Written by Adrian Beecher
SALT LAKE CITY, UT – The 9th seeded Baylor Bears opened up the game on fire from downtown, and rode that wave the rest of the night to a battle of a 78-69 win over 8th seeded Syracuse Orange Thursday night at Vivint Arena. The win earns them a date with the top seed in the West, Gonzago on Saturday.
Despite a 11 point early 1st half lead, and a 9-point win, this one was close throughout. Here’s how it all went down in first round action of the 2019 NCAA Tournament.
The Orange won the tip, but it was Baylor with the first basket. In fact, they scored the first two baskets of the game, both being triples, from Mario Kegler.
Syracuse got their first basket shortly after as Oshae Brissett put in a second chance layup. Then the Bears answered with yet another three-pointer, this time it was Makai Mason getting in on the action.
However, the real story though for both sides in the first half was the activity from beyond the three-point land. The two teams combined for 19 total triples, with Baylor holding the slight edge shooting 10 of 18. Syracuse was 9 of 17 from deep.
Baylor’s threes helped them get out to an 11 point lead with 15:46 left in the 1st half, their largest lead of the game. However, the hot hands correlated to the Orange as well, as they battled back and took their largest lead at four points with only 5:49 left in the 1st half.
At the end of the first half it was a tight one with Baylor leading 38-37.
In the 2nd half, it was CUSE getting the first points, with Pascal Chukwu draining two free throws to give them the lead at 39-38. Thus began a sequence of lead changes at the two teams fought for their season to continue.
Mario Kegler would put the Bears up 40-39 with 18:37 left in the game. Then it was Brissett putting in a layup to put the Orange up. In the first five minutes alone, there were a total of 8 lead changes.
With 12:59 left to play, Tyus Battle slammed home a fastbreak dunk to push the CUSE lead to 3 points, the largest lead by either team in the 2nd half to this point.
Then after Baylor tied things up twice, they took a 5 point lead over the Orange with 8:14 left to play as Butler drained a three and Mark Vital put in a second chance layup.
Syracuse then got to the line. However, Chukwu made just one of two, cutting the deficit to four. Then a triple from the Butler for Baylor pushed their lead to seven with just 7:25 left to play.
Syracuse continued to stumble as Hughes went to the line and made just one of two, cutting the deficit to six. Then at the other end of the floor, the triples continued to fall as Kegler hit his third in as many tries, thus pushing the lead to nine with 5:39 left to play.
Then Hughes drained a triple for Syracuse to cut the deficit ti and after failed trip the other way for Baylor, Hughes found himself at the line shooting three for the Orange after getting fouled by Kegler of Baylor.
Hughes drained all three to cut the deficit to just three with 4:32 left to play, making it 68-65 Bears. However, Baylor would not be denied, and after the Orange cut the deficit to three again, a minute later, Baylor proved they wanted it more.
Baylor would outscore the Orange 8-2 in the final 2:43, without allowing CUSE a basket from the field. The Bears finished with a 9 point win over the 8th seeded Orange, leading for 28:31 of the entirety of the game.
Baylor finished the game with 16 total three’s, just five off the NCAA record for three’s in a NCAA Tournament game, set by Loyola-Marymount in 1990 against Michigan.
