George and Love Lift Bears Past Tarleton State in 80-57 Foul-Fest

WACO, Texas — The Baylor Men’s Basketball (7-2) team won an ugly game against the Tarleton State Texans, 80-57.

With 50 fouls called in the 40-minute contest, it was tough for either team to find rhythm in the first half. Add to that starters Adam Flagler and LJ Cryer being out for Baylor, and a rocky start would make sense.

However, outside of the fouls, the offense put up 80 points and the defense helped the Bears grind to a solid lead at the half.

Love led the Bears in scoring for most of the game and finished with 20 points and six boards. Keyonte George grabbed the leading scorer mark from the redshirt freshman deep in the second half. George finished with 22 points, seven rebounds and six assists.

The two also combined for the highlight of the game, with Keyonte saving a tipped Tarleton pass along the sideline and sending up an alley-oop pass to Langston love who absolutely took flight, slamming it home.

“My legs feel better than they’ve ever felt,” said Love after the game.

Coach Scott Drew added: “Once he took that brace off… he’s been a much different player.”

That much is evident athletically after tonight’s slam and his dunk against Gonzaga.

The alley-oop finished off an 8-0 run and put the Bears up 49-38. From there, the Texans made a small push, but the lead would never fall below eight.

The turnovers were high on the night — 19 for the bears and 18 for the Texans — but that matches the nature of the game. 

The Bears dominated the boards 41-23 and outscored Tarleton in the paint 36-24.

Without the Bears’ leading guards, Drew had high praise for tonight’s starters. 

“If Dale, [Langston] and Key could have knocked off a couple turnovers each it would’ve been flawless by them.”

Drew appeared very happy with their performances, also noting that he was expecting only 25 minutes out of Love instead of the 35 he got.

Not to be lost in all of this, Love got his first career start and Bonner notched his third start for Baylor.

Elsewhere for Baylor, Flo Thamba became the winningest player in program history tonight, with 100 career wins. He passed Matthew Mayer at 99.

Up Next for the Bears is a bit of a break for finals before a matchup with Washington State in Dallas on Sunday, December 18th at 9 PM.