Tounde Yessoufou, Baylor take aim at smarting Norfolk State

Tounde Yessoufou is making a name for himself with the Baylor basketball team.

The 6-foot-5 freshman guard is averaging 17.8 points per game and 5.9 rebounds entering the Bears' game against Norfolk State on Wednesday in Waco, Texas.

"The moment never gets too big for him," Baylor coach Scott Drew said. "He is extremely coachable and he knows what we want to get out of him. He has grown to accept that. He has a chance to be really successful."

Yessoufou, who is from Benin in West Africa, produced 22 points and five rebounds on Saturday when the Bears lost 78-71 at Memphis. It was his third game with 20-plus points.

Cameron Carr leads the Bears (6-2) in scoring at 21.8 points per game and pulls down 5.6 rebounds per contest. Dan Skillings Jr. contributes 11.3 points and a team-best 7.8 rebounds per game.

The Bears committed 13 turnovers against Memphis, including four in the first four minutes of the game as the Tigers took the lead. It was Baylor's first true road game of the season.

"We didn't react to the hostile crowd well, and it really affected the way we played," Drew said. "Our guys didn't shoot very well because of it. At the end of the day, we got 18 (offensive) rebounds, but we gave up 21 second-chance points."

The Spartans (4-6) are coming off a tough 68-67 loss at James Madison on Saturday in which Elijah Jamison missed a potential 3-point attempt at the buzzer. That came after the Dukes' Bradley Douglas appeared to foul the Spartans' Keyontae Lewis with eight seconds to go, but no call was made.

Norfolk State coach Robert Jones was beside himself after the game, taking to social media to vent.

"I usually don't leave a game feeling robbed because good/bad things happen on both sides, but today geesh," Jomes posted on X. "Eight seconds left we needed this one! We just have to be even better and we will be!"

The Spartans are led by senior guard Anthony McComb III, who leads the team in average points (16.2), rebounds (5.1) and steals (1.5) per game.

Jamison is averaging 14.0 points per game and tops the team with 3.7 assists per contest.

--Field Level Media