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Baylor Basketball

No. 1 Bears Survive Rough Road Test in Fort Worth 76-64

January 8, 2022
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The No. 1 Baylor Men's Basketball team pulled out a 76-64 victory over the 10-1 TCU Horned Frogs Saturday afternoon in Fort Worth.

The Bears looked like they were going to imitate the football team's disappointing road loss to the rival Frogs, but great three-point shooting from Adam Flagler and plenty of effort all around kept the Bears undefeated.

Baylor's winning streak has now hit 21 consecutive games, good for the longest active streak among Division 1 teams.

Flagler led Baylor with 22 points on 8-13 shooting, including an amazing 6-10 from three. James Akinjo added 20 points and 8 assists, while LJ Cryer carried the bench production with 15 points of his own.

In the first half, the Bears struggled with 9 turnovers while Mike Miles went off for TCU. Miles

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scored 18 points in the first period to help the Frogs build a 6 point halftime lead at 37-31.
The Baylor offense was held in check mainly through physical play and blitzing Akinjo on ball screens. While Akinjo led the Bears in points through the half, the offense appeared out of rhythm. 

The Frogs were athletic enough across the board to bother the Bears, especially with their guards being slightly bigger.

Beyond those struggles, Scott Drew was forced to tighten his rotation with freshman forward Jeremy Sochan going down with an ankle injury in the first half. He came back to the bench in a boot and on crutches at halftime.

Then, within the first 2 minutes of the second half, Matthew Mayer picked up 3 fouls. This forced Baylor to lean on 3 guard lineups and use transfer Dale Bonner more than usual.
Things seemed to be trending badly when Mike Miles completed a 4-point play to put TCU up 44-36, but the Bears responded with a 14-0 run. 

From there the Bears never trailed, though they were not coasting. Whenever it felt like the Frogs were trying to make a run, Flagler stepped up and hit a shot to settle everyone down.
The fourth-year junior guard scored in double figures for the 24th time as a Bear, and Baylor is 24-0 in those games. 

Overall the Baylor offense was great from three but maybe a little lackluster from inside the arch,

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shooting 48% from three and 53% from the field overall. Free throws were an issue tonight for the Bears who hit just 3 of the 7 they took.

The Bear's defense ran up against a hot scorer in Miles tonight, but after his wrist got dinged up and the Bears defense adjusted a bit, he wasn't the same.

Baylor will now start prepping for a big matchup with No. 25 Texas Tech on Tuesday in the Ferrell Center. Tech is coming off of a 75-67 victory over the No. 5 Kansas Jayhawks in Lubbock. Tip-off on Tuesday will be at 6 PM CT and the game will be on ESPN 3 as of the writing of this article.

 
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