No. 14 MBB Drops Semifinal Bout against No. 7 Iowa State

Friday, March 15

Kansas City, Mo.

8:30 PM

Baylor

Iowa State

No. 14 MBB Drops Semifinal Bout against No. 7 Iowa State

3/15/2024 11:20:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Plagued by slow starts for most of the last month, the 14^th-ranked Baylor men paid the price this time with an exit at the Big 12 tournament.

But it was the Bears' struggles from outside the arc that hurt them the most, shooting 21% from 3-point range and missing their first eight shots in the second half, in falling to the seventh-ranked and second-seeded Iowa State Cyclones, 76-62, in Friday night's semifinal at the T-Mobile Center.

"Iowa State is second in the nation, so they're going to make everybody look bad offensively," said Baylor coach Scott Drew, whose team fell to 23-10 on the year and 3-6 all-time in the Big 12 tournament semifinals.

"When you don't make shots – we're 5-for-24 (from 3) – some of those are tough shots that we took that I didn't put our guys in good enough positions to get better looks. That's on me. We had some open ones, but that's where 14-0 second-chance points is normally good enough, but not good enough when you're shooting 21%. And they weren't guarding us on the free throw line."

The Cyclones (26-7), 5-0 all-time in Big 12 Championship finals, will go for their sixth tournament title when they face top-ranked Houston (30-3) at 5 p.m. Saturday. One of four league newcomers this year, the Cougars blew out 25^th-ranked Texas Tech in the second half, 82-59, in the other semifinal.

Instead of playing in their fourth Big 12 tournament final and going for their first-ever conference tournament title, the Bears will now await the NCAA Tournament selections that will be announced at 5 p.m. Sunday on CBS.

"No matter what our conference record says, we feel like we're the best team in the conference," said senior forward Jalen Bridges, who led the Bears with a game-high-tying 20 points. "Whoever we end up against . . . . go at it with these players, my teammates, these coaches, because it's win-or-go-home time. And I don't want to go home yet. I want to keep playing with these guys."

Bridges and fellow senior forward Caleb Lohner kept Baylor within striking distance in the first half, even after falling behind 9-1. While the rest of the team was 0-for-7 from outside the arc in the first half, Bridges hit three of his first five and tied it up at 15-15 with one of his treys.

Lohner tied season highs in points (12) and minutes (21) after matching a season high with seven boards in Thursday's quarterfinal win over Cincinnati. In the first half alone, he was 3-for-3 from the field and had five of his six rebounds.

"One of my roles is to come in, bring my energy and help the team win," Lohner said. "At the end of the day, I think that's every player's goal: we want to win every single game we can. And I think coming in, establishing yself a little bit and helping us get going has helped us a little bit. But I'm excited to get things moving on see where we're going next Thursday or Friday."

After the Bears fell behind by as many as 11, Bridges hit two buckets in a 7-0 run, with Baylor trailing 35-27 at the break.

But the shooting woes continued into the second half, as the Bears missed their first eight shots and went down by 22 when Curtis Jones drained a 3-pointer to finish off a 17-3 start for the Cyclones after the break.

Freshman 7-footer Yves Missi had a dunk off an alley-oop from RayJ Dennis and hit a pair of free throws in a 7-0 run that got Baylor back within a dozen, 55-43, with about 10 ½ minutes to go. Ja'Kobe Walter, who was 1-for-8 from the field, scored his only points of the night on a 3-pointer with 8:05 to go that made it a 59-48 game, but the Bears got no closer.

The only thing that kept it from being a 20-point loss was a closing 8-2 run in the last 2 ½ minutes that included back-to-back buckets by Bridges and Jayden Nunn's layup with 6.0 seconds left after a shot clock violation by Iowa State.

Bridges (20 points, 12 rebounds) and Missi (14 points, 11 boards, two blocks) both recorded double-doubles – Baylor's first at the Big 12 tournament in nine years – helping the Bears dominate the battle of the boards, 42-28.

But the Cyclones shot 50% from 3-point range (10-of-20) and had 16-5 edges in fast-break and points off turnovers.

"Thirteen (turnovers) is better than the 20 we had the first time," Drew said of last month's 70-68 overtime win over the Cyclones, the same game where he was ejected for the first time in his career with two technicals.

"But the first time we made a lot more shots. The big thing is our turnovers, they need to be dead-ball and not live-ball. We had too many live-ball turnovers that put them into transition."

Baylor's starting backcourt trio of Dennis, Nunn and Walter combined for just 14 points and were 1-for-14 from 3-point range.

"We rebounded really well," Lohner said. "I think we've got to figure out a few things on offense, and we're not shooting the ball particularly well. We did want to win the Big 12 tournament, but there's a bigger tournament coming up, to make a run and have fun together. And do as much as we can to win the whole thing."

One of five players in double figures for Iowa State, Keshon Gilbert finished with 20 points, seven rebounds and seven assists. Curtis Jones had 13, Milan Momcilovic 11 and Tamin Lipsey and Hasan Ward each scored 10.