Sophomore Cameron Carr scored 16 points and freshman Tounde Yessoufou had 13 to lead a balanced offensive attack as undefeated Baylor downed Washington 78-69 on Sunday night in Waco, Texas.
The Bears (2-0) led by six points at halftime and quickly built their advantage to double digits in the first minutes of the second half. The Huskies (2-1) trimmed their deficit to 57-53 when Wesley Yates III made Washington’s first 3-pointer in 14 attempts with 9:48 to play, but that’s as close as the visitors would get.
The Huskies made a final push at Baylor, using a 6-0 run punctuated by a 3-pointer from Quimari Peterson to pull to within 73-68 with 2:12 left.
Baylor’s Dan Skillings Jr. and Yessoufou each made a free throw to boost the lead to seven points, and the Bears were able to hold on.
Skillings, Caden Powell and Issac Williams added 12 points each for the Bears while Michael Rataj hit for 11 as six of the eight players that saw the court for Baylor scored in double figures. Powell also grabbed a team-high 10 rebounds.
Zoom Diallo led Washington with 15 points before fouling out with 54.7 seconds remaining. Peterson added 11 points, JJ Mandaquit had 10 and Hannes Steinbach racked up 10 points and 15 rebounds for the Huskies.
The Huskies started well, taking an 11-4 lead when Franck Kepnang hit a putback jumper at the 15:46 mark of the first half. Baylor responded, reeling off a 16-6 run capped by Skillings’ jumper to leapfrog to a 20-17 advantage just over 10 minutes into the game.
The Bears eventually stoked the margin to eight points after Powell’s layup with 1:33 to play in the half. Mandaquit answered with a layup of his own 10 seconds later to pull Washington to within 38-32 at the break.
Both teams made 14 of their 32 shots (43.8%) before halftime with the difference Baylor’s edge in made 3-pointers (3-0) and a 7-4 advantage in made free throws. Carr had 13 points to lead all scorers in the half while Rataj added nine for the Bears. Peterson’s six points paced the Huskies.
Consecutive 3-pointers by Yessoufou and Skillings, the latter at the 18:30 mark of the second half, increased Baylor’s lead to double digits for the first time.
