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03-09-2018, 12:11 PM
KANSAS CITY - Three times this season Baylor faced West Virginia's full-court pressure defense and three times the Bears failed to solve it.
The third time happened tonight in the quarterfinals of the 2018 Phillips 66 Big 12 Championship here in the Sprint Center when the Mountaineers forced 22 turnovers in rolling to a 78-65 victory.
Baylor turned it over 21 times in a three-point loss in Morgantown back on Jan. 9 and fumbled it 14 times in an 11-point loss in Waco.
Tonight, forward Nuni Omit and backup guard King McClure combined for 12 turnovers, and regular ballhandlers Jake Lindsey and Manu Lecomte turned it over three times each.
"It's a cumulative effect, and we had one stretch where I think we got the ball three times in a row, and that's when we kind of were able to open the game up a little bit, and that's what we hope it does for us," West Virginia coach Bob Huggins said.
Just as they did in Morgantown, the Bears jumped out to an early lead that grew to nine points when Omit's 3 from the wing made it 18-9 with 8:46 left in the first half.
"Our defense was really good early on, especially," Baylor coach Scott Drew said. "They were 22 percent, 4 for 18 and then all of a sudden our turnovers allowed them to not have to face our defense, and when they started scoring then we had to face their press."
Jevon Carter's deep 3 ended a long field goal drought and made it 18-13. Daxter Miles Jr. added a pair of free throws and two Ahmad baskets, one an emphatic dunk, gave WVU a 21-20 lead, its first since Sagaba Konate began the game with a baseline hook shot for his only basket of the game.
Ahmad then muscled his way to an easy basket off an inbound pass from Carter to make it 23-20, and following a Jake Lindsey missed free throw, Logan Routt slipped free underneath to receive a nice pass from Miles for a dunk.
The first half ended with a flurry when Carter sank a running 62-foot shot at the buzzer to give the Mountaineers a 29-23 halftime lead.
Baylor had just pulled to within three on Tristian Clark's follow up dunk when Carter grabbed the ball with two seconds left, took two dribbles to his right and flipped up a shot with a full second left on the clock and watched the ball sail through the net without grazing the rim.
"It gave us a little bit of momentum," Carter said. "They had a put-back dunk, and a dunk can change a game. I guess that 3-pointer just killed them right there with it. It was big for us going into halftime. We came out and played with the same energy from the first half."
"I think if we could have finished with Tristian's dunk, a one-possession game, it's a lot different," Drew said. "So, when you're playing them you don't need them hitting half-court shots - they're good enough without that."
West Virginia answered Baylor's two quick baskets to begin the second half by going on an 11-0 run, nine of those coming on three straight 3s from Miles Jr.
His third one forced Drew to call timeout ahead of the under-16 media timeout.
"My teammates were finding me," Miles Jr. said. "And I was just trying to find the gap."
Only once was Baylor able to reduce its deficit below double digits, that coming with 10:01 remaining on two Lecomte free throws.
Ahmad immediately answered with a driving layup off of Omit's turnover. West Virginia's biggest lead was 19, coming with 6:12 left.
Ahmad led West Virginia with 21 points on 8 of 13 shooting; Miles Jr. had 19 with all five of his field goals coming from behind the arc while Carter finished with 18 points and 11 assists.
Lecomte scored a game-high 27 for Baylor, which will now have to wait and see if the selection committee will put them in this year's NCAA Tournament.
Baylor, Oklahoma, Texas and Oklahoma State are all squarely on the bubble.
"It's going to be interesting on Sunday with basically four teams from the Big 12 on the bubble," Huggins said. "What do you make of the decision the committee has differentiating between then team you just played and three other teams that are going to be on the bubble as well?"
In addition to the turnovers, West Virginia also controlled the glass - a priority for the Mountaineers coming into tonight's game. WVU outrebounded Baylor, 37-31, and limited the Bears to just seven offensive rebounds.
Routt played a big role in that despite grabbing only two boards because he was able to wall off Baylor's glass crashers enabling others to grab rebounds. Ahmad had eight while Miles Jr. pulled down six.
"Baylor outrebounded us the first two games even though we were fortunate enough to win, and that was a big emphasis this week was to make sure that we rebounded the ball and it was a big emphasis to Esa," Huggins said.
Tonight's victory sends West Virginia to the Big 12 Tournament semifinals for the third straight year where it will face second-seeded Texas Tech in the second game. The Red Raiders defeated Texas, 73-69, earlier tonight.
The first semifinal game will pit top-seeded Kansas against Kansas State. The Jayhawks defeated Oklahoma State while the Wildcats edged TCU in overtime.
http://wvusports.com/news/2018/3/9/mens-...aylor.aspx
The third time happened tonight in the quarterfinals of the 2018 Phillips 66 Big 12 Championship here in the Sprint Center when the Mountaineers forced 22 turnovers in rolling to a 78-65 victory.
Baylor turned it over 21 times in a three-point loss in Morgantown back on Jan. 9 and fumbled it 14 times in an 11-point loss in Waco.
Tonight, forward Nuni Omit and backup guard King McClure combined for 12 turnovers, and regular ballhandlers Jake Lindsey and Manu Lecomte turned it over three times each.
"It's a cumulative effect, and we had one stretch where I think we got the ball three times in a row, and that's when we kind of were able to open the game up a little bit, and that's what we hope it does for us," West Virginia coach Bob Huggins said.
Just as they did in Morgantown, the Bears jumped out to an early lead that grew to nine points when Omit's 3 from the wing made it 18-9 with 8:46 left in the first half.
"Our defense was really good early on, especially," Baylor coach Scott Drew said. "They were 22 percent, 4 for 18 and then all of a sudden our turnovers allowed them to not have to face our defense, and when they started scoring then we had to face their press."
Jevon Carter's deep 3 ended a long field goal drought and made it 18-13. Daxter Miles Jr. added a pair of free throws and two Ahmad baskets, one an emphatic dunk, gave WVU a 21-20 lead, its first since Sagaba Konate began the game with a baseline hook shot for his only basket of the game.
Ahmad then muscled his way to an easy basket off an inbound pass from Carter to make it 23-20, and following a Jake Lindsey missed free throw, Logan Routt slipped free underneath to receive a nice pass from Miles for a dunk.
The first half ended with a flurry when Carter sank a running 62-foot shot at the buzzer to give the Mountaineers a 29-23 halftime lead.
Baylor had just pulled to within three on Tristian Clark's follow up dunk when Carter grabbed the ball with two seconds left, took two dribbles to his right and flipped up a shot with a full second left on the clock and watched the ball sail through the net without grazing the rim.
"It gave us a little bit of momentum," Carter said. "They had a put-back dunk, and a dunk can change a game. I guess that 3-pointer just killed them right there with it. It was big for us going into halftime. We came out and played with the same energy from the first half."
"I think if we could have finished with Tristian's dunk, a one-possession game, it's a lot different," Drew said. "So, when you're playing them you don't need them hitting half-court shots - they're good enough without that."
West Virginia answered Baylor's two quick baskets to begin the second half by going on an 11-0 run, nine of those coming on three straight 3s from Miles Jr.
His third one forced Drew to call timeout ahead of the under-16 media timeout.
"My teammates were finding me," Miles Jr. said. "And I was just trying to find the gap."
Only once was Baylor able to reduce its deficit below double digits, that coming with 10:01 remaining on two Lecomte free throws.
Ahmad immediately answered with a driving layup off of Omit's turnover. West Virginia's biggest lead was 19, coming with 6:12 left.
Ahmad led West Virginia with 21 points on 8 of 13 shooting; Miles Jr. had 19 with all five of his field goals coming from behind the arc while Carter finished with 18 points and 11 assists.
Lecomte scored a game-high 27 for Baylor, which will now have to wait and see if the selection committee will put them in this year's NCAA Tournament.
Baylor, Oklahoma, Texas and Oklahoma State are all squarely on the bubble.
"It's going to be interesting on Sunday with basically four teams from the Big 12 on the bubble," Huggins said. "What do you make of the decision the committee has differentiating between then team you just played and three other teams that are going to be on the bubble as well?"
In addition to the turnovers, West Virginia also controlled the glass - a priority for the Mountaineers coming into tonight's game. WVU outrebounded Baylor, 37-31, and limited the Bears to just seven offensive rebounds.
Routt played a big role in that despite grabbing only two boards because he was able to wall off Baylor's glass crashers enabling others to grab rebounds. Ahmad had eight while Miles Jr. pulled down six.
"Baylor outrebounded us the first two games even though we were fortunate enough to win, and that was a big emphasis this week was to make sure that we rebounded the ball and it was a big emphasis to Esa," Huggins said.
Tonight's victory sends West Virginia to the Big 12 Tournament semifinals for the third straight year where it will face second-seeded Texas Tech in the second game. The Red Raiders defeated Texas, 73-69, earlier tonight.
The first semifinal game will pit top-seeded Kansas against Kansas State. The Jayhawks defeated Oklahoma State while the Wildcats edged TCU in overtime.
http://wvusports.com/news/2018/3/9/mens-...aylor.aspx
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