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No. 9 Baylor men's basketball blasts Central Arkansas 92-47

November 17, 2021
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WACO, Texas — No. 9 Baylor men’s basketball (3-0) plows through Central Arkansas (0-3) in the Ferrell Center 92-47. 

This game had the largest spread in the nation tonight when it closed at Baylor -35.5. I knew the game would go this way, you knew the game would go this way and Vegas certainly was not blind to it either. 

Baylor could have won this game by as many points as it wished, and it was decided 45 would be appropriate. This high-flying show of a team played with reckless abandonment and gave the fans more than their money’s worth. 

In the first half alone, Baylor forced an ungodly 17 turnovers en route to 17 points off turnovers. The team also clutched 28 rebounds compared to 19 and won the points in the paint battle 28-4.

That said, the most remarkable stat of them all was FOURTEEN (14) steals. 20 minutes. 14 steals. James Akinjo boasted four with Flo Thamba close behind at three — and add Matthew Mayer’s three blocks in there for fun. Baylor 43-20 at the break. 

The second half, for the third straight game, was a formality. Baylor just kept piling it on. Even past the eight-minute timeout, Mayer, Thamba, Akinjo and a host of stars were still rocking. That strolled us all the way to the 92-47 final. 

Kendall Brown was electric — per usual — with 19 points and five boards. Akinjo showed stellar scoring life with 18 points and added six boards, eight assists and four steals. LJ Cryer shot 9-15 and had 20 points to accompany six assists. That’s just talent and talent abundant. 

Baylor took 78 shots and made 37 of them. That’s good. However, Baylor shot 21 threes and made five of them. That’s less good. However, 56 points in the paint aided the deep ball ailments. Defensively, 21 steals and 29 turnovers turned into 30 fast-break points. A clinic. 

Oh, and Mitchell Paul scored — the loudest play of the night. 

Stanford comes to town Saturday. The Cardinal, albeit one of the worse power five teams out there, is still a power five team. We should learn new things. 

 
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