No. 2 MBB Handles Kansas State, 85-66

Tuesday, February 25

Waco, Texas

7 p.m.

Baylor

Kansas State

No. 2 MBB Handles Kansas State, 85-66

2/25/2020 9:16:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score Box Score Postgame Quotes

Mitchell and Mayer both record career bests in Tuesday's win

By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
            Coaches, by nature, are worriers.
            With No. 2-ranked Baylor coming off its first loss in 3 ½ months, coach Scott Drew was concerned about how his team would respond, especially when "warmups weren't great."
            Apparently, he had nothing to worry about.
            Coming out smoking, the Bears (25-2, 14-1) hit three of their first four shots, led by 26 points at the break and blew out the visiting Kansas State Wildcats, 85-66, Tuesday night at the Ferrell Center.
            "I think that's one of the strengths of our team all year long is we've shown up, we've played we've competed," said Drew, whose team bounced back from Saturday's 64-61 loss to then-No. 3 Kansas that snapped a Big 12-record 23-game winning streak. "There was no mental lapse or letdown after our last home game."
            Davion Mitchell, who had his first career double-double with 14 points and a career-high 10 assists, said he "kind of knew this was going to happen."
            "We knew we were going to play well throughout the game," Mitchell said, "because at the beginning of the game everybody was hitting shots and sharing the ball. No one was doing anything selfish."
            Mitchell was one of five double-figure scorers for the Bears, who moved back into a tie for first in the Big 12 with Kansas (25-3, 14-1) and clinched a top-two seed in the Big 12 Championship for the first time in program history.
            "I think the big thing for us, like every team, is we started out and the goal was to win a Big 12 championship," Drew said. "And we've got 12 days to make history."
            Sophomore forward Matthew Mayer had a career-high 19 points, hitting 6-of-7 from the floor, 2-of-3 from outside the arc and 5-of-6 from the line. After missing seven of 15 free throws in the loss to Kansas, including the front end of three one-and-one situations, Baylor hit its first 13 free throws and finished 16-of-18.
            On back-to-back K-State possessions, Mayer took a charge from Xavier Sneed and then stole a pass from David Sloan, scoring Baylor's last bucket with a fast break layup that pushed the Bears' lead to 84-50 with 4:06 left.
            "Matt's definitely trending in the right direction, and he's been consistent," Drew said. "But defensively, he's really starting to buy in. Some of his charges, he's taking them in practice, he's getting down in his stance better. I'm quite pleased with his program."
            Jared Butler scored seven of Baylor's first 11 points and assisted on the other two buckets, giving the Bears an 11-2 lead five minutes into the game when he hit a layup off a steal and feed from Freddie Gillespie. Butler scored 16 points, while Gillespie recorded his 10^th career double-double with 10 points, 11 boards and two blocks.
            K-State coach Bruce Weber, whose team has dropped eight in a row in falling to 9-19 overall and 2-11 in the Big 12, said the Wildcats "had no answers" for a guard-oriented attack that hit 13-of-28 3-pointers.
            "Mitchell and Gillespie, those two dudes are just winners," Weber said. "You look at Freddie's line, he gets 10 and 11, a couple blocks. They have a great team and great guard play."
            Baylor had a 50-24 lead at halftime and stretched it to as many as 34 before a closing 16-1 run by the Wildcats in the last four minutes.
            "We were blessed, because we made shots," Drew said. "Sometimes, the ball bounces right and you're able to get in transition. We've played well defensively, but when you make shots you can play even better defensively. I thought we were really locked-in. We didn't have many mental breakdowns today."
            In his second game back since missing two games with a wrist injury, junior guard MaCio Teague hit three 3-pointers, scored 13 points and added four rebounds, two assists and two steals.
            Baylor played without 6-10 junior forward Tristan Clark, who sat out his sixth game this season while recovering from the knee injury that sidelined him the second half of last season.
            "One of the things I was really pleased with was the toughness," Drew said. "We've got a lot of banged-up guys right now, and you can see across the league a lot of guys missing games. As physical as the Big 12 is, as tough as it is, the dog days of February. We probably had four or five guys that were pretty banged-up. Tristan did a great job on the bench supporting guys, but he just wasn't able to go tonight."
            Cartier Diarra led the Wildcats with 19 points and six rebounds, while DaJuan Gordon and Mike McGuirl scored 12 and 10 points, respectively.
            "You can't argue with five guys in double figures, 16-of-18 from the free throw line, 13 (made) 3's," Drew said. "A lot of positives there, and defensively we were really good except for the last five minutes."
            Baylor goes on the road to face TCU (15-13, 6-9) at 1 p.m. Saturday in Fort Worth before a "Big Monday" matchup at the Ferrell Center against No. 21/22 Texas Tech (18-10, 9-6).