By Dylan Fink | Sports Writer
The Bears began their pursuit of a College Basketball Crown championship on a high note late Wednesday night, cruising to a 67-48 first round win over Minnesota.
Neither team had played a game since the first week of March entering Wednesday night’s quarterfinals. The lengthy break was apparent in the start of play for the two postseason teams as both the Bears (17-16, 6-12 Big 12) and Minnesota (15-18, 8-12 Big Ten) shot below 30% from the field in the first half.
The driving force for Baylor in the first half was fifth-year guard Obi Agbim, who led the team in first-half contributions with nine points off three buckets from beyond the arc.
The Bears got out to a nine-point lead with five minutes left in the first half and finished the frame leading 31-26.
Baylor continued to lay on the onslaught in the second half as they quickly jumped out to a 21-point lead with 15 minutes to play. This push was again fueled by Agbim, who sank two more threes.
Freshman Tounde Yessoufou put his own hand in the performance as he found his way to 17 points with eight minutes to go. The potential NBA Draft pick did so in front of a reported 15 NBA scouts in-house at the Las Vegas event.
Minnesota attempted to cut the Bears’ lead back, bringing the difference down to 12 under the 10-minute mark. The green and gold quickly pulled away to stretch the lead back beyond 15 for the rest of the game.
Many Bears appeared to be knocking off dust from the lengthy break since the end of the team’s regular season. Aggressive rebounding (Baylor finished with a 37-28 advantage on the boards) propelled the Bears to a 19-point victory over the Gophers.
Three Bears finished in double digits on the evening. Yessoufou led the way with 19, Agbim brought in 17 of his own and redshirt sophomore Cameron Carr found 15. Carr also led the team with nine rebounds.
The Bears will move on to face Oklahoma (20-15, 7-11 SEC) in the Crown semifinals at 12:30 p.m. Saturday in Las Vegas. The game will be broadcast on FOX.
