NO. 20 BAYLOR 66,
NO. 10 LOUISVILLE 63
PARADISE ISLAND, Bahamas -- Little had gone right for No. 20 Baylor when it headed to the locker room in Friday's Battle 4 Atlantis championship game, trailing at halftime for the third consecutive day -- though this time by a big margin.
Maybe that made it easier for the Bears to shrug all that off and respond with a whopper of a comeback to claim the title.
King McClure scored all 15 of his points in the second half and Baylor rallied to beat No. 10 Louisville 66-63 after trailing by as many as 22 points late in the first half.
Baylor had trailed by eight at halftime in its Atlantis opener against VCU and by three to No. 24 Michigan State on Thursday before taking over each game in the second half. This time, the Bears trailed 39-24 at halftime, by 20 early in the second half and by 54-42 with 10:07 left.
"We've been a second-half team all tournament," Bears Coach Scott Drew said, "but that one I guess took it to extremes."
After getting shut down early, the Bears (6-0) shot 65 percent after halftime, a total boosted by the fact they got some easy baskets in transition and scored nine points off turnovers.
They got strong play from their bench, something the Cardinals (5-1) just didn't have. McClure, a 6-foot-3 sophomore, had scored three points in the first five games but went 5 of 8 from the field with two threes and two free throws with 1.1 seconds left to make it a three-point game.
Then there was tournament MVP Johnathan Motley, who had 15 points despite drawing frequent double teams inside. He put the ball on the floor to drive by Anas Mahmoud for the go-ahead dunk with 2:49 left during the game-turning 21-5 run.
"A lot of teams when they get down like that they break apart, but we came together," McClure said. "We came back and started chipping away. As we saw the lead go down, we started believing in ourselves."
Donovan Mitchell scored 17 points for Louisville. The Cardinals shot just 33 percent (9 of 27) in the second half, with Coach Rick Pitino pointing to mental fatigue as a factor in the second half after the Cardinals "could not have played better basketball than we did in the first half."
"I saw it in their legs," Pitino said. "Anytime a team doesn't get in the right defense, the right press, you know it's mental and physical fatigue. You see it right away. But I didn't make the substitutions. ... It's my fault. I saw they were fatigued. I was just hoping the timeouts could overcome it but they didn't."
In other games involving Top 25 teams, Frank Mason III had 21 points, Udoka Azubuike added 17 in his first career start and No. 5 Kansas (5-1) dunked its way to a 95-57 victory over UNC Asheville (3-3). ... Jerred Reuter led a well-balanced scoring attack with 14 points and No. 7 Virginia’s stifling trademark defense set the tone for a 74-41 victory over Iowa (3-2) in the semifinals of the Emerald Coast Classic in Niceville, Fla. … Kelan Martin had 16 points, while Andrew Chrabascz had 14 points and seven rebounds to lead Butler (6-0) to a 69-65 victory over No. 8 Arizona (5-1) in the championship game of the Continental Las Vegas Invitational. … Obi Enechionyia had 22 points and 12 rebounds to lead Temple (4-2) to an 81-77 upset of No. 19 West Virginia (4-1) in the championship game of the NIT Season Tip-Off in New York. … Deonte Burton scored 21 points and Darrell Bowie keyed a second-half surge that carried No. 21 Iowa State to a 73-56 victory over Miami (4-1) in the AdvoCare Invitational at Disney World. The Cyclones (5-0) advanced to Sunday’s championship game. … Hassan Martin scored a career-high 31 points, Jarvis Garrett added a season-high 23 and No. 23 Rhode Island defeated Belmont College 82-73. Kuran Iverson added 13 points for the Rams (5-1) while Dylan Windler had 16 points and 14 rebounds for the Bruins (1-3). … Miles Bridges scored 21 points to help No. 24 Michigan State hold off Wichita State 77-72 in the Battle 4 Atlantis third-place game. Eron Harris added 13 points for the Spartans (4-3), who followed Thursday’s loss to No. 20 Baylor by building a huge second-half lead — and then nearly blowing it.
Sports on 11/26/2016