Baylor Men's Basketball Trounced by Marquette 96-70 in First Road Test

MILWAUKEE, Wisc. — The Baylor Men’s Basketball team (5-2) was absolutely trounced 96-70 but the Marquette Golden Eagles. 

A disastrous first half with a season-high 16 turnovers and a 37-8 run by the home team left the Bears with their largest halftime deficit since Wichita State in 2018.

The Bears finished the game down by the same margin they were down at halftime: 26 points.

This is good for the worst loss for a Scott Drew-coached team since 2007 vs Kansas, another 26-point loss.

LJ Cryer scored 19 points in the losing effort. Adam Flagler had 16 and 6 assists and Keynote George notched 12. However, all three Bears committed at least three turnovers on the night.

For Marquette, Olivier-Maxence Prosper led all scorers with 24 points helping the Eagles build a lead that ballooned to 32 points in the second half. 

Kam Jones put up 20 points and David Joplin went for 19 as well to get Marquette just two buckets shy of the century mark. 

The green and gold had trouble all night defending in space, especially the bigs. 

Prosper took it to Flo Thamba early in the game to help spark what became a 21-2 run. There was no looking back from there.

The Eagles’ press and length on defense sped the Baylor guards up and forced the growing turnover issue. 

In fact, the Eagles got up 37 shots in the first frame to Baylor’s 20. Those extra shots and specifically 24 points came from the turnovers forced. Nearly the entire halftime deficit for Baylor can be seen in the points off turnovers for MU. 

The Golden Eagles simply dominated in the first half and kept the pressure up well in the second half to never feel threatened. 

Scott Drew has a big task in front of him to regroup his team before their marquee matchup with Gonzaga on Friday night.