MBB Routs New Orleans, 84-44

Saturday, December 29

Waco, Texas

5 p.m.

Baylor

8-4

New Orleans

5-6

New Orleans

Baylor

MBB Routs New Orleans, 84-44

12/29/2018 7:45:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score PDF Box Postgame Quotes Postgame Notes

Tristan Clark posted his first double-double of the season and third of his career with 17 points, 12 rebounds and five blocks.

By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider

Scott Drew wanted to see if his Baylor basketball team could score 60 points for just the second time this month.

The Bears did that by the 9:26 mark of the second half and just kept on going.

Putting together arguably its most complete game of the season, Baylor (8-4) held New Orleans (5-6) to 26 percent shooting and had its second-highest scoring output of the season, blowing out the visiting Privateers, 84-44, Saturday before a Ferrell Center crowd of 6,123.

"The concern is always if you score more, do you give up more," said Drew, whose team hadn't topped the 60-point mark since a 71-63 loss at Wichita State on Dec. 1. "What we wanted to do was keep the defense where it's been, because it's been phenomenal, and then add to the offense. I think our offense is slowly but surely starting to catch up."

Tristan Clark posted his first double-double of the season and third of his career with 17 points, 12 rebounds and five blocks, while freshman guard Jared Butler had 16 points, six assists and only one turnover to pace a balanced attack that produced four double-figure scorers and two others with eight points.

"Shots were just falling tonight, and that was a big improvement for us," Clark said of the Bears shooting 52.5 percent from the floor and 40 percent from 3-point range. "Our shooting has been our downfall this year, but shots went in today. We played really well and had 22 assists and got stops on the defensive end. Our team's confidence and swag are starting to pick up."

Held under 60 points in their last three games, the Bears exploded for 70 points in the last 28 minutes of this one after a slow start when they fell behind 10-8 and had just 14 points in the first 12 ½ minutes.

"I thought we did a really good job after the first couple minutes of settling down," Drew said. "We were really good defensively early on, which allowed us to wait for our offense to catch up."

New Orleans was ranked third nationally in steals (11.0) and fourth in turnovers forced (19.7), but it was Baylor's defense that caused the most chaos with 14 steals, 12 blocks and 22 forced turnovers. Clark led the way with five blocks, but 6-10 freshman Flo Thamba had one of the most impressive blocks when he swatted away a shot by 7-3 sophomore Bo Riek.

Makai Mason chipped in with 13 points, five boards and five assists and had his first dunk in three years when he followed up a shot by Butler off the glass and slammed it home with two hands.

Butler, who was in transition off a New Orleans turnover, insisted that he was trying to pass it back to Mason off the glass. But, he wasn't credited with an assist because the Privateers' Bryson Robinson deflected it.

"I saw (Mason) trailing out of the corner of my eye. I knew (Robinson) was going to come from my left, and I just threw it off the backboard," Butler said.

The 6-foot-1 Mason went up with two hands and dunked it for a 48-21 lead. "Two hands for safety, every time, that's all it is," he said.

"The stars aligned, and JB threw a nice pass to me off the backboard, and I was able to get up a little bit. I kind of faked an injury after. I just tried to play it off right after I dunked it. Everybody was pretty energized, so it was fun."

Drew said Mason's dad had sent him some YouTube clips "where he was a lot higher than that. I don't know if it was an 8-foot rim, 9-foot rim, or maybe it was a healthy Makai. But, he's a very good athlete."

The Bears seemed to get some energy when Butler came in late in the second half and sparked a run that saw them score 23 points in the last 7 ½ minutes and go into the break with a 37-21 lead.

"My mentality as a freshman is you're worried about yourself a lot," said Butler, who knocked down two of Baylor's 10 3-pointers while dishing out a career-high six assists. "I think in the Oregon game, I just came in and tried to help my team win. Try to win, that's all I do. I use my abilities to get into the paint and try to create assists, especially breaking the press and just trying to help the team win."

Butler, who played the last nine minutes of the Bears' 57-47 win over Oregon nine days ago, "brings a positive energy," Drew said.

"He's always playing hard, he's always competing, he's always smiling," Drew said. "As a coach, you know you're getting the best effort out of him. And you love that. Second thing is when he can share the ball like this, with six assists, one turnover. That's what we've been lacking is that assists department and taking care of the ball."

Baylor also got a solid game out of 6-7 sophomore forward Mario Kegler, who narrowly missed a double-double with 10 points, eight rebounds, two steals, one assist and a block.

"This was a big confidence booster, especially for us going into Big 12 play," Clark said of Kegler's performance. "He definitely looked like he was having fun out there. He gave everybody energy from the get-go. We were a little slow at the beginning. He gave everybody energy, and that's just his game."

Baylor opens conference play next Saturday, Jan. 5, with a 3 p.m. matchup against TCU (11-1) in Fort Worth. The Horned Frogs have won eight in a row, but their game on Friday at Hawaii Pacific was canceled after the death of an HPU player who collapsed during a game the previous week.