No. 1 Baylor wins big for 18th in a row
TOP 25 MEN NO. 1 BAYLOR 104, NORTHWESTERN (LA.) STATE 68
WACO, Texas — Baylor is going into Big 12 play with the No. 1 ranking and the nation’s longest winning streak after another lopsided victory at home.
James Akinjo scored a career-high 27 points and top-ranked Baylor extended the nation’s longest winning streak to 18 in a row by beating Northwestern (La.) State 10468 on Tuesday night.
“We’re excited. We have one of the best conferences in the country, so to be able to play against the best of the best every day, we’re really excited,” said Adam Flagler, who added 21 points and 11 assists. “You can say it’s a tune-up, but every game we try to go out there and get better and work on things because we want to win the last game.”
Baylor (12-0) scored the game’s first 13 points. Later in the first half, Akinjo started another 13-0 run with three consecutive three-pointers in a span of 64 seconds — his only made three-pointers in the game.
“I thought James and Adam … they really did a good job feeding each other,” Bears Coach Scott Drew said. “Anytime you can have your starting backcourt with 48 points and 20 assists, I think every coach would take that.”
Jeremy Sochan scored 16 points and had 11 rebounds in his first career start for the Bears, and fellow freshman Kendall Brown had 12 points with nine rebounds.
Carvell Teasett scored a career-high 18 points on six three-pointers for Northwestern State (3-11), which has yet to defeat a Division I opponent this season.
“I think [this game] can really help Carvell because he missed the first 10 games. He’s back now, and he had a phenomenal first half,” Northwestern State Coach Mike McConathy said. “They found him and made it more difficult in the second half, but he’s a guy that can make shots.”
Baylor scored more than 100 points for the first time this season and shot 50% from the field (39 of 78), even after missing its last 10 shots. The Bears also had a stretch in the first half when they missed 11 of 13 shots.
The Bears were without leading scorer LJ Cryer (foot issue) for the second game in a row, and Matthew Mayer was in covid-19 protocol.
“I felt like we found the flow very easily,” Flagler said. “We have guys that can step up and we’re a deep team, so a lot of guys stepped up today and we continued to play Baylor basketball.”
NO. 4 GONZAGA 93, NORTH ALABAMA 63
SPOKANE, Wash. — Julian Strawther scored 15 points, Rasir Bolton added 14 points, and No. 4 Gonzaga beat North Alabama to extend the nation’s longest home winning streak to 59 games.
Nolan Hickman scored 13 points, Drew Timme had 12, and Anton Watson had 10 points and 10 rebounds for Gonzaga (11-2).
C.J. Brim scored 15 points for North Alabama (7-6).
This one was over early, despite North Alabama trailing 21-16 midway through the first half. After that, the Bulldogs launched an 18-3 run, aided by five Lions turnovers, to take a 39-19 lead. The Lions went six minutes without a field goal at one point.
Gonzaga led 47-25 at halftime, holding North Alabama to 29% shooting in the first half and forcing the Lions into 11 turnovers.
Gonzaga opened the second half with a 19-10 run, getting seven points from Bolton, to build a 66-35 lead. The Lions made one of their 15 field goal attempts for part of the half, and the Bulldogs pushed the lead to 73-40.
NO. 17 TEXAS 78, INCARNATE WORD 33
AUSTIN, Texas — Dylan Disu had 14 points, 11 rebounds and 5 blocks in his longest appearance of the season for No. 17 Texas, which beat Incarnate Word.
Disu played 20 minutes. He had missed the first eight games of the season while recovering from knee surgery that he underwent while at Vanderbilt last season. played 20 minutes.
Tre Mitchell contributed 14 points, 6 rebounds and 3 steals for Texas (10-2). Timmy Allen had seven rebounds and seven assists. Texas scored 17 fast-break points, one fewer than its season best.
RJ Glasper (Forrest City, Arkansas Tech), who started 18 games last season for Oral Roberts, led Incarnate Word (211) with 13 points. The Cardinals shot 26.5% from the field, the worst by a Texas opponent this season.
NO. 25 TEXAS TECH 75, ALABAMA STATE 53
LUBBOCK, Texas — Davion Warren scored 15 points, and No. 25 Texas Tech rolled to a victory over Alabama State.
Warren put Texas Tech (10-2) ahead for good on a three-pointer midway through the first half, and Clarence Nadolny gave the Red Raiders their first 20-point lead on a layup midway through the second half.
The Red Raiders were supposed to open Big 12 play on Friday at home against Oklahoma State, but covid-19 issues in the Cowboys’ program postponed the game to Jan. 13. The conference opener is now Jan. 5 at No. 8 Iowa State.
Gerald Liddell scored 15 points and Trace Young had 14 on 4-of-9 shooting from 3 for Alabama State (1-11), which dropped to 0-9 on the road with a second consecutive loss to a ranked Big 12 team in Texas. It was the Hornets’ first meeting with Texas Tech.
Sardaar Calhoun hit consecutive three-pointers to start a game-ending 12-2 run after Alabama State had cut a 20-point deficit to 12 with five minutes remaining.
Adonis Arms scored 11 points, with all four baskets coming on dunks, and Kevin McCullar had 11 points, 7 assists, 4 rebounds and 3 steals for Texas Tech.
SWAC WOMEN
SMU 86, UAPB 74
Guard Kaila Walker scored a team-high 15 points on 5-of-9 shooting from the floor Tuesday as the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff fell to Southern Methodist University at Moody Coliseum in Dallas.
The Mustangs led 17-14 after the first quarter and continued to build the lead in the second quarter. Jasmine Smith’s fast-break layup off a UAPB turnover with 5:45 left in the first half gave SMU a 34-21 lead. But Walker hit a three-pointer on the Golden Lions’ next possession, helping UAPB outscore SMU 13-5 for the rest of the quarter but trailed 39-34 at halftime.
A jumper from Kayla White gave SMU a 48-43 lead early in the second half, but UAPB tied the game at 48-48 with a three-pointer from Walker and a layup from Khadijah Brown with 5:34 left in the third quarter. The Mustangs then outscored the Golden Lions 14-4 in the remainder of the quarter to lead 62-52.
UAPB cut the lead to 76-70 with 1:20 remaining on a jumper from Brown, but SMU made 12 consecutive free throws to seal the victory.
Tyeisha Juhan scored 13 points for UAPB, while Zaay Green and Joyce Kennerson finished with 12 each and Brown chipped in with 10. Kayla White and Jasmine Smith scored 25 points each to lead the way for SMU.