Box Score By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Foundation
After last year's stunning opening-game exit, the Baylor Bears were determined to not let it happen again.
But it did.
Led by the hot shooting of sophomore guard Makai Mason, who pumped in a career-high 31 points, the 12th-seeded Yale Bulldogs (23-6) pulled off the biggest upset of the day and posted their first-ever NCAA Tournament win, beating the fifth-seeded Bears, 79-75, Thursday afternoon at the Dunkin' Donuts Center in Providence, R.I.
"That's what makes March Madness March Madness," said Baylor coach Scott Drew, whose team fell to 22-12. "It's not who's the best team four out of seven games, like the NBA. It's who's the best for that 40 minutes. Yale was better than us today for 40 minutes, and that's why they won this game."
The Bears trailed by five at the break and got down by as many as 13 before a late rally that came up just short. A year after letting a 12-point lead slip away in the last three minutes, they were trying to turn the tables on Yale, which was making its first tournament appearance in 54 years.
Senior forward Taurean Prince, scoring 28 points in his final game, started the rally with an impressive one-handed dunk off a miss by Johnathan Motley that made it an 11-point game, 64-53, with 6:54 to play.
After Sam Downey missed a shot for the Bulldogs, point guard Lester Medford fed Prince on the back side for another dunk that whittled the deficit back down to single digits. The two teams traded free throws before Prince hit Motley in transition for a dunk and follow free throw that made it 66-60.
Mason, who topped his 15.8 scoring average by halftime (17), kept the Bears at bay by hitting eight straight free throws in the last 4 ½ minutes. But Prince made things interesting when he drained a 3-pointer with 1:26 left, pulling Baylor within four, 72-68.
On Yale's inbound play, Ishmail Wainright tipped it away from Justin Sears and then made a diving save to get it back to Jake Lindsey for a layup.
The difference, though, was a pair of critical turnovers in the last minute.
Prince was called for a charge with 43.9 seconds left, negating a chance to bring it back down to a one-possession game. And then when Yale's Nick Victor air-balled a free throw with 6.8 ticks left on the clock, Medford turned it over when he dribbled behind his back on a drive to the lane.
"We're trying to spread them out and allow Lester to get to the paint," Drew said. "He had just come down and gotten a layup prior to that. But really, trying to come down and create a shot for somebody else. Unfortunately, I think he slipped, lost the ball, and we weren't able to do that. He's fast enough and quick enough to get a shot for himself or get a shot for a teammate. . . . We felt comfortable that he he'd be able to create an opportunity for somebody else, or if he had a wide-open layup like the last one, he would have gotten it."
Instead, Baylor's season ended with another frustrating loss to a higher-seeded team. Yale, which was 0-4 in three previous trips to the NCAA Tournament, advances to face fourth-seeded Duke (24-10) after the Blue Devils held off UNC-Wilmington, 93-85, in the opening game.
"This was bigger than us, and we wanted to do it for all the Yale faithful out here," said Yale senior forward Justin Sears, who had 18 points and four rebounds to help the Bulldogs outrebound the taller Bears, 36-32. "I don't think it's really hit us how big this is yet."
Motley had 15 points and seven boards before fouling out, while Terry Maston had seven points and Rico Gathers six off the bench. Baylor's three returning starters - Motley, Wainright and Al Freeman - were a combined 10-of-22 from the field and scored 28 points with 18 rebounds, four assists and five steals.
