MBB Rolls Past Colgate in First Round

Friday, March 22

Memphis, Tenn.

11:40 a.m.

Baylor

24-10,11-7Big 12

Colgate

25-10,16-2Patriot

Colgate

Baylor

MBB Rolls Past Colgate in First Round

3/22/2024 2:01:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score Box Score (PDF)

Jalen Bridges goes off in second half to lead the team

By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider

MEMPHIS, Tenn. – Before Friday's game, Baylor coach Scott Drew unveiled his own NCAA Tournament bracket, listing just one game: No. 3 seed Baylor versus 14^th-seeded Colgate. That was it, "just the next game up," said freshman Ja'Kobe Walter.

It's time for another bracket.

Hitting their most 3-pointers (16-of-30) since the calendar flipped to 2024, the third-seeded Bears (24-10) cruised to a 92-67 win over the 14^th-seeded Colgate Raiders (25-10) Friday afternoon in an NCAA West Regional first-round game at FedEx Forum.

"Really happy for these guys," Drew said. "A lot of them, it was their first time ever in an NCAA Tournament game. Really proud of how they played together. . . . Hopefully, we saved a couple of made 3's for the next game, because 16-for-30 is pretty efficient."

Senior forward Jalen Bridges had the hot hand for the Bears, particularly in the second half, when he was 4-of-6 from 3-point range and scored 18 of his game-high 23 points. In a second-half flurry that included a combined four-straight 3-pointers, Bridges answered with a pair of treys of his own in a dizzying stretch of 53 seconds.

"They were starting to heat up," said Bridges, who had his second-straight 20-point game and fifth of the season. "They threw a punch back, and we immediately countered with two punches of our own."

Red-hot right out of the gates, the Bears made four of their first six shots and went up 10-2 on a three-point play by freshman 7-footer Yves Missi just over four minutes into the game. Limited to 16 minutes because of a sore back, Missi had nine points, three rebounds and a steal.

"He woke up that way, and it bothered him yesterday," Drew said of Missi, who wore a massaging pad while he was sitting on the bench. "The good thing is you have a day off. Yves is really durable. He hasn't missed a game, hasn't missed much practice, if any practice. We have a great (medical staff. They'll get him right. But he was definitely affected by that today."

Without Missi's defense for most of the game, Colgate's inside duo of Keegan Records and Jeff Woodard had their way at times, helping the Raiders outscore the Bears in paint points, 38-34. Records hit his first four shots before Baylor switched to a zone defense and finished with 14 points, while Woodard was 2-of-2 from the floor and had five points, two blocks and a steal.

"What we had to do was take away their 3's," Drew said of the Bears holding Colgate to 5-of-18 shooting from distance. "I think we did a good job, but when you take away something, you give up something. Credit their interior for making great oves and plays. I thought as the game went on, we were able to do a little better job of limiting their touches. And the zone helped change that a little bit for us as well."

Baylor saw an early 14-point lead whittled to single digits on a driving layup by Woodard and back-to-back baskets by Sam Thomson in a flurry of a minute and a half that made it a 29-21 game.

"I think the guys felt like we had kind of weathered the storm, so to speak, and got it down to single digits and needed to finish well," said Colgate coach Matt Langers, whose team is now 0-7 in the NCAA Tournament. "We play a lot of guys, and we needed to try to win one possession at a time, as cliché as it sounds. Divide the game into those four-minute stretches and try to continue to win a couple of those."

Those hopes were essentially dashed when Baylor answered with a 14-2 run that included 3-pointers by RayJ Dennis and Jayden Nunn and a dunk by Josh Ojianwuna off an alley-oop pass from Dennis to make it 45-25.

A top-10 defense that came in allowing just 63.2 points per game, the Raiders gave up 54 in the first 20 minutes. Twice fouled on 3-point shots, Walter was 7-of-8 from the line in the first half and scored 15 of his 19 points.

"I really wanted to come out aggressive, set the tone early," Walter said. "My teammates, they were finding me, they were encouraging me. When we got things going, it was pretty hard to stop us."

Colgate made a little bit of a push early in the second half, going on an 8-3 run to get back within 57-42. But Baylor never left the window open.

Already comfortably ahead, the Bears got late 3-pointers by fan favorites Jonathan Tchamwa Tchatchoua and walk-on Austin Sacks to put the exclamation point on the Raiders' worst loss in an NCAA Tournament game.

"Usually, that's a good thing," Drew said when asked about the crowd chanting, "Put in Austin!" before he subbed in with 1:30 left. "So, hopefully, five more games we hear that. But excited for him. He's the ultimate teammate. Everybody loves him. I don't think he's ever said a bad thing about anybody."

Dennis, playing in his first NCAA Tournament after previous stops at Boise State and Toledo, finished one assist shy of a double-double. Despite picking up three fouls in the first half, Dennis finished with 10 points, nine assists, four rebounds and two assists.

Nunn was 4-of-5 from 3-point range and scored 15 points, while Missi and Ojianwuna combined to hit 8-of-10 shots from the "5" position and finished with 17 points and 10 boards.

Colgate, the Patriot League champions, were led by Records with 14 points, three rebounds and two assists. Conference Player of the Year Braeden Smith only scored three points in the first half and finished with 10 points and zero assists.

Baylor advances to Sunday's 5:10 p.m. CT second-round matchup against sixth-seeded Clemson (22-11), which got 21 points from Chase Hunter in a 77-56 blowout of 11^th-seeded New Mexico. The winner advances to the Sweet 16 in the Los Angeles Regional.