Bears were a little sluggish to start as you would expect since they had not played in 12 days.
While Washington State controlled the pace throughout, Baylor was able to get the offense going.
Keyonte George took 11 of his 14 shots from deep (made three) but made a big one down the stretch that helped give this team some breathing room. He finished with a game-high 19. George is even a better passer with three assists. He should have had five had it not been for fumbles under the basket.
Adam Flagler was sluggish for most of this one but came alive with six of his 12 in the closing moments including two nice driving layups off the window to help.
Baylor's largest lead was only eight. Bears defense did a great job in the closing three minutes really frustrating the Cougars.
The deciding possession was with about 2:50 to play and Baylor leading 59-55. Cougars got a fast break off a George turnover (he slipped at the top of the arc). Justin Powell missed a rushed 3-pointer. Muhamed Gueye got the rebound but got to anxious and missed and then turned it over. That was pretty much it. They then took way too much time on a possession because Baylor didn't give them any looks.
Washington State came into this game shooting 38 percent from the arc. Cougars put up 29 of their 52 shots from the arc and made only 10. At 35 percent, the Bears held them a little below their average.
Quiet day for LJ Cryer with six. Bears shot 45 percent but were bad from the arc (6-24).
That's the last decent non-conference push Baylor sees. Bears are back in the Ferrell Center at 7:00 pm Tuesday against Northwestern State (ESPN+).
Postgame Notes
- Baylor improves to 2-2 against Washington State Under Scott Drew.
- 65 points are the fewest points scored in a BU win since they beat Oklahoma 65-51 on 1/22/22.
- BU is 42-10 in road/neutral venues over the last four seasons.
- The Bears are 11-1 against their last 12 Pac 12 opponents, with wins in each of the last 7 meetings.
- Baylor is 44-5 vs. unranked teams over the last three seasons.
- Baylor improves to 8-1 this season when holding a halftime lead.
- The Bears have won nine of the last 12 games in NBA arenas including each of the last three at the AAC.
- Keyonte George led Baylor in scoring for a third-straight game.
- George is averaging 19.7 points per game in the last three games.
- George has scored in double figures in 5-straight games.
- With 12 points, Adam Flagler scored in double figures for an 11th-straight game.
- It was Flagler’s 80th career double-figure scoring effort (10 this season, 48 at Baylor)
- Flagler was a season-best .714 (5-of-7) from the floor.
- Flo Thamba scored a season-high eight points
Notable Scott Drew Postgame
It’s a very good offensive team and hopefully we can keep improving there because (on) offense we're not gonna shoot 6 for 24 from three. (A) couple of them were contested and too early but we're not gonna shoot that bad. We get good shots. We got good shooters, they're going to shoot 40%.
(In terms of Josh, when Flo got that 4th foul, where is your trust in Josh?)
Well I think all the players really are trusting ‘Ke and Josh defensively a lot more and now that they're starting to really understand the defense, where to be, what to do. And Josh really gave us a great lift with that and I thought Caleb did, too. So, I mean, that was really big.
(They had pretty good length, is that a little different than other teams you’ve played?)
Yeah, (they’re) one of the more athletic, longer, bigger teams. They've been banged up. They haven't had No. 3, Jabe Mullins, in a couple games and you can see what a difference he makes; 3 for 8 from three, 5 for 11 (from the floor), 16 points. You take that 16 out and that really gave them a lift. So, they're a team that has a lot of shooters. They have a lot of length. They do a great job on the glass. They outrebounded us 13 to nine on the offensive board and that's something that we're not used to.
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