No. 24 MBB Powers Past Coastal Carolina, 77-65

Friday, November 22

Conway, S.C.

4:00 p.m. CT

Baylor

4-1,0-0Big 12

Coastal Carolina

3-3,0-0Sun Belt

Coastal Carolina

Baylor

No. 24 MBB Powers Past Coastal Carolina, 77-65

11/22/2019 5:55:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score Postgame Notes

MaCio Teague scored 21 points to lead the Bears.

            CONWAY, S.C. – Looking for its first-ever win over a top-25 team, Coastal Carolina seemed to have the right blueprint to knock off No. 24 Baylor in Friday's semifinal at the Myrtle Beach Invitational:
            Win the rebounding margin (29-26), score more second-chance points (12-4) and knock down shots (9-of-14 on 3-pointers).
            But, Baylor's defense was too much for the Chanticleers to handle when it mattered the most. The Bears (4-1) forced 22 turnovers and held Coastal Carolina to zero field goals in the last eight minutes in pulling away late for a 77-65 win in their first true road game of the season.
            "We really didn't do a good job early on of identifying where (Tyrell Gumbs-Frater and Keishawn Brewton) were," Baylor coach Scott Drew said in the postgame press conference. "But, I think we got better as the game went on.
"I thought defensively, Mark (Vital) really gave us a lift, and Davion (Mitchell) really did a great job on their point guard. And then, we did a much better job – MaCio (Teague), Devonte (Bandoo) and JB (Jared Butler) – in the second half on their shooters."
            Baylor's three-guard lineup lineup of Teague, Mitchell and Butler combined for 48 points in helping the Bears reach their eighth regular-season tournament championship game in the last 13 years.
            After a day off, Baylor will face 17^th-ranked Villanova (4-1) in Sunday's 4 p.m. CST final that will be televised by ESPN. In the other semifinal, Jeremiah Robinson-Earl scored 22 points in 'Nova's 83-76 win over Mississippi state.
            "It's a great opportunity for us to see what we have to work on, what we've got to get better at, and see where we stack up right now with the nation's best," Drew said of facing a Villanova team that won national championships in 2016 and '18 and has been to the NCAA Tournament 13 times in the last 17 years. "Villanova is a standard of excellence."
            In a back-and-forth first half, the Bears fell behind by as many as nine before reeling off 16 unanswered points and going up 28-21 on a Matthew Mayer banked floater that tickled the nets. Coastal Carolina closed the half with an 18-9 run and took a 39-37 lead into the halftime break when Garrick Green broke a tie with a slam dunk.
            The Chanticleers were a near-perfect 6-of-8 from outside the arc, with Brewton nailing four treys and scoring 12 of his team-high 17 points in the first half.
            Coastal Carolina pushed its lead to 50-44 in the opening minutes of the second half before 6-6 sophomore point guard Ebrima Dibba suffered an apparent knee injury at the 16:05 mark on a breakaway layup attempt off a steal.
            Wearing a knee brace when he returned to the bench late in the second half, Dibba could only watch as Baylor took over the game with an extended 30-8 run. Still trailing at the under-12 timeout, the Bears scored 10-straight points and went up 63-57 on a step-back 3-pointer by Bandoo.
            "We just played hard," said Vital, who narrowly missed a double-double with 10 points, nine rebounds and three steals. "We got a good talking to, and we came out and played hard, we executed and we followed the game plan."
            Particularly with Dibba off the floor, Coastal Carolina couldn't handle Baylor's three-guard lineup on either end. MaCio Teague pumped in a game-high 21 points, with Davion Mitchell and Jared Butler adding 15 and 12 points, respectively, and helping force 22 turnovers.
            The Chanticleers had five players in double figures, led by Brewton with five 3-pointers and 17 points after scoring 22 in Thursday's 79-57 win over Utah.
            Baylor got 23 bench points, including seven points and four rebounds from Bandoo and six points in just six minutes from sophomore Matthew Mayer. Mitchell had career highs for points (15) and assists (six) and tied a career best with three steals.
            With Mitchell setting the tone at the top of Baylor's zone defense, "we keyed in on shooters pretty well," Teague said.
            "He's a one-man show up there, a one-man wrecking crew," Teague said of Mitchell. "He does a great job of making it easy on us because he's such a great defender on the ball."
            Baylor improved to 35-12 in regular-season tournaments in the Drew era and will go for its fifth tournament title in Sunday's final against Villanova.
            "We're excited that we have a chance to play for a championship," Drew said. "You saw that they have a pretty good contingency down here, so it will be a like a road game for us. That will make us better and prepare us for Big 12 play, for sure."