Baylor Loses At West Virginia

via The Sports Xchange

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Baylor’s debut outing as the No. 1 team unraveled in a sloppy mess against No. 10 West Virginia’s full-court press.
Nathan Adrian poured in 22 points, Jevon Carter had 17 points and seven assists, and the two combined for eight of the Mountaineers’ 15 steals to fuel an 89-68 blowout Tuesday.
The loss by Baylor (15-1, 3-1 Big 12) left Gonzaga as the lone unbeaten team in Division I.
“We weren’t overconfident. They just kicked our butt,” Bears coach Scott Drew said.
West Virginia (14-2, 3-1) forced 29 turnovers, the most during its 82-game Big 12 tenure, before the sellout crowd of 14,632 swarmed the court.
“There wasn’t anybody in our locker room who didn’t think we should win,” Mountaineers coach Bob Huggins said. “I’m OK with the students celebrating and having fun. I just that I want it to become expected. That’s when we’ve kind of arrived.”
With “Press Virginia” at its pestering best, Baylor’s Ishmail Wainright dribbled the ball off his foot, Johnathan Motley traveled on a post move, and Jo Lual-Acuil fumbled out of a double-team. Even when the defense wasn’t nearby, point guard Manu Lecomte stepped on the sideline while dribbling uncontested.
“This (West Virginia) team, on film, they’ve been very impressive, but in person, definitely the best pressing team Coach Huggins has had,” Drew said. “They just make you feel uneasy and uncomfortable. They just took us out of everything.”
Baylor trailed by 11 points only seven minutes into the game, then pulled within four before Adrian’s jumper restored West Virginia’s cushion to 39-32 at half.
Never allowing Baylor to draw closer than five points in the second half, the Mountaineers iced the game with a 24-7 run featuring electrifying blocks by Sagaba Konate and two 3-pointers by Adrian.
Adrian made 7 of 10 shots, snapping out of a month-long, 20-of-67 slump.
“You can’t go hunting your shot, which I never try to do,” the senior forward said. “You’ve got to play within yourself and hopefully it works out.”
Freeman, Lual-Acuil and Terry Maston scored 10 points each for the Bears, who were routed one day after climbing to the top spot in the AP poll. The 7-foot Lual-Acuil grabbed 12 rebounds but combined with Wainright and Lecomte to commit 15 turnovers.
Brandon Watkins and Tarik Phillip added 11 points each for West Virginia, which beat the Bears for a third consecutive time. West Virginia led 57-43 after Phillip’s steal and feed to Watkins for a breakaway dunk.
“They only had a couple good ballhandlers that what we saw from film,” Phillip said, “so when certain guys got the ball, we said we were going to heat them up.”

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