No. 9 Baylor puts an undefeated November behind them and welcomes Northwestern State (La.) on Saturday in Waco, Texas.
The Bears (7-0) played like a powerhouse in their 108-70 home win over Nicholls on Tuesday. Langston Love poured in a career-high 23 points off the bench while going 8 of 10 from the floor and producing a career-best five 3-pointers to lead Baylor.
“Every shot I take, I think it’s going in, especially with the confidence that my teammates give me and that we give each other and the coaching staff has in us,” Love said. “Why would I not think it’s going in?”
RayJ Dennis collected 14 points and 10 assists, Jayden Nunn scored 13 points and Caleb Lohner added 12 for the Bears.
“We always say you get rewarded if you play the right way,” Baylor coach Scott Drew said about Love. “(He) actually came in and passed up a couple of shots to get better shots. You love it as a coach when guys play the right way. What was really good was when Love got going, our players really looked to him. And he did a great job of that.”
The Bears never trailed, led by 25 points at halftime and by 33 with 7:35 to play after Love canned back-to-back 3-pointers.
The Bears have scored at least 88 points in six of their first seven games.
“I’m so blessed to coach this team, how they celebrate each other,” Drew added. “Our depth allows people to have off nights and other people pick them up. Our guys really did a great job, especially defensively in the first half, and taking care of the basketball. Finishing with 25 assists and nine turnovers was phenomenal.”
Northwestern State (1-6) heads to Waco after a 74-70 loss at UL Monroe on Tuesday. The Demons led by 11 points at the break but gave back all of that margin and more when they surrendered a slew of offensive rebounds and second-chance points en route to dropping their sixth straight game.
Braelon Bush led Northwestern State with 17 points while Cliff Davis added 16 and Chase Forte ended up with a career-high 12, 11 of which in the first half.
“We’re not a high-scoring team, and I’m fine with that, and one thing we did today that we haven’t been doing is move the basketball,” Northwestern State’s first-year coach Rick Cabrera said. “In the past, we played a little selfishly but against ULM, we had 14 assists — that’s a high for us. On the road, you’ve got to be almost perfect and you have to play almost mistake-free basketball.”
The teams have played 10 times since 1987 with Baylor winning nine of them, including a 58-48 victory at home last season.
–Field Level Media