By Kevin Lonnquist
Publisher
The Bears turned it on defensively in the second half. Holding just a 34-28 lead the break, they struck for 52 points and limited the Cardinal to just 20 points in the 38-point rout at the Ferrell Center.
With Adam Flagler out with a hand injury - he re-aggravated the broken left hand he suffered in training camp when he banged it against Central Arkansas Wednesday - LJ Cryer was inserted into the starting lineup and scored 21 points to lead the way. Cryer scored 20 against Central Arkansas.
Baylor put four players in double figures. Kendall Brown had 15, while James Akinjo and Jeremy Sochan each added 11. Akinjo also mixed in 11 assists. Baylor shot 55 percent from the field. After shooting 50 percent in the first half, the Cardinal offense was shut down in the second and wound up shooting 40 percent for the game. Stanford also committed 22 turnovers.
Bears were a little better from the arc at 10-26 (38.5%). At 4-0, they move on to The Battle 4 Atlantis Tournament in The Bahamas on Wednesday with 6:30 pm meeting with Arizona State (ESPN2). Baylor won this tournament in 2016 when they beat VCU, Michigan State and Louisville.
STORY LINES
• No. 9/8 Baylor hosts Stanford for the first of two-straight games against Pac-12 teams.
• This is the first series meeting in 34 years, the third meeting overall and the first meeting in Waco.
• Stanford won the first meeting in Palo Alto in 1950 and won the second in Maui in 1987.
• Baylor is 13-5 against Pac-12 opponents during the Drew era — 2-0 vs. Arizona, 4-0 vs. Arizona State,
2-1 vs. Colorado, 2-1 vs. Oregon, 1-0 vs. USC, 1-2 vs. Washington State and 1-1 vs. Washington.
• BU has won 16-straight home games, setting a new Ferrell Center record for longest winning streak.
• Baylor tied a school-record with 21 steals in Wednesday's 92-47 win over Central Arkansas.
• BU rolled to an 89-60 win over Nicholls State in Monday's matinee. Freshman Kendall Brown finished 2 rebounds shy of a triple-double (13p/8r/10a), while LJ Cryer his first of 2-straight 20-point games.
• Baylor recorded 33 assists vs. Nicholls State, 3rd-most in program history and most since Dec. 16, 2015.
• Baylor opened the season with an 87-60 win over Incarnate Word on Nov. 12. Five Bears scored in double-figures, led by Matthew Mayer (14 points) and LJ Cryer and Kendall Brown (13 points apiece).
• Baylor was No. 8 in the preseason AP Top-25, snapping a school-record streak of 29-straight weeks top-5 ranked. The Bears are currently on a school-record streak of 31-straight weeks top-10 ranked.
• With its No. 8 preseason ranking, BU has been ranked in all 25 spots in the AP Top 25 Poll since 2015.
• BU's 39-straight weeks ranked in the AP Top 25 is the nation's 3rd-longest behind Gonzaga and Villanova.
• Baylor has won 27 straight non-conference games (+22.7 average margin) dating back to Nov. 2020.
• Baylor is 28-1 at home over the last 2+ seasons, with the lone loss by 3 to Kansas on Feb. 22, 2020.
• Head coach Scott Drew is in his 19th season at Baylor with a school-record 373 career victories, including a 17-8 mark in NCAA Tournaments, which is the 7th-best mark among active coaches.
• Drew has swept AP and coaches' Big 12 Coach of the Year honors each of the last two seasons.
• BU has led by at least 4 points in all 63 games since the start of the 2019-20 season and built a double-digit lead in 54 of 63 games, including 30 of 33 games since the start of last season.
• Baylor went 11-2 vs. AP Top 25 teams last season, including 7-0 against AP Top 10 teams.
• Baylor returned seven letterwinners from the 2021 national championship team, with Flo Thamba as the lone returning starter. The four departed starters are all playing in the NBA, G-League or NFL.
• Among BU returners is Matthew Mayer, who made his career-first start in the opener after coming off the bench in 93 games over his first 3 seasons. He is on 6-player the Preseason All-Big 12 team.
• The Bears also welcomed back Adam Flagler, who came off the bench in 28 games last season and is now starting. He joins Mayer on the Naismith Trophy and Wooden Award preseason watch lists.
• BU also returned LJ Cryer, Jonathan Tchamwa Tchatchoua, Jordan Turner and Zach Loveday.
• BU added Arizona transfer James Akinjo, who is also on the Naismith Trophy watch list and is a preseason All-America honorable mention (The Athletic). He was first-team All-Pac 12 last season.
• Baylor welcomed the highest-ranked recruiting class in program history (No. 4) . Trio of freshmen includes 5-star Kendall Brown and 4-stars Jeremy Sochan and Langston Love (out for year with injury).
QUICK HITS
• BU is playing its 282nd game as a ranked team under Drew – BU was ranked in 2 of 2,197 games over the program's 97 seasons prior to Drew. Since January 2010, BU has been ranked in 266 of 403 games.
• Baylor joins Duke, Gonzaga and Kansas as the only programs ranked No. 1 in 3 of 5 seasons since 2017.
• Baylor and Kansas are the only Power-5 schools to win 18+ games every year since 2008.
• BU finished last season ranked top-10 nationally in offensive rebounding pct (No. 8) for a 7th consecutive year.
• BU led the nation in 3-point pct. last season (.413) and ranked 3rd nationally in turnover margin (+5.5) and scoring margin (+17.4). The Bears were also top-10 in scoring (6th, 82.9), steals (9th, 8.9/gm) and assists (10th, 16.9/gm).
• Baylor's streak of 9 consecutive postseasons is tied as the nation's 7th-longest active streak.
• Baylor's 2 losses last seasons were its fewest losses since going 13-0 in 1911-12.
• Baylor is 40-21 in postseason tournaments (conference, national) over the last 13 seasons.
• Baylor's 57-6 record since the start of the 2019-20 season is the nation's best among Power-5 conference teams.
SERIES HISTORY vs. STANFORD
• Baylor is 0-2 all-time vs. Stanford, with the last meeting 34 years ago at the 1987 Maui Invitational.
• Stanford won the first meeting 87-63 on its home floor on Dec. 19, 1950.
• Stanford won the Nov. 29, 1987 game in Maui by a score of 69-68.
• Stanford coach Jerod Haase has competed at the Ferrell Center previously, when he was a starting guard on the 1997 Kansas team. Haase had 18 points, 4 rebounds, 0 assists and a Ferrell-Center record 9 turnovers, but he got the last laugh with Kansas winning 87-68 in front of a then-record crowd 10,475.
LONGEST WINNING STREAK IN FERRELL CENTER HISTORY
• Baylor's current 16-game home winning streak is the longest in Ferrell Center history (est. 1988).
• The Bears broke the previous record of 15-straight wins with their victory over Central Arkansas on Nov. 17.
• Baylor has twice before won 15-straight at the Ferrell Center – Feb. 21, 2015-Jan. 20, 2016 and Feb. 3, 2020-Jan. 11, 2011. This marks the 12th double-digit winning streak in Ferrell Center history (top 8 all in Drew era).
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