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Baylor has no problem with Houston, advances to national championship

Dustin Schutte

By Dustin Schutte

Published:

Baylor has punched its ticket to the national championship.

The Bears had no issue with Houston in the first game of the Final Four on Saturday night, blowing out the Cougars 78-59. Baylor will now play the winner of No. 1 Gonzaga and No. 11 UCLA for the national title on Monday night.

Houston scored the first basket of the game, a Marcus Sasser 3-point jumper, and he hit another one a few possessions later to give the Cougars an early 8-6 lead in the first half. After those first four minutes, though, it was all Baylor.

Scott Drew’s team went on a 16-3 run to take a 22-11 lead and never looked back. The Bears closed the half on another big run, this one 18-3, to take a 45-20 advantage into the locker room.

Early in the second half, Houston was able to trim the lead down to 16 at 52-36 with over 13 minutes to play, but that was as close as it would get.

Five players from Baylor ended the night in double figures. Jared Butler led the way with 17 points and Davion Mitchell posted a double-double with 12 points and 11 assists. Macio Teague had 11 points and Matthew Mayer and Jonathan Tchamwa Tchatchoua scored 12 and 11 off the bench, respectively.

Sasser finished the game with 20 points for Houston and Quentin Grimes had 13.

Baylor splashed home 11 shots from the 3-point line on 23 attempts and shot better than 52% from the floor for the game. The Bears had 28 buckets on 23 assists with only 9 turnovers for the contest.

Houston was heled to 21-of-54 from the floor and made just 6-of-19 shots from behind the 3-point line. Kelvin Sampson’s team had played better in the second half, only having 2 turnovers, but it wasn’t enough.

Baylor is now 27-2 on the season and Houston ends the year at 28-4.

Dustin Schutte

Dustin grew up in the heart of Big Ten country and has been in sports media since 2010. He has been covering Big Ten football since 2014. You can follow him on Twitter: @SchutteCFB