By Jackson Posey | Sports Writer
Two years ago, Chaz Lanier came off the bench for a North Florida team that went 14-17 and finished seventh in the Atlantic Sun conference.
Friday, the fifth-year guard dropped 25 first-half points and a career-high seven 3-pointers for No. 11 Tennessee, lifting the Volunteers to a 77-62 victory over No. 13 Baylor in the Baha Mar Hoops Bahamas Championship in Nassau.
“I’m ecstatic,” Lanier said. “We’re gonna celebrate tonight, and then we’re gonna get back in the lab and get to work.”
It only took nine seconds for Lanier to splash his first 3-pointer of the night. Then he hit another — and another, and another, and another. By the first media timeout, Lanier was an eye-popping 5-for-5 from beyond the arc, leading the Volunteers to an early 16-2 lead.
“The one guy we said, ‘Don’t give him an open three,’ had 15 points in the first four minutes,” Baylor head coach Scott Drew said. “With that all being said, I was proud of the second half. We competed, we got better, and look forward to seeing just how much we can improve the rest of the year.”
The sprint continued. Baylor, less than 24 hours removed from a tense, double-overtime victory over No. 22 St. John’s, struggled to recover the energy and focus from the night prior. By the eight-minute mark, Tennessee led 29-9 on the back of eight 3-pointers and seven Baylor turnovers. By halftime, the lead had stretched to 27, punctuated by Lanier’s career-high seventh 3-pointer.
“[He did] what he’s good at,” Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes said at halftime. “He shot the ball.”
Lanier led all scorers with 25 points. Baylor’s leading first-half scorer, fifth-year forward Norchad Omier, scored five points on four shots. The Bears shot 9-for-29 from the field (2-for-10 from three) with nine turnovers and zero free-throw attempts.
“Love playing against [Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes], because if you have a weakness, they’ll expose it,” Drew said. “Their toughness showed. First half, [there were] two assists, nine turnovers by us.”
Freshman wing VJ Edgecombe, a Bahamas native, tallied his best scoring performance of his young Baylor career in front of several hometown fans. The blue-chip freshman dropped a career-high 20 points on 8-for-16 shooting, including 16 points and a career-high three 3-pointers in the second half alone.
“Most international kids never get to go home to play a game of basketball,” Edgecombe said. “I just want to thank the Lord for that, and thank Baylor and the Bahamas for allowing it to be possible to me.”
Edgecombe and Omier (22 points, 10 rebounds), who logged his fourth double-double of the season, combined to score 42 points on 16-of-26 shooting. The rest of Baylor’s roster tallied just 20 points, shooting 9-of-33 from the floor with zero free-throw attempts.
“I’ve just been working,” Edgecombe said of his transition to Division I basketball. “Just trying to get better every day as a teammate and as an individual person.”
Baylor’s defense settled in a bit during the second half, holding the Volunteers without a field goal for a full nine minutes of game time — though 10 made free throws in that span kept the lead comfortably in the high teens. The Bears lost the free-throw battle, 17-6, and converted just 6-of-22 3-pointers in the 15-point loss.
It was the fourth ranked matchup of the season for the Bears, who lost their season opener to No. 6 Gonzaga before knocking off No. 16 Arkansas and No. 22 St. John’s. With a strength of schedule that ranks among the toughest in the nation, individual ranked losses are likely to play less of a role in the NCAA Tournament selection committee’s evaluation of the team in March.
“What you risk is confidence,” Drew said of scheduling difficult opponents early in the season. “You can lose confidence if you lose some games. But if you stay together, you really gain a great team, because diamonds are formed under pressure. And we need to know what we’re gonna get and what to expect from guys in these situations.”
The Bears will be back in action against New Orleans (2-4) at 1 p.m. Wednesday in the Foster Pavilion.
