No. 21 Xavier 76, No. 16 Baylor 63
CINCINNATI -- After giving up 102 points in its first loss of the season, No. 21 Xavier spent all of its practice time working on defense. It showed the next time out.
J.P. Macura scored 15 of his 19 points in the first half as Xavier surged ahead to stay, and the Musketeers dug in and sent No. 16 Baylor to its first loss of the season, 76-63 on Tuesday night.
Xavier (6-1) recovered from a loss to Arizona State in a Las Vegas tournament by controlling the boards and putting together decisive runs in each half. The Musketeers never trailed after an opening 21-8 spurt.
"All we did in practice when we got back was defense," point guard Quentin Goodin said. "I thought we played with a lot of pride on defense and it showed.
"We knew what we had to do to prepare for this game. Toughness was a huge part of this game."
Kaiser Gates also had 19 points for Xavier, including a three-pointer that blunted the Bears' final comeback attempt. The Musketeers now have a road victory at Wisconsin and a home victory over Baylor, both by double digits.
"We played really tough, played together, played great defense," Gates said. "It could have been better at times, but I think we take away a lot of good things from this game."
Baylor (5-1) was riding momentum from the championship of Hall of Fame Classic, which featured victories over Wisconsin and Creighton. The Bears beat Wisconsin despite going the final eight minutes without a field goal, and then rallied from a 12-point deficit in the second half to beat Creighton.
No comeback this time after the Bears fell behind by 14 in the second half.
"The first thing you don't want to do in a road game early is to let them get ahead, let the crowd get into it, and that's what we did," Baylor Coach Scott Drew said.
Terry Maston led the Bears with 15 points, all in the first half. Manu Lecomte went 4 of 13 from the field for 11 points after coming in with a 19-point average.
"They have a lot of good shooters and we did a bad job at finding them in transition," Lecomte said. "We tried to come back but it was just a bad night for us."
Xavier has won 34 consecutive nonconference home games, with the last loss 56-55 to Wofford on Dec. 22, 2012. The Musketeers are 232-35 all-time at the Cintas Center.
In other men’s top 25 games Tuesday, Devonte Graham scored a career-high 35 points, Malik Newman added 17 and second-ranked Kansas defeated Toledo 96-58 to extend the Jayhawks’ best start in seven years. Svi Mykhailiuk hit five three-pointers and added 15 points for Kansas (6-0), which built a 59-30 lead by halftime and pushed the advantage to more than 50 points in the second half. Tre’Shaun Fletcher and Nate Navigato scored 12 points each to lead Toledo (3-3), which has lost three consecutive overall and 12 consecutive against ranked teams. … Samajae Haynes-Jones scored a season-high 31 points to lead No. 8 Wichita State (5-1) past Savannah State (2-6) 112-66. … Vince Edwards scored 15 points and Carsen Edwards and Dakota Mathias spurred a late run to send Purdue (6-2) past No. 17 Louisville (4-1) 66-57 in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge.
In men’s SEC games Tuesday, David Jenkins Jr. scored 22 points, including six consecutive to close out overtime, as South Dakota State (7-2) defeated Mississippi (4-2) 99-97. … Riley LaChance scored a career-high 27 points and Jeff Roberson fouled out with 14 as Vanderbilt (3-4) ended a three-game losing streak with a 74-62 victory over Radford (3-3).
Sports on 11/29/2017