After getting a birthday boost, Baylor will look to secure a berth in the Players Era men’s championship game when it opposes No. 14 St. John’s on Tuesday in Las Vegas.
The Bears knocked off Creighton 81-74 on Monday behind Cameron Carr, who scored 21 points, pulled down nine rebounds and notched two blocks.
Carr led five Bears starters who all scored in double figures, and the performance came on his 21st birthday. Baylor coach Scott Drew serenaded him postgame, singing the first few lines of “Happy Birthday” and saying he’s “exciting to coach.”
Dan Skillings Jr. scored 14 points, Obi Agbim tallied 13 points, Tounde Yessoufou had 11 points and Michael Rataj chipped in 10 points and five assists for the Bears (4-0).
Carr, a redshirt sophomore transfer from Tennessee, feels supported by his new teammates at Baylor, and the results are showing on the court.
“I’m thankful for my teammates and the people I am around,” Carr said. “They push me to be better. When I’m going through a tough time, they tell me to keep my head up and keep going. I’m thankful for the people around me.”
In two seasons at Tennessee, Carr averaged less than five points per game. At Baylor, Carr (23.5 points per game) is the team’s leading scorer.
“Honestly, it’s my confidence,” Carr said when asked what has changed most in his time with the Bears. “I know what I can do and what I can control. I want to take advantage of that and be the best I can be for my teammates. When they rely on me, I have to step up in those moments. And I have to hold them to the same standard as well. It’s just believing in myself and knowing and trusting the process.”
St. John’s (3-2) dropped a tightly contested game, 83-82, to No. 15 Iowa State in the opening round on Monday. Zuby Ejiofor’s 3-point attempt to tie the game in the final seconds was unsuccessful, and Dillon Mitchell’s put-back at the buzzer wasn’t enough.
Oziyah Sellers led the Red Storm with 20 points, shooting 5 of 6 from beyond the arc. Ejiofor and Bryce Hopkins each tallied 16 points, and Mitchell chipped in 12 points. Ejiofor and Mitchell each pulled down a game-high nine rebounds.
“That was another tough game for us,” St. John’s coach Rick Pitino said. “The effort was great, the play was terrific, but with the game on the line, we didn’t come up with the rebounds to put (Iowa State) away.”
Even though the Red Storm were only outrebounded 38-36 against the Cyclones, when St. John’s squares off with the Bears, Pitino wants his team to hit the glass hard.
“Both Joson (Sanon) and Ian (Jackson) give great effort,” Pitino said, referring to two of his players who were both held without a rebound. “I give the other team credit for playing good defense on them, but they need to do better rebounding.”
The Red Storm’s two losses this season came in the team’s only two games against power-conference opposition. St. John’s fell 103-96 to then-No. 15 Alabama on Nov. 8.
In its three wins, St. John’s has generated 23.3 takeaways per contest. Alabama (seven) and Iowa State (11) combined for just 18 total turnovers in their victories over the Red Storm.
