San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
No. 2 Baylor has big second half at Oklahoma St.
Baylor’s depth and experience eventually overwhelmed an Oklahoma State team that was missing star freshman Cade Cunningham due to COVID-19 protocols.
Jared Butler scored 22 points, and the second-ranked Bears rallied from a halftime deficit to beat host Oklahoma State 81-66 on Saturday.
Cunningham, the Big 12 Conference’s leading scorer, hasn’t been practicing. He was cleared for activity on Saturday, but coach Mike Boynton said Cunningham wasn’t ready to play. Key reserve Rondel Walker also sat out with an arm injury, leaving Oklahoma State with eight players available.
The Cowboys still pushed the Bears, leading in the early minutes of the second half before Baylor took control. The Bears shot 53 percent after the break.
“That’s the difference in a player-led team, an experienced team,” Baylor coach Scott Drew said. “You have to feel what’s going wrong. And they knew defensively we weren’t as good as we normally are and rebounding, we weren’t as good as we normally were. So credit them for taking care of that.”
Mark Vital scored a career-high 19 points and Davion Mitchell had eight points and nine assists for Baylor (14-0, 7-0). Gonzaga also has started the season 14-0, making this the first time the preseason Nos. 1 and No. 2 each won their first 14 games of a season since the preseason poll began in 1961-62.
Kalib Boone scored a career-high 21 points and Matthew-alexander Moncrieffe added 13 points and 10 rebounds for Oklahoma State (9-4, 3-4).
It was a quality effort for roughly 30 minutes for Oklahoma State.
“There’s no doubt that part of it is we were gassed,” Boynton said. “We weren’t able to sustain it. That’s not an excuse, it’s reality.”
The Cowboys looked ready to perhaps follow their upset win against Kansas on Jan. 12 with an even bigger stunner. A dunk by Boone on a lob from Moncrieffe gave the Cowboys a 21-17 lead, causing Drew to call a timeout.
A 3-pointer by Bryce
Williams put the Cowboys up 26-20, and another 3 by Williams minutes later pushed Oklahoma State’s lead to 34-25.
The Cowboys, paced by Boone’s 11 points, led 36-32 at the half.
Baylor tied the game at 36 on a layup by Vital in the first minute of the second half, and a 3-pointer by Butler put the Bears up 39-38.
Three consecutive 3s by Butler in a 75-second span put the Bears up 63-51, and they controlled the game from there.
No. 3 Villanova 71, Providence 56: Collin Gillespie and Justin Moore scored 15 points apiece and host Villanova (10-1, 5-0 Big East) beat Providence (8-7, 4-5) for its eighth straight victory.
No. 19 Missouri 73, No. 6 Tennessee 64: Xavier Pinson scored 27 points to lead visiting Missouri (10-2, 4-2 Southeastern Conference) over Tennessee (10-3, 4-3).
No. 8 Houston 68, Temple 51: Marcus Sasser and Quentin Grimes each scored 15 points and Houston (13-1, 8-1 American Athletic Conference) rolled to its sixth straight victory, beating host Temple (3-4, 2-4).
Oklahoma 75, No. 9 Kansas 68: De’vion Harmon scored 22 points and Oklahoma
(9-4, 5-3 Big 12) beat visiting Kansas (10-5, 4-4), which has lost three straight games for the first time since February 2013.
No. 15 Ohio State 74, No. 10 Wisconsin 62: E.J. Liddell scored 20 points and visiting Ohio State (12-4, 6-4 Big Ten) never trailed in a victory over Wisconsin (12-4, 6-3).
No. 11 Creighton 74, No. 23 Uconn 66: Denzel Mahoney scored 20 points and host Creighton (11-4, 7-3 Big East) broke open a close game in the last 10 minutes to beat Connecticut (7-3, 4-3).
No. 13 Virginia 64, Georgia Tech 62: Sam Hauser scored 11 of his 22 points during a 15-2 second-half run and Virginia (10-2, 6-0 Atlantic Coast Conference) survived a scare before rallying to beat visiting Georgia Tech (7-4, 3-2).
No. 14 West Virginia 79, Kansas State 47: Miles Mcbride scored 18 points to help visiting West Virginia (10-4, 3-3 Big 12) beat Kansas State (5-11, 1-7) in the Mountaineers’ first game in two weeks because of COVID-19 protocols.
Syracuse 78, No. 16 Virginia Tech 60: Quincy Guerrier had 20 points, Marek Doelzaj added 18 and Alan Griffin had 15 points, 10 rebounds and a career-high seven blocks to help host Syracuse (9-4, 3-3 ACC) beat Virginia Tech (11-3, 5-2).
Maryland 63, No. 17 Minnesota 49: Eric Ayala had 21 points and three steals to help Maryland (9-7, 3-6) deliver another road upset of a ranked Big Ten opponent, a wire-towire victory over Minnesota (11-5, 4-5).
No. 18 Alabama 81, Mississippi State 73: Herbert Jones had 17 points and seven assists to help streaking Alabama (13-3, 8-0 SEC) beat visiting Mississippi State (9-7, 4-4).
Florida State 80, No. 20 Clemson 61: Balsa Koprivica had 13 points and 10 rebounds and host Florida State (9-2, 5-1 ACC) pulled away early to rout Clemson (9-4, 3-4) for its fourth straight victory.
Notable
The entire University of Michigan athletic department is pausing because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The 11th-ranked women’s basketball team was set to play at home against Purdue today.
The seventh-ranked men’s basketball team wasn’t supposed to play until Wednesday at Penn State.