By Michael Haag | Sports Editor, Gierra Cottingham | LTVN Reporter
Even when No. 20 Baylor men’s basketball couldn’t hit a 3-pointer in an entire game for the first time in 33 years, the Bears found a way to win.
Baylor outscored Gardner-Webb 27-14 over the last 13 minutes to outlast a scrappy Runnin’ Bulldogs team 77-62 Sunday evening in the Ferrell Center. Five Bears scored in double figures despite the team going 0 for 9 from 3-point land.
The last time Baylor failed to connect on a shot from distance was when it went zero for 8 against Texas Tech on Feb. 21, 1990. It had recorded a 3-pointer in 1,032 consecutive games going into Sunday’s meeting. The Bears had also hit at least two or more 3-pointers in 181 straight contests dating back to a game against TCU on Jan. 2, 2018.
“I know we all love setting records. There are certain records we really don’t want to set,” head coach Scott Drew said. “So, we’ll try to clean that up. … This team really did a great job of getting the point and getting to the free throw lane.”
Baylor (3-0) was led by freshman forward Yves Missi, who started for the first time in his career on Sunday. Missi set career highs in points (11), rebounds (8) and blocks (5), and the five blocks were just three off from the freshman record set by John Flippen in 2000 against Nebraska.
Missi was also the first freshman to start at the center spot since Tristan Clark in 2017-18.
“I haven’t played basketball for that long, so starting at Baylor is just like a dream for me,” Missi said. “So yeah, it gave me a lot of energy today.”
The Bears’ win over the Runnin’ Bulldogs (1-2) marks the fourth-straight season that Baylor has started the year 3-0. Drew’s teams are 83-4 in their last 87 nonconference home games, dating back to Dec. 12, 2012.
Missi wasted no time making his presence known, as he slammed one of his four dunks just three seconds after winning the opening tip. Senior guard RayJ Dennis delivered the alley-oop from the right wing to give the Bears the early edge.
The Bears jumped out to a 15-10 lead by the under-12 timeout in the first half, but the Runnin’ Bulldogs scored 8 of 11 points over the next three minutes to tie things at 18 points apiece. Three more Missi dunks helped Baylor take a 40-34 lead into the halftime break, but it followed 12 lead changes.
Drew told the team that Gardner-Webb was a program they couldn’t take lightly. Head coach Tim Craft has led his Runnin’ Bulldogs to six wins over power conference opponents through nine seasons.
“We shared with the team, last year they lost one game by 15 and everything else was close,” Drew said. “In their two buy-games, Colorado State beat them at the buzzer on a shot, and North Carolina won by six. So this is a team that plays everybody close and does a great job.”
The lead changed four more times in the second half, but the Bears took the advantage once and for all at the 12:59 mark when Missi blocked a shot that led to a layup by Dennis. Baylor finished the game on a 27-14 run to secure the 77-62 over Gardner-Webb.
The Bears are now 5-0 against teams from the Big South.
Freshman guard Ja’Kobe Walter led all scorers with 14 points on 4 of 11 shooting from the field. Walter also went 6 of 9 from the free-throw line and grabbed a career-high eight rebounds. Walter said the squad was able to find out more about its identity after winning a game without needing a 3-pointer.
“We know that we’re a scrappy team ourselves,” Walter said. “We know that we can lean on each other, and if we got to win by playing defense, we showed that we could do that today.”
Baylor sticks around for its third-straight home game, with this one coming against Kansas City at 9 p.m. on Tuesday in the Ferrell Center. Tuesday’s contest marks one of five remaining scheduled games in the Ferrell Center before both basketball programs move to the Foster Pavilion in January 2023.
