San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
Baylor takes control early in rout of Houston
Bears roll to a 25-point lead by halftime, end Cougars’ season in national semifinals
INDIANAPOLIS — Kelvin Sampson stood on the baseline, his mask pulled down and his hands on his hips.
He knew what a Herculean challenge Baylor was before the game. Now he had a front-row seat to why the Bears have been one of the top two teams in the country.
Marcus Sasser had 17 points in the first half Saturday, but the rest of the Cougars might as well have been on the other side of the large black drape inside Lucas Oil Stadium.
The best season in 37 years for the Cougars ended with a thud, as Baylor put the outcome to bed before halftime in a 78-59 blowout in the national semifinals.
Baylor (27-2) will play the Gonzaga-UCLA winner in Monday’s national championship game, seeking to become just the second Texas school to win a national championship. Texas Western, now UTEP, beat Kentucky in 1966 for the only title by a school from the Lone Star State.
Baylor — in the Final Four for the first time since 1950 — has
been on a collision course with Gonzaga all season, and the Bears did their part in a near-perfect opening 20 minutes.
The Bears were bigger.
More physical.
And could not miss.
Baylor shot 57.1 percent from the floor, including 8 of 15 from 3point range, in the first half. Davion Mitchell hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer for a 45-20 halftime lead, the largest deficit at any point this season for UH.
Even with the nation's top 3point defense, the Cougars entered the game with the impossible challenge of stopping the Bears' talented backcourt that includes All-American guards Jared Butler and Mitchell. Butler had 17 points, all in the first half, while Mitchell had 12 points.
Baylor had five players score in double figures and made 11 of 24 3s (69 percent).
UH (28-4) was making its first Final Four appearance since three straight trips by Phi Slama Jama from 1982 to 1984. Any chance the Cougars had this time was gone by the 16:46 mark after Sasser's 3pointer gave UH an 8-6 lead.
Baylor went on a 16-3 run to take a double-digit lead and never let up. Butler had eight points, including back-to-back 3s, during an 11-0 run just before halftime.
It was like bringing a water gun to a pistol fight. Like a 125-pounder in the heavyweight division. Or riding a bicycle in the Indy 500.
Sasser had 17 points in the first
half, including five 3s. The rest of the Cougars went a combined 1 of 15 for three points. Quentin Grimes, UH's All-America guard, went 0 for 5 in the first half and DeJon Jarreau was 1 for 7 with five
turnovers.
UH had not seen a team of Baylor's caliber this season, entering with 11 straight wins and 13 in the past 14.
The Cougars survived an upsetfilled
Midwest Region bracket, needing a late comeback to beat Rutgers in the second round and surviving after blowing a 17-point lead to Oregon State in the Elite Eight. UH was the first team to reach the Final Four without facing a single-digit seed.
UH did not get closer than 16 points in the second half. Grimes finished with 13 points, all after halftime.
The Cougars shot 38 percent and finished 6 of 19 from 3-point range.
Baylor seemed to tease the Cougars until the end. MaCio Teague took a pass from the corner, paused for a few seconds, then launched a 3-pointer. Baylor was up 76-54.
After that shot, Sampson emptied his bench.
Jarreau, a senior and part of the Cougars' rise the past three years, exited the game with 1:46 left. Then Grimes took a seat.
And then Justin Gorham and Marcus Sasser with 50 seconds left.
As the final seconds ticked off the clock, UH's starting five players huddled. They cried.
A season that began with big expectations fell two wins shy of a national championship.