Baylor
2-0,0-0Big 12
Nicholls State
3-1,0-0Southland
No. 9 MBB Cruises to 89-60 Win over Nicholls
11/15/2021 1:51:00 PM | Men's Basketball
Kendall Brown Records a Double-Double in Matinee Win
By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
Baylor basketball already has something down that the 3,500 elementary children attending Monday's "I'm Going to College" game at the Ferrell Center are still being taught: how to share.
Facing defending Sun Belt champion Nicholls State (3-1), the ninth-ranked Bears (2-0) had 33 assists on 37 made buckets and also shared the scoring load with five players hitting double-digit points in rolling over the visiting Colonels, 89-60.
Freshman Kendall Brown flirted with a triple-double in just his second collegiate game, finishing with 13 points, 10 assists and eight rebounds, while sophomore guard LJ Cryer drained five 3-pointers and pumped in a career-high 20 points.
"He does a tremendous job of keeping things simple and really lets the game come to him," Baylor head coach Scott Drew said. "Statistically, what you see is what you get. Doesn't shoot a lot. When he does, he usually makes it. Makes the right passes, elite defender, he does a good job on the glass."
With the early 11 a.m. tip time, there's always a concern "that we wouldn't be ready to come out and play," Drew said.
But, those concerns were quickly laid to rest when the Bears went on a 10-0 run to take a double-digit lead, 19-8, just over five minutes into the game. On three-straight possessions, Brown fed Matthew Mayer for a layup, assisted on a Cryer trey and then lobbed to Jonathan Tchamwa Tchatchoua for a slam dunk.
Adam Flagler completed the run with a 3-pointer off a dish from Mayer, who finished with 12 points, five rebounds and four assists.
"I feel like we just had to get the jitters out (in the opener)," Cryer said of the Bears falling behind 12-6 in the first six minutes of an 87-60 win over Incarnate Word on Friday.
"Last game was the first game, so of course we were going to look a little rusty. Today looked like probably our fifth game. We just come out, play for each other, leave it all on the line and hope for the best, and we got out to a fast start."
The Colonels went nearly six minutes without scoring as Baylor reeled off a 12-0 run that included 3-pointers by Mayer and freshman Jeremy Sochan and a couple buckets by senior forward Flo Thamba to go up 37-15.
Sochan, scoring in double figures for the second-straight game, was 5-of-10 from the floor and 3-of-6 from outside the arc and finished with 14 points and four boards.
"I have to give credit to my coaches and my players," Sochan said. "Without them, I wouldn't be as comfortable. But yeah, I'm feeling a lot more comfortable out there."
With Cryer and Mayer scoring 12 points apiece in the first half, the Bears went into the break with a comfortable 48-28 lead. Baylor struggled to defend Ty Gordon, who hit two 3-pointers and scored 12 of his game-high-sharing 20 points.
"Nicholls has some quick, athletic players," Drew said. "They're talented. Obviously, defensively, we can shore up some things. But going into the game, if you can hold people to 40 percent and 60 points, normally you feel pretty good about your defensive effort."
Sochan hit a pair of 3-pointers and a free throw in a 3 ½-minute stretch the extended the Bears' lead to 61-37 about seven minutes into the second half.
Cryer knocked down back-to-back 3-pointers to put Baylor up 31, then Tchamwa Tchatchoua gave the Bears their biggest lead of the game, 87-52, on a pair of buckets in the paint.
"I've always been a scorer," said Cryer, who averaged 3.3 points last season as a freshman, "but as far as developing my game, I feel like mentally I've grown a lot, just being able to flush out a miss and move on to the next play. Even when I score, never get too high, never get too low. Just stay even-keel and good things will happen for you."
One of the few troubling areas for the Bears was turning it over 20 times. Baylor dominated on the boards, 48-26, and outscored Nicholls, 14-0, on second-chance points.
"First, it was a game where there were a lot of transition opportunities," Drew said. "A couple of them, you've got to credit your speed, athleticism, slippery floor. But probably 16 of them, we can make better passes, sharper passes, deep passes. So, there are things we can improve on."
Baylor hosts Central Arkansas (0-2) at 7 p.m. Wednesday, then closes out the season-opening four-game home stand with a matchup against Stanford (1-1) at noon Saturday. Both games will be streamed by Big 12 Now on ESPN+.
