Mikel Brown Jr. scored 29 points to lead No. 24 Louisville past Baylor 82-71 on Saturday in a nonconference showdown at Fort Worth, Texas.
The freshman guard followed up his record-setting 45-point performance in Monday’s win over NC State by notching his seventh 20-point game of the season. He made 8 of 14 shots, including 4 of 5 from beyond the 3-point arc. He also dished out six and posted a season-high five steals as he helped the Cardinals (19-6) dig out of a first-half hole.
J’Vonne Hadley added a season-best 20 for the Cardinals, who shot 56% (28 of 50) from the field. The sixth-year swingman hit on 7 of 10 from the field.
Baylor used a 16-2 run in a less than five-minute span to take a 32-25 lead with 3:37 left in the first half after a Michael Rataj jumper. However, that was the Bears’ last bucket in the first half as they missed their last six shots. That enabled a Brown trey with 16 seconds left before halftime to tie the game at 34-all.
The Bears shot just 9 of 28 (32.1%) in the first half, including only 1 of 12 from beyond the 3-point arc. However, they stayed in the game by making all 15 of their free throws.
After finishing the first half on a 9-2 run, Louisville used a 10-2 spurt early in the second half to take command. Sanada Fru’s fastbreak dunk off a steal and an assist by Brown put the Cardinals up 46-39 with 16:46 remaining.
The Louisville lead grew to 59-44 with less than 12 minutes left. Baylor never got closer than nine points the rest of the way as the Bears suffered their worst 3-point shooting performance of the season. They made just 2 of 22 (9.1%) from beyond the arc.
Isaac Williams led Baylor with 20 points on 8-of-12 shooting. Tounde Yessoufou went for 16 but on 5 of 16 from the field. Rataj finished with 11. Cameron Carr, Baylor’s leading scorer (19.8 ppg) scored just five points while missing 10 of his 11 shots. The Bears shot 36.7% (22 of 60) for the game.
Ryan Conwell added 14 points for Louisville.
