Edgecombe, Love Return to Help Bears Blow Past UCF Knights, 91-76

WACO, Texas — The Baylor Men’s Basketball team (15-8, 7-5 Big 12) topped the UCF Knights (13-10, 4-8 Big 12) with little drama on Saturday by a score of 91-76.

Scott Drew’s had the most players available to play since the start of Big 12 play with both VJ Edgecombe and Langston Love playing 27 minutes on top of Jeremy Roach’s 26. 

Edgecombe and Love both had good offensive days scoring 17 and 16 points respectively. However, Norchad Omier led the Bears with 18 points while grabbing 12 rebounds for yet another double-double. 

Jayden Nunn and Jalen Celestine also got to double-digit points scoring 12 apiece.

Despite all that good news from the win, Baylor appears to be snake-bitten with injuries still as Joshua Ojianwuna left the game in the first half with what appeared to be a knee injury. The severity is not known but he did not rejoin the team bench the rest of the afternoon. 

The first half went largely bucket for bucket until the Bears broke it open with a 16-2 run. The Baylor offense was humming scoring 45 points in the period while assisting on 10 of the 14 made baskets. The defense was no slouch either grabbing eight steals.

There was a small lull coming out of halftime for the Green and Gold but around the 15-minute mark, the Bears turned the energy up with a fury. 

Love started off the run with a jumper while Omier and Celestine added buckets before the crowd was sent into a frenzy by VJ Edgecombe’s monster transition jam. A Nunn steal and score made it a 16-0 kill shot run and a 21-point lead for the Bears. That lead would not be threatened over the final 12 minutes.

Baylor finished with solid but not phenomenal shooting splits of 53% from the field, 32% from three and 86% from the free throw line. The difference was truly made on defense where the Bears forced turnovers early to rattle the Knights who continued to miss high-percentage shots through the rest of the game. 

Notably, Baylor was buoyed by 40 points from bench players, a season-high by 11 points (previously 29 vs. New Orleans).

Up Next: Baylor at Houston - Monday, February 10th - 8:00 p.m. on ESPN.