DENVER — The Baylor men's basketball team is off to a good start after taking down 14 seeded UC Santa Barbara on Friday afternoon to advance to the second round of the NCAA tournament.
In the first half – Baylor trailing 22-26 – Caleb Lohner drives and hits the pull up jumper to make it a one possession game.
The bears enter halftime down 35-36.
After a tight first half with 12 lead changes, Baylor was able to pull away as their defense held the Gauchos to just 20 points in the second half
With just under 13 minutes to play, Dale Bonner can't find an open lane, he kicks it out to Lohner who knocks down the corner three. Bears now leading 51-43.
Lohner was clutch off the bench today as he scored a season high 13 points.
Baylor finished shooting almost 55 percent from the field -- that's the fourth best shooting percentage in an NCAA tournament game in program history.
Senior guard Adam Flagler talked about the bears halftime adjustments.
"I felt like we were together and connected and flying around for one another,” flagler said. “know defense wins games so at the end of the day we want to pride ourselves on that and be better we have a new opportunity with this game and then the next game to show that.”
Head coach Scott Drew credits the bears’ depth off the bench
"Our bench really did a good job especially in altitude having a deep bench helps in early morning game,” drew said. “I thought [second half] they had some good looks but they were short on shot. We got short on shots at the end as well but really credit the guys for locking in defensively.”
The bears will take on 6th seeded Creighton on Sunday, who took down the NC State Wolfpack on Friday.
