By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
            Playing 36 hours after getting back from Oregon, Scott Drew had every right to be concerned about how the top-ranked Baylor Bears would respond in Monday night's game at the Ferrell Center against a 1-9 Alcorn State team. 
            Rest easy, Coach. 
            Flo Thamba and Jonathan Tchamwa Tchatchoua combined to hit all 14 of their shots from the field and both scored a career-high 16 points in a 94-57 rout of the visiting Braves to extend the Bears' national-best winning streak to 17 and pick up their Ferrell Center-record 20^th-straight at home. 
            "Coaches are always nervous the last game before Christmas," said Drew, whose team improved to 11-0 with its 35^th-consecutive non-conference win, dating back to November 2019, "because you want everyone to go home and feel good, hopefully with a win, right before Christmas. . . . Everything we wanted out of this game, we did."
            That included speeding up a slow-tempo Alcorn team that gave up 84 and 77 points, respectively to Final Four teams Gonzaga and Houston. The Braves (1-10) shot 54.2% from the floor and scored 31 points in the first half, but turned it over 11 times and trailed, 50-31. 
            "First half, we wanted to be more aggressive and gamble, because we felt like they were trying to shorten the game," Drew said. "We were able to get separation. After you get separation, now you can relax and just guard for 15 seconds. There was a short turnaround coming from Oregon, and I thought they did a great job handling it."
            Baylor ratcheted up its trademark defense in the second half, with Alcorn missing its first seven shots and shooting just 22% from the floor. 
            "They got some easy looks inside," said Thamba, who was 8-of-8 from the floor, adding four rebounds, two assists, one block and a steal in just 16 minutes. "After that, we made a slight adjustment to protect the paint, and it worked out in the second half."
            Dominic Brewton scored 11 of his game-high 19 points in the first half, helping the Braves score 20 points in the paint. But, they still trailed by 19 at the break and fell behind by as many as 42 in the second half. 
            "I liked how the guys got out there and competed and played hard," Alcorn head coach Lanon Bussie said. "I just told my guys, don't look at the scoreboard. Get out there and compete, and let the results be the results."
            A Baylor team typically led by its perimeter attack finished with 50 points in the paint and got near-perfect contributions from Thamba and Tchatchoua. 
            "The great thing about our team is everybody shares the sugar," Tchamwa Tchatchoua said of the Bears collecting 29 assists on 35 made buckets., "and it can be a different man every night. Tonight, it was Flo going 8-for-8 from the field. I love when he has success."
            Kendall Brown and Adam Flagler combined for 21 first-half points and finished with 16 and 12, respectively, while James Akinjo checked in with 14 points and seven assists. Darrious Agnew had 12 points and six rebounds for the Braves, who were outrebounded, 38-28. 
            Baylor also got six points and a career-high seven assists from freshman Jeremy Sochan. The Bears outscored Alcorn in bench points, 38-28, with Zach Loveday knocking down his third career 3-pointer and chipping in with four points and three boards in just eight minutes. 
            "Going into Christmas, you want everybody to play and have a chance to contribute and feel good about it, and get a win most of all," Drew said.  
            The Bears, one of just six remaining unbeaten teams, will take another seven-day break for Christmas before facing Northwestern State (3-9) on Dec. 28 in their final Big 12 tune-up.