No. 12 Baylor stays hot, tops West Virginia

Field Level Media|published: Sat 17th February, 20:37 2024

Feb 17, 2024; Morgantown, West Virginia, USA; Baylor Bears forward Jalen Bridges (11) shoots in the lane against West Virginia Mountaineers center Jesse Edwards (7) during the second half at WVU Coliseum. credits: Ben Queen-USA TODAY Sports

Ja'Kobe Walter scored 23 points and Jayden Nunn added 20 to lead No. 12 Baylor to a 94-81 victory over West Virginia on Saturday in Morgantown, W.Va.

RayJ Dennis added 18 points and eight assists and Yves Missi tallied 13 points on 5-of-5 shooting from the floor for the Bears (19-6, 8-4 Big 12), who won for the fifth time in the past six games. Josh Ojianwuna and Jalen Bridges each had 10 points and seven rebounds for Baylor.

RaeQuan Battle scored 25 points and Jesse Edwards added 21 points and nine rebounds for West Virginia (8-17, 3-9), which lost its fourth straight game and sixth in its past seven.

Baylor won for the ninth time in the past 10 games against the Mountaineers.

The hot-shooting Nunn is 16 for 30 from 3-point range over the past five games.

Baylor shot 53.6 percent from the floor, including 12 of 32 from 3-point range. Ojianwuna had three steals for the Bears.

West Virginia connected on 52.9 percent of its shots and was 8-of-19 from behind the arc.

Nunn sank three treys in the first 4:12 of the second half as Baylor opened with a 14-5 spurt. The third 3-pointer during the span gave the Bears a 56-39 advantage.

Three-plus minutes later, Dennis drilled an open 3-pointer to make it 66-44.

West Virginia went on a 9-1 run to move within 72-58 on Quinn Slazinski's three-point play with 8:07 left. Noah Farrakhan's 3-pointer pulled the Mountaineers within 13 with 7:30 left before the Bears scored seven of the next nine points to hold an 81-63 advantage with 5:27 to play.

West Virginia mounted another charge and pulled within 89-80 on a 3-pointer by Battle with 1:26 left. However, Dennis made two free throws and Nunn split a pair to push Baylor's lead back to 12 en route to closing out the win.

Walter scored 10 points and Baylor shot 58.6 percent from the floor in the first half to take a 42-34 lead. Edwards scored 11 in the half for West Virginia.

Nunn drained a 3-pointer to give the Bears a 30-22 lead with 6:41 left in the first half. A dunk by Ojianwuna made it 37-26 with 4:25 remaining.

The Mountaineers shot 50 percent in the first half but were hurt by 10 turnovers.

—Field Level Media

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