NEW ORLEANS — Sam Houston State was right there.

The Bearkats were dead even with 19th-ranked Baylor with less than four minutes to go in the game. Senior Ashton Mitchell had just tied the contest at 55 on a layup worthy of SportsCenter’s Plays of the Week.

Mitchell’s tricky reverse layup was the kind of play that usually leads to something special. But just as fast as it came, the momentum quickly shifted in the Bears’ favor.

Third-seeded Baylor got eight points from junior guard LaceDarius Dunn and went on an 11-4 run in the final two and a half minutes to avoid a huge upset, notching a 68-59 victory over Sam Houston State in the first round of the NCAA tournament Thursday afternoon at New Orleans Arena.

“Had the game right where we wanted it with four minutes to go and had the basketball, had an opportunity to get a lead and it didn’t happen,” SHSU head coach Bob Marlin said.

The 14th-seeded Bearkats (25-8) weren’t intimidated by Baylor (26-7). Senior forward Preston Brown came out and scored eight of his 13 points in the first two minutes of the game to give Sam Houston a quick 10-3 lead.

“(Getting the early lead) helped us get into a groove and realize that we needed to play ball,” Brown said. “I thought after that everybody started playing. Nobody was nervous anymore. Everybody just started playing like we usually do. That helped out a lot, though.”

The Bears eventually came back and took their first lead at 20-18 thanks to a pair of baskets from 6-11 sophomore forward Anthony Jones.

Baylor fans probably thought that was the beginning of the end for the Bearkats, but this game was far from over.

Despite shooting a miserable 1 of 15 from long range for the first 19 minutes of the game, the Bearkats hung tough. During that early stretch,  Mitchell and senior guard Corey Allmond were a combined 0 for 9 on 3-point attempts.

Sam Houston was hoping to get hot from behind the arc and felt like that was the best way to compete with Baylor. With those shots not falling Thursday, the Bearkats found out that a defensive change was just as effective.

Sam Houston opened the game by running a triangle-and-two defense, a mix between man-to-man and a zone, and it confused the Bears. Baylor’s two leading scorers, Dunn and senior guard Tweety Carter, were virtually nonexistent on the offensive end.

The only reason Baylor was close in the first half was because forward Ekpe Udoh, who finished with 20 points, and Jones were knocking down shots.

“We’ve never seen a triangle and two. The way they had it, we split the top man,” Udoh said. “So whoever caught the ball in between the top man had a chance to make an opportunity for themselves.

“So I just stayed aggressive, you know, had confidence in my team. We pulled it out.”

Junior forward Gilberto Clavell dominated the Bears’ zone defense in the first half. The Bearkats were patient and made the extra passes to find Clavell for a steady diet of mid-range jumpers from the high post. Clavell scored 17 points in the first 20 minutes to give Sam Houston a 31-30 lead at the break.

But Baylor slowed Clavell down in the second half as he finished with a game-high 23 points and seven rebounds.

The Bears went on a 7-0 run with baskets from Udoh and Carter and a three-point play from center Josh Lomers to grab its biggest lead of the game at 37-31.

Sam Houston answered, though. Mitchell and Allmond finally found the bottom of the net on consecutive 3s to tie the game. It was back and forth from there.

Quincy Acy threw down a dunk to bring the Baylor crowd to its feet as the Bears grabbed a 55-53 advantage with 4:01 left in the game.

Mitchell then dribbled through the lane, faked a behind-the-back pass and laid in a high floater to tie the contest at 55.

That’s when the wheels came off the Sam Houston shooting wagon. The Bearkats failed to answer for the first time and Baylor finally pulled away.

Sam Houston hit just 39 percent (23 of 68) from the field and 19 percent (6 of 31) from behind the arc Thursday.

“It’s just that we didn’t knock down shots. It didn’t go in,” Clavell said. “We had good looks every time. Like we used to shoot, we shoot over 40 percent all the time, but this time, like the ball didn’t go in. We didn’t get the right shot at the end.”

With the win, Baylor advances to Saturday’s second round of the South regional and will face 11th-seeded Old Dominion, which knocked off sixth-seeded Notre Dame 51-50 Thursday.

The Bears also picked up their first NCAA tournament victory since 1950, a 56-55 win over BYU in the first round.