Baylor Basketball Gets a Statement win Over Utah Ahead of Big 12 Tournament
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Baylor welcomes Utah to the Foster Pavilion in Waco and shoots their way to Drew's 500th career win before the Big 12 tournament.
It was a must-win game, and the Bears took care of business in their last home game of the season after a hard-fought loss in Houston.
Four Bears score in the double digits, but the stars continue to shine as Cameron Carr and Tounde Yessoufou combine for 47.
High-percentage shots
The Bears were not messing around early, hitting 13 of their first 14 with the help of Cameron Carr and Isaac Williams firing from deep.
Baylor controlled both sides of the ball, playing a scrappy defense that generated turnovers for easy buckets.
The Bears were getting whatever they wanted in the first half, dominating the paint and shooting 68% in the frame.
Swinging the rock
Assist-to-turnover ratio is a statistic that has haunted Baylor over the season, as they have one of the worst averages in the conference.
This afternoon was a different story, logging 22 assists with only 3 turnovers. If the Bears continue to swing it and shoot like they did this afternoon, they are going to be a scary team to run up against in the Big 12 tournament.
The bench contributes
The Baylor bench scored 30 thanks to some huge contributions from Dan Skillings and Michael Rataj. Baylor is a different team with Skillings at their disposal; he played 22 minutes and had a +/- of 26 points.
Rataj has had a tendency to play himself off the floor, but he has been rewriting the script as of late. The Oregon St. transfer is playing with a new confidence, scoring 14 in his 28 minutes.
If these two can continue to hit shots and take the load off of Yessoufou and Carr, the Bears get a lot harder to gameplan for.
Stay hot, Bears
The Baylor Bears left no question; they are playing their best basketball of the year ahead of the Big 12 tournament
The squad will need to keep it up and string together at least four wins over the next week in order to sneak into the NCAA tournament.
"I think we have a chip on our shoulder," said Carr after the win. "We are going in there to steal something."
The Bears still have a long road ahead of them if they want to go dancing, but that is the attitude fans want to see in their star player.
As of today, the Bears are slated to play Colorado. A team that they beat handily earlier in the season. There is more tough sledding afterwards, but all Baylor can do right now is take it one game at a time.
Bennett is an undergrad student at Baylor University, studying journalism on the sports track. He is from the DFW area and grew up playing and watching sports, which inspired him to pursue sports writing.
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