Bridges, Bonner Lead Bears past Northwestern State, 58-48
WACO, Texas — The No. 12 Baylor Men’s Basketball (9-2) team scraped out a 58-48 win over the Northwestern State Demons Tuesday night at the Ferrell Center.
Without starting point guard Adam Flagler due to illness, Dale Bonner got the spot start against the team that handed No. 20 TCU its only loss of the season thus far. He played well, scoring 11 points and dishing seven assists with just three turnovers.
However, the biggest standout of the night for BU was junior forward Jalen Bridges. The West Virginia transfer looks to be breaking out of his shooting slump after a 13-point outing. He went 5-for8 from the field including 2-for-4 from three to lead the green and gold in scoring.
“It felt amazing honestly,” Bridge said after the game, “I feel like all shooters go through a slump like this in their careers and this is easily the worst I’ve ever shot. But every day my teammates lifted me up.”
Otherwise, it was a rather tough night for the Bears. They shot 39% from the field and 32% from deep while struggling to keep the Demons off of the boards.
After the game, Baylor head coach Scott Drew emphasized, “Our defensive rebounding has to get better.”
Northwestern State's offensive rebounding hurt the Bears in a couple of key places.
First, right before halftime, the visitors made a 5-0 run to cut a 24-17 lead down to 24-22 thanks in part to a second-chance three ball.
Then, in the second half, they did the same thing to help cut a 16-point lead to just eight at 52-44.
However, the game would get no closer with Langston Love and Caleb Lohner finishing off the scoring for the night.
Not to be forgotten, LJ Cryer put together a rather quiet 11 points and finished with the best plus-minus on the team at plus-15.
Overall, coach Drew seemed pleased to head into the Christmas break with this win.
“I liked what everybody did out there because we won and at the end of the day we had to play hard to win.”
Up next for the Bears is Nicholls on Wednesday, December 28th at 7 PM (ESPN+).