Yessoufou's Career-High 37 Not Enough as Wright and No. 22 BYU Top Baylor 99-94
WACO, Texas — In Robert Wright III’s return to the Foster Pavilion, the Baylor Bears (13-11, 3-9 Big 12) fell to the visiting No. 22 BYU Cougars (18-6, 6-5 Big 12) by a score of 99-94.
The Bears jumped out to a 12-point lead during the first half before Wright and top NBA prospect AJ Dybantsa carried the Cougars not only to a halftime deadlock, but a second-half lead as big as 17 points.
Tounde Yessoufou’s career-high 37 points were not enough to get the Bears’ desperate late comeback attempt over the line, and the Green and Gold fell for the ninth time in Big 12 play and the fifth time at home this season.
Yessoufou led all scorers, but Dybantsa came close, registering 36 points, and the former-Bear Wright hit 30 points while showered with constant boos the whole night.
Baylor shot the ball well on the day, hitting 10-21 threes and finishing at 52% from the field, but the Bears were undone by turnovers and paint points.
Scott Drew’s squad coughed up the ball 13 times, and the Cougars turned that into 24 points. Even when Baylor had time to set its defense, Wright and his teammates worked their way into the lane and made finishing look easy. BYU finished with 64 of its 99 points coming from the paint. Baylor scored just 40 paint points.
Caden Powell had a rough game for Baylor, going minus-20 in box plus-minus and turning the ball over three times. The Waco native did score 13, and he made sure to own his mistakes in the postgame press conference, saying, “I felt like I did a poor job. And I owe one to my teammates because I have to be better on the defensive end … Tonight, that one’s really on me because I gave that one up. I apologize to my teammates and the fans.”
Yessoufou was quick to own the loss alongside Powell and pointed to how the team needs to execute better as a whole to be able to win more games.
Elsewhere for the Bears, Cameron Carr scored 24 despite getting banged around by BYU. Isaac Williams also scored 12 points while avoiding foul trouble, but he struggled to contain Wright III.
This game was one of the more “winnable” games against top-level competition that Baylor had left on the schedule. NCAA tournament qualification is looking less and less likely, barring an upset win or three down the stretch.
The next chance for the Bears to get on the right track and make a late push for an at-large bid is a Saturday tilt against Louisville in Fort Worth. The Cardinals are currently ranked No. 24 and sit at 15th in KenPom.
That game is set for 3 p.m. on Valentine’s Day and will be broadcast on either ESPN or ESPN 2.
