WACO, Texas — Langston Love matched his profession excessive with 20 factors, RayJ Dennis scored 16 factors with eight assists and Twentieth-ranked Baylor received its dwelling opener 96-70 over NAIA staff John Brown on Thursday.
Jayden Nunn added 15 factors for the Bears (2-0), who performed the noon sport earlier than principally elementary faculty college students solely about 37 hours after ending their season-opening win over Auburn in South Dakota. They bought again to Waco at about 3:30 a.m. Wednesday.
“It’s pretty tough, but the way we practice hard and go hard every day, the turnaround wasn’t that bad for us,” Love mentioned. “We were able to come out and do what we were supposed to do.”
Drew Miller had 19 factors with 5 3-pointers to steer John Brown. Malachi Reeves added 17 factors whereas making all seven of his subject purpose makes an attempt.
Dennis, the MAC Player of the Year at Toledo final season, additionally had six steals and was key in two large runs after halftime. He had consecutive layups to start out a 10-0 run, one after his steal, then in a later 13-0 spurt scored six factors in a 37-second span with a jumper and consecutive steals he was fastbreak dunks.
“In the second half, we made it a point to lock down on defense,” Dennis mentioned. “Some balls fell my way.”
PHOTOS: Langston Love scores 20 for No. 20 Baylor in 96-70 win over NAIA’s John Brown University
John Brown was nonetheless inside 52-43 with 15 1/2 minutes left earlier than Baylor pulled away.
BIG MEN, BIG NUMBERS
Yves Missi, a 7-foot freshman from Cameroon, had 10 factors, six rebounds and three blocks for Baylor. Josh Ojianwuna, a 6-10 sophomore, had 10 rebounds.
BIG PICTURE
The Bears have been understandably sluggish after the short turnaround in opposition to a scrappy staff taking part in with nothing to lose; not even the sport since John Brown counted it as an exhibition. Baylor will get credited with a victory on its general report. The Bears shot 56% from the sphere (41 of 73), however that included 10 dunks and 66 factors within the paint.
Jason Beschta, in his tenth season as John Brown‘s coach, was a graduate assistant at Baylor during coach Scott Drew’s first season in 2003-04. The Golden Eagles received their first two video games.
“I’s kind of a freebie,” Beschta mentioned. “That’s a dream for anybody that’s going to play college basketball, you want to see how you do in this kind of environment. … This is just such a fun group to coach. And you could see it on their faces watching them play out there today.”
LEARNING EXPERIENCE
Drew mentioned it was good for the Bears, together with seven newcomers, to expertise a fast turnaround.
“With the new Big 12, you’ve got more travel. Get back at 3:30 in the morning, you’ve got to get used to getting up, going to school, going to work, playing the next day because you play on Saturday and Mondays and, you know, in the conference tournament are back-to-back games,” Drew mentioned. “With a lot of new guys, each game experience we get a chance to see what they can do.”
UP NEXT
John Brown performs Friday at Evangel University in Missouri.
Baylor performs the second of three consecutive dwelling video games Sunday in opposition to Gardner-Webb.
