded by Edgecombe, leveled proceedings with 8:12 to play in the contest.

The Bearcats built their advantage back to six points with six minutes to play but Baylor (16-12, 8-9 Big 12) again pulled to within a bucket on a 3-pointer with 4:21 left.

Day Day Thomas drained a long 3-pointer with 1:55 to go to expand the Cincinnati lead to 69-64 before Baylor countered with a third-chance 3-pointer by Edgecombe with 54 seconds left to get back within two points.

After empty possessions by both teams, Edgecombe missed a contested driving shot with 6 seconds to play. A held ball on the rebound gave the ball back to Cincinnati with 1.5 seconds left, and the Bearcats held on.

Edgecombe led Baylor with 18 points with Norchad Omier adding 15 points and 10 boards.

Jizzle James led the way for Cincinnati with 18 points while Dillon Mitchell finished with 13 points and a team-high nine rebounds and Josh Reed had 11 points.