No. 4 MBB Dominates Kansas State, 74-49

Tuesday, January 25

Waco, Texas

7 PM

Baylor

18-2,6-2Big 12

Kansas State

10-9,2-6Big 12

Kansas St.

Baylor

No. 4 MBB Dominates Kansas State, 74-49

1/25/2022 9:26:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score Final Book (PDF)

BU held the Wildcats to a season-low 49 points.

By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
            For just a second, Baylor coach Scott Drew thought that he had the whole band back together. Sorry, Coach, not this time.
            But, even with senior point guard James Akinjo out with a bruised tailbone, the fourth-ranked Bears continued to play clamp-down defense in freshman Jeremy Sochan's first game back in 2 ½ weeks and blew out the visiting Kansas State Wildcats, 74-49, Tuesday night at the Ferrell Center.
            "We like this feeling a little bit better than the last two home games," said Drew, whose Bears (18-2, 6-2) followed up home losses to Texas Tech and Oklahoma State with road wins over West Virginia and Oklahoma. "The Baylor fans gave us good energy. I thought we got off to a good start. And then after that, anytime they started to make a run, the crowd got involved. Anytime you can hold a Big 12 team to 32% for the game, you're doing something well."
            Baylor's smothering defense forced 12 turnovers, blocked six shots and held the Wildcats (10-9, 2-6) to 32% shooting overall and just 5-of-23 from 3-point range. K-State, coming off a heartbreaking 78-75 loss to Kansas, also scored its fewest points of the season.
            Drew credited the Bears' depth for the improvement on defense with Sochan back and Dale Bonner playing more minutes. Sochan knocked down a 3-pointer, went 2-for-3 from the floor and had five points, two rebounds, two steals and a block in 21 minutes after missing the previous four games with a sprained ankle.
            "Fatigue makes cowards of us all," Drew said. "When you get depth, it helps you. I thought Dale played great minutes. Having Jeremy back was huge. But, that's why depth is really important, because normally people when they get tired, they can still play on the offensive end. It's the defensive end that they tend to rest."
Kendall Brown (10 points, 11 rebounds) and Jonathan Tchamwa Tchatchoua (13 points, 12 rebounds) both recorded double-doubles, while the backcourt duo of LJ Cryer and Adam Flagler scored 14 and 13 points, respectively, for the Bears.
             After averaging just 4.3 points and 4.7 rebounds in Baylor's first six conference games, Brown hit double-digit points for the second-straight game and grabbed double-digit rebounds for the first time.
            "I'd say, just let the game come to me," said Brown, who was 4-of-5 from the floor. "My teammates are great, so any way I can contribute a little bit and rebound, making passes and making plays is what I will do."
            Ismael Massoud buried a 3-pointer on K-State's first possession, but the Wildcats missed 14 of their next 15 shots and fell behind, 18-6, on a Flagler floater in the lane. Stretching the lead to as many as 21, when Flagler hit a flashing Tchamwa Tchatchoua for a layup, the Bears went into the locker room with a 39-21 halftime lead.
            This is the same K-State team that won consecutive games over Texas And Texas Tech and had a 16-point halftime lead on fifth-ranked Kansas just three days ago.
            Nijel Pack, the Big 12's third-leading scorer at 16.7 points per game going into Tuesday's matchup, was just 1-for-6 in the first half before hitting a couple late 3-pointers to score a team-high 13 points.
            "We just tried to have Pack awareness," Drew said, laughing as the words came out of his mouth. "He's going to get buckets, and you just want to limit them. He's been on such a great tear, and he's a great player."
            Scoreless in the first half, Markquis Nowell hit K-State's first four buckets of the second half and provided the Wildcats all of their offense until Mike McGuirl got a dunk off a steal that made it 49-32, with 12 minutes to go.
            The Bears answered with five quick points when Bonner fed Matthew Mayer for a layup, then Cryer completed a three-point play with a layup and free throw to push the lead back to 22.
            "We're not a one-man show," said Tchamwa Tchatchoua, who had his fourth career double-double and third at Baylor. "We can always go to the bench and get somebody who can bring us a spark. I really feel like we always play for each other. If we're missing one or two people, we always push each other to get better, to get over that gap."
            Both Bonner and Brown seem to have adjusted to the Big 12 level and are becoming more consistent contributors.
            "Kudos to the coaching staff and my teammates, because they believe in me," said Bonner, whose minutes have increased in league play, "because they believe in me. I just have to play with confidence every time I step on the floor."
            Playing on the road for the third time in their last four games, the Bears will play Alabama (12-7) in the Big 12/SEC Challenge at 3 p.m. CT Saturday in Tuscaloosa, Ala. The Crimson Tide are coming off an 82-76 loss to Georgia that snapped the Bulldogs' nine-game SEC losing streak.