By Dylan Fink | Sports Writer
The Bears closed out their regular season campaign Saturday afternoon with a 101-73 senior day win over Utah. The victory marked head coach Scott Drew’s 500th win of his career, making the national champion the 19th active coach to reach the achievement.
“I want to say thanks to Baylor administration for giving us a chance to be here to get to 500,” Drew said, amid a collection of thanks offered to players, staff and family. “Last but not least, I think the ‘Culture of Joy’ — Jesus, Others, Yourself — it’s something special here and it’s a blessing to be a part of it.”
Fifth-year guard Obi Agbim and senior forwards Dan Skillings Jr., Michael Rataj and Caden Powell were all part of the senior day celebration that took place at center court before tipoff. Powell, a Waco native, received a standing ovation from the Foster Pavilion crowd.
“I’m never going to forget this year,” Skillings said. “What’s going to stand out most to me about it is the people I met and how much closer I got with God throughout it … That’s what is going to stand out most to me. Not the basketball, but the relationships.”
Utah (10-21, 2-16 Big 12) opened the game’s scoring with an immediate drive to the basket off the tip. This was the only time the Utes would hold a lead, as redshirt sophomore guard Cameron Carr wasted no time in answering with a layup of his own.
At the first media timeout, the Bears (16-15, 6-12 Big 12) led 11-9 after shooting 100% from the floor. Carr and sophomore guard Isaac Williams IV accounted for 10 points with five apiece.
The Bears proceeded to go on a 10-1 run before missing a shot. Carr missed a heat check from the top of the key to end the perfect-percentage run.
“I was getting onto them about offensive rebounding and Coach [Steve] Henson told me, ‘Coach, you know they’ve only missed one shot,’” Drew said. “I told him, ‘Yeah, but they don’t know that.’”
With 12 minutes left in the first half, Baylor had stretched its lead to double digits. The Bears led 23-10 when the fan-favorite Mattson Putt was laid out on the court.
Utah called a timeout after the Bears went up 32-18 with nine minutes left in the first. Freshman wing Tounde Yessoufou kept the shots falling for the Bears, as he was able to draw an and-one 3-pointer from the top of the key, getting the crowd up on their feet.
The Bears went into halftime with a 53-33 lead. Baylor shot 67.7% from the field on 31 attempts in the first half, led by Yessoufou, who had 15 points at the break. On the defensive end, the team forced 10 turnovers and only gave up one.
“Oh man, when the team is firing like that, sometimes I’ll just be watching it thinking, ‘Dang, I just work here,’” Agbim said. “When we get in those stretches where we’re just hitting and we’re hot … I feel like we’re really dangerous.”
Powell got the scoring going for the Bears for the next 20 minutes with a spinning hook shot from the low block. Shots continued to fall for the green and gold, who maintained their 20-point lead through the first few minutes of the second half.
Williams hobbled to the locker room at the 16-minute mark after fouling Utah guard Terrence Brown underneath the basket. Williams returned to the team’s bench at the 11-minute mark.
“Isaac’s fine,” Drew said. “He could have gone back in the game, but we thought there was no reason to risk it. As long as we kept the lead we wanted to save him for the Big 12 Tournament.”
A crowd that had grown stagnant erupted back to its feet as Carr found a dunk in transition to grow the lead to 25. The dunk was created off a screen from freshman center James Nnaji, who did not play in Wednesday’s loss to Houston.
At the under-four timeout, the Bears led 95-67, looking down the barrel of Drew’s 500th career win and 480th at Baylor.
Redshirt sophomore guard Will Kuykendall and freshman guard Drew Perry both checked into the game with two minutes left. Junior guard James Goodis soon joined the pair to the sound of the home crowd’s applause.
The Bears dribbled out the clock, securing a 101-75 victory. The win marked the newest milestone for Drew, as his already-historic coaching career took another step toward the Hall of Fame.
“It’s kind of like a basketball game,” Drew said. “There are highs and there are lows, and there are so many things that have to go right to have that one special season.”
Yessoufou led the Bears in the scoring category with 26 points, followed by Carr’s 21. Baylor created 31 points off 16 turnovers, while only giving up five points from three lost balls themselves.
Following the final buzzer, Drew took the microphone to share his appreciation for the home crowd as his 500th win was etched into the record books. Drew then handed the floor to Powell. The Waco native in turn thanked the Baylor fans for their support as the melodic sounds of “That Good Old Baylor Line” echoed through the walls of Foster Pavilion one last time this season.
“Looking back on here in 20 years, I think I’ll still see how much I grew as a man,” Rataj said. “Coach Drew has been just mentoring me on becoming a faithful man more and more … Finding a new environment and a new culture here at Baylor was actually the biggest blessing that I’ve had in a long time.”
Baylor will open the Big 12 Tournament at 11:30 a.m. Tuesday against Arizona State (16-14, 7-10) in Kansas City, Mo.
