Baylor’s trip to the Big 12 championship game is officially on hold. But another typical finish with Texas Tech made things very tense.

Red Raiders’ place-kicker Jonathan Garibay missed a 53-yard field goal as time expired – his first miss of the year – as the Bears survived 27-24 on a rainy Saturday afternoon at McLane Stadium.

The No. 8 Bears now await the outcome of Saturday evening’s game between No. 7 Oklahoma State against No. 10 Oklahoma in Stillwater, OK. An Oklahoma State win sends Baylor the Big 12 title game against the Cowboys at 11:00 a.m. next Saturday at AT&T Stadium in Arlington.

Baylor (10-2, 7-2) tried to put the game away in the final minutes and drove to the Tech 13-yard line. But on 4th down, quarterback Blake Shapen’s pass was broken up by Tech linebacker Collin Schooler.

Working with no timeouts, the Red Raiders drove from their 13 and converted a 4th down to the Baylor 35 to set up Garibay.

Making his first career start, Baylor redshirt sophomore quarterback Shapen threw for 254 yards and a pair of touchdowns. Shapen threw a 61-yard strike to Trestan Ebner and then a 9-yard toss to tight end Ben Sims in the middle of the fourth quarter. He also rushed for 24 yard and bounced back from a vicious hit he took on the Tech sideline.

Shapen was also fortunate as Red Raider defenders dropped two interceptions. The most fortunate was in the third quarter. Shapen locked on to Tyquan Thornton but Tech’s Rayshad Williams stepped in front at the Tech 47 with the pick that would have been a Pick6 that would have tied the game, 17-17. Williams dropped the ball but recovered it. However, replay overturned the turnover as an incomplete pass. Thornton played defensive back on the play as he punched the ball loose from Williams’ grasp.

The Bears never trailed but never felt comfortable either, especially in the 4th quarter. Down 20-10, Tech quarterback Donovan Smith found McLane Mannix on a 38-yard score to close to 20-17. After Baylor answered on the Shapen to Sims score, Smith hit tight end Travis Koontz on a screen who then rumbled 75 yards to cut the margin to 27-17.

Held to just 38 rushing in the first half, Abram Smith had a stronger second half and finished with 117. For the season Smith is at 1,366 yards. That’s the second-best rushing season behind Terrance Ganaway who rushed for 1,547 yards in 2011. With his 8th 100-yard game he tied Walter Abercrombie’s school record of eight set in 1980.

Baylor’s defense also kept it streak going with forcing a turnover for 20 consecutive games. The Bears forced two and scored 10 points off them.