
No. 13 MBB Tops Florida, 95-91, for NIT Tipoff Win
11/24/2023 7:19:00 PM | Men's Basketball
RayJ Dennis lead the way with 24 points
BROOKLYN, N.Y. – Jalen Bridges made five 3-pointers and scored a season-high 23 points to help the 13th-ranked Baylor men escape with a 95-91 win over the Florida Gators in Friday's championship game of the NIT Season Tip-Off at the Barclays Center.
It was Baylor's seventh regular-season tournament title under coach Scott Drew and the fifth in the last six tournaments since 2016.
"Anytime you win a non-conference tournament, it's a big deal," said Drew, whose team improved to 6-0 with its second neutral-site win over an SEC opponent. "I think if you look at postseason success, most teams that did well in these preseason tournaments, it usually bodes well for postseason, because you've got to have something to you to win tournaments like this."
RayJ Dennis, the MAC Player of the Year last season at Toledo, scored 22 of his 24 points in the second half and finished with eight assists, four rebounds and three steals in earning tournament MVP honors.
"JB (Bridges had a great first half in stretching the floor," Dennis said. "When he makes it easy like that, you get to walk into layups when guys are shooting like that."
After falling behind 7-0 in the first two minutes, the Bears reeled off 10-straight points and got back-to-back 3-pointers by Langston Love and freshman Ja'Kobe Walter to take a 22-14 lead with 12:12 left in the first half.
Baylor took its first double-digit lead on a 3-pointer by Walter, who scored all 11 of his points in the first half, and took its biggest lead of the game, 37-26, on a Love trey with 5:59 left. Outscoring the Bears 16-5 over the last 5 ½ minutes, Florida (4-2) tied it up at 41-41 on a fast-break layup by Will Richard.
After Riley Kugel opened the second half with a dunk that gave Florida the lead, Dennis scored nine points in a four-minute stretch that saw BU go up 59-52 on a pair of free throws by Love.
The Bears took the lead for good with 9:56 left when Jonathan Tchamwa Tchatchoua knocked down a 3-pointer on his only shot of the game. Bridges and Love went 6-for-6 from the line to help keep Florida at bay.
Love finished with 16 points, including a career-high three 3-pointers, while Kugel just missed a double-double for the Gators with 25 points and nine rebounds. Florida won the rebounding battle, 38-33, and had a 21-2 edge in fast-break points, but Baylor's bench outscored the Gator reserves, 26-14.
"This is certainly the deepest team that I've been on my four years of playing and five years total in college," Bridges said. "From 1 to 13, we're super-talented. Everybody's always on the rope. We're out there together, we stay connected. When you play like that, it's hard to beat. We're trying to make the opponent miserable for 40 minutes, and that's what we did."
Baylor returns home for three-straight games at the Ferrell Center, including Tuesday's 7 p.m. matchup versus Nicholls, before another neutral-site marquee showdown against Michigan State on Dec. 16 at the Detroit Piston's Little Caesars Arena in Detroit, Mich.
-BaylorBears.com-
It was Baylor's seventh regular-season tournament title under coach Scott Drew and the fifth in the last six tournaments since 2016.
"Anytime you win a non-conference tournament, it's a big deal," said Drew, whose team improved to 6-0 with its second neutral-site win over an SEC opponent. "I think if you look at postseason success, most teams that did well in these preseason tournaments, it usually bodes well for postseason, because you've got to have something to you to win tournaments like this."
RayJ Dennis, the MAC Player of the Year last season at Toledo, scored 22 of his 24 points in the second half and finished with eight assists, four rebounds and three steals in earning tournament MVP honors.
"JB (Bridges had a great first half in stretching the floor," Dennis said. "When he makes it easy like that, you get to walk into layups when guys are shooting like that."
After falling behind 7-0 in the first two minutes, the Bears reeled off 10-straight points and got back-to-back 3-pointers by Langston Love and freshman Ja'Kobe Walter to take a 22-14 lead with 12:12 left in the first half.
Baylor took its first double-digit lead on a 3-pointer by Walter, who scored all 11 of his points in the first half, and took its biggest lead of the game, 37-26, on a Love trey with 5:59 left. Outscoring the Bears 16-5 over the last 5 ½ minutes, Florida (4-2) tied it up at 41-41 on a fast-break layup by Will Richard.
After Riley Kugel opened the second half with a dunk that gave Florida the lead, Dennis scored nine points in a four-minute stretch that saw BU go up 59-52 on a pair of free throws by Love.
The Bears took the lead for good with 9:56 left when Jonathan Tchamwa Tchatchoua knocked down a 3-pointer on his only shot of the game. Bridges and Love went 6-for-6 from the line to help keep Florida at bay.
Love finished with 16 points, including a career-high three 3-pointers, while Kugel just missed a double-double for the Gators with 25 points and nine rebounds. Florida won the rebounding battle, 38-33, and had a 21-2 edge in fast-break points, but Baylor's bench outscored the Gator reserves, 26-14.
"This is certainly the deepest team that I've been on my four years of playing and five years total in college," Bridges said. "From 1 to 13, we're super-talented. Everybody's always on the rope. We're out there together, we stay connected. When you play like that, it's hard to beat. We're trying to make the opponent miserable for 40 minutes, and that's what we did."
Baylor returns home for three-straight games at the Ferrell Center, including Tuesday's 7 p.m. matchup versus Nicholls, before another neutral-site marquee showdown against Michigan State on Dec. 16 at the Detroit Piston's Little Caesars Arena in Detroit, Mich.
-BaylorBears.com-
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