Wright Sets Freshman Assist Record as Baylor Beats Norfolk State 94-69

WACO, Texas — The No. 25 Baylor Men’s Basketball team (7-3) defeated the visiting Norfolk State Spartans (6-5) in a sloppy game with a score of 94-69. The Bears had trouble pulling away from the Spartans with the halftime spread being 39-33 in favor of the hosts.

Norchand Omier and Josh Ojianwuna lead the Bears with 19 and 16 points while grabbing seven and nine boards respectively. The points in the paint were key to Baylor’s better second half. 

In the backcourt, starters Robert Wright and VJ Edgecombe provided plenty of highlights on their way to 16 points apiece. Wright also dished out 13 assists, a new freshman record for Baylor.

Due to the messier nature of the game, Edgecombe found room to throw down a few highlight slams. His most memorable being a towering put-back dunk on a missed three-ball from Jayden Nunn late in the second half.

Despite the hecticness, the Bears only registered eight turnovers through the whole game. Much of what made the first half look so ugly, at least on the scoreline, was the great shooting from Norfolk State and the relatively poor shooting from Baylor. The Spartans shot 6-for-10 from deep in half-one with 52% overall shooting. The Green and Gold hit just 4-for-12 from deep and a slightly worse 50% from the field. Neither mark is terrible, but the Bears were not settled and the Spartans went possession for possession with Scott Drew’s squad.

The Bears turned up the pressure in the second half by controlling the ball better, dominating in the paint at both ends and delivering confidence-shattering dunks.

Fourteen of Omier’s 19 points, 12 of Ojianwuna’s 16 and 11 of Edecombe’s 16 came in the second half. The second-half rebounding figures matched the points in the paint battle for the half at 20-10 in favor of the hosts.

Baylor got locked in when they needed to, but the early tip-off time threw the Bears off. Scott Drew said after the game that this was supposed to be the “scream game” where local schools send their students for a fun field trip in the middle of the day. The finalization of the matchup just happened to late to make it work for schools.

Now the Bears have a break for finals and Christmas before they can prove that they can bring their own energy from start to finish against Arlington Baptist on December 27th at 6 PM. That will be the final non-conference matchup for Baylor.