No. 19 Baylor Dominates Inside To Beat TCU 86-71
FORT WORTH (AP) — Taurean Prince scored 22 points and Johnathan Motley led a dominant effort inside with 22 points and nine rebounds to carry No. 19 Baylor to an 86-71 victory against TCU on Saturday night.
The Bears (21-8, 10-6 Big 12) outrebounded the Horned Frogs 45-21 and had a 25-17 edge in second-chance points while matching a school record with their sixth Big 12 road win.
On the same day Kansas clinched at least a share of the league's regular-season title, Baylor ended up in a three-way tie for third with third-ranked Oklahoma and No. 25 Texas with two games remaining before the conference tournament. No. 14 West Virginia (11-5) is alone in second.
Malique Trent had a career-high 25 points to lead TCU (11-18, 2-14), which fell to 0-9 against the Bears since joining the Big 12 and has lost all 10 games against ranked opponents this season.
After taking control early by dominating inside, Baylor turned aside a TCU comeback from the perimeter.
The Frogs, who trailed by 13 early in the second half, had a chance to tie when Brandon Parrish went up for a shot he suddenly decided he didn't want to take and threw a pass to nobody that went out of bounds.
Prince hit a left corner 3 at the other end, and Ishmail Wainright scored from the same spot after a miss by Chris Washburn. Following a timeout, TCU turned it over before Prince hit another 3 from just left of the key for a 66-55 Baylor lead. Prince scored 16 points after halftime.
Baylor, which is a league-best 6-2 on the road, started the game with an 11-0 run, the first two baskets on layups after offensive rebounds by Wainright.
The Bears had another 14-3 run before halftime to get the lead back to double digits and finished the first half with a 10-1 edge on offensive rebounds and an 18-2 lead on second-chance points. For the game, Baylor outscored TCU 40-16 on points in the paint.
TCU stayed close early with 3-pointers, finishing 5 of 8 before halftime, when Chauncey Collins scored 10 of his 17 points. But the Horned Frogs couldn't get Baylor off the boards despite active Big 12 rebounding leader Rico Gathers playing a season-low 12 minutes as he continues a recovery from the flu.
Gathers also had season lows with three points and three rebounds a day after saying he planned to enter the NFL draft as a tight end prospect who hasn't played football since eighth grade. The 6-foot-8, 275-pound senior said he won't pursue a career in the NBA and decided against staying in school another year to play football for the Bears.
TIP-INS
Baylor: The exclamation point for the Bears came with 5 1/2 minutes left when King McClure blocked a layup attempt by Collins and Wainright grabbed the loose ball and flipped it downcourt in one motion to Prince, who ran it down and passed to Motley for a breakaway dunk and a 74-62 lead.
TCU: The first TCU basket that wasn't a 3-pointer was a layup by Parrish off his own miss to get the Horned Frogs within 15-11 with 14:45 left in the first half. ... The Horned Frogs were given a technical going into a timeout after Washburn was called for a foul that drew boos from the crowd.
UP NEXT
Baylor: At No. 3 Oklahoma on Tuesday.
TCU: At Kansas State on Wednesday.
