MBB Takes Out 'Cuse, Moves into Round of 32

Thursday, March 21

Salt Lake City, Utah

8:57 P.M. CT (approx.)

Baylor

20-13

Syracuse

20-14

Baylor

Syracuse

MBB Takes Out 'Cuse, Moves into Round of 32

3/21/2019 11:29:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score PDF Box Postgame Notes

Makai Mason scored 22 points for the Bears.

    SALT LAKE CITY, Utah– Makai Mason hasn't finished writing his NCAA Tournament story just yet.
    But, the grad transfer from Yale added another exhilarating chapter Thursday night at the Vivint Smart Home Arena.
    Three years after knocking out Baylor with a then career-high 31 points in Yale's first-round upset, Mason blistered the nets again with four first-half 3-pointers and 22 points to help the ninth-seeded Bears (20-13) get by eight-seeded Syracuse, 78-69, in a memorable first-round matchup in the West Regional.
    "Just to come out here and compete against the best, you know, going into March Madness, you can't write a better story, really," he said.
    Baylor hit a season-high 16 3-pointers – breaking the previous program record of 11 made 3-pointers in an NCAA Tournament game (2012, vs. Colorado; and 2014, vs. Creighton) – and was a sizzling 10-of-18 from outside the arc in a first half that looked more like a shooting contest than a basketball game.
    "I'm an offensive coach, so I liked it," Baylor coach Scott Drew said of the two teams combining to hit 19-of-35 treys in the first half, with the Bears taking a 38-37 lead into the break. "Defensively, when you're making shots like that not getting separation, that is frustrating. So, I liked what we were executing on offense, but defensively I thought we needed to be better."
    The Bears, securing their 10^th20-win season in the last 20 years, were better on the defensive end in the second half. Syracuse (20-13) was just 3-of-12 from 3-point distance and shot just 31 percent overall (9-of-29) in the second half.
    "Baylor's a really difficult team for us to play against," said Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim, whose team had won eight straight first-round games in the NCAA Tournament. "Probably, of any team other than the 1 or 2 seeds in the tournament, Baylor is a harder team for us to play than anybody else that was 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. I would almost rather have played anybody."
    After shooting lights-out in the first half, including 9-of-17 from outside the arc, the Orange missed its last six shots and was just 2-of-14 over the last nine minutes.
    Scoreless for the first 17 minutes of the second half, Mason knocked down a mid-range jumper after grabbing a rebound off his own miss and then hit four free throws in the last 69 seconds to ice the game.
    "We have the underdog mentality," said Mason, who scored 16 of his team-high 22 points in the first half. "We're not backing down from anybody. That's the reason why we were able to stay calm in those big moments. We're sticking together, and at the end of the day we're not supposed to be here, and we're just happy to be moving on."
    There were eight lead changes in the first 8 ½ minutes of a back-and-forth second half, with Syracuse's Oshae Brissett tying it up at 57-57 on a driving layup with 9:47 left in the game.
    That was when the Bears turned back to their perimeter attack, hitting three 3-pointers in an 11-2 run and going up 68-59 on Mario Kegler's third trey of the game. Elijah Hughes, who pumped in a career-high 25 points, scored six in a row in a 19-second stretch to make it a one-possession game again.
    Baylor closed the game on an 8-2 run, with freshman Jared Butler beating the press with a length-of-the-court pass to Freddie Gillespie for an exclamation-point dunk.
    "We have been through a lot all season, a lot of ups and downs, a lot of doubt," said Butler, who drained four 3-pointers and finished with 14 points, five rebounds and four assists. "I want to say this: these guys stuck together, we stayed together, even through four losses back-to-back. So, these guys are special. Everybody believes in Coach Drew and the coaching staff. Man, I think we deserve this in a way. So, it's big-time."
    Kegler added 13 points, King McClure nine and Gillespie eight points and five rebounds, helping the Bears edge Syracuse on the boards, 31-28. Tyus Battle had 16 and Brissett 14 for the Orange.
    Baylor advances to the second round for a matchup against top-seeded Gonzaga (31-3) on Saturday at 6:10 p.m. CDT Saturday. that will be televised by TBS. The Zags rolled over 16^th-seeded Farleigh Dickinson, 87-49, in the other first-round matchup in the West Regional.
    Second-year Baylor assistant coach John Jakus was on Gonzaga coach Mark Few's staff two years ago when the Zags made the Final Four.
    "We have so much respect for their program. Coach Few does such an amazing job," Drew said. "Those guys competed at such a high level. I know we'll be very familiar with their program, and they're familiar with ours because we've played against each other, we have scrimmaged against each other."