Tounde Yessoufou amassed a career-high 28 points to help Baylor overcome a ragged start on the way to a 111-67 victory over Southern on Sunday afternoon in Waco, Texas.
The Bears (9-2) shrugged off an uneven first half that saw them trail early on and then go scoreless for nearly six minutes. Baylor led by nine at halftime and found its groove in the second, stoking its advantage to 27 points in the first five-plus minutes before expanding the margin to as many as 46 points.
Baylor has produced 51 straight home nonconference wins, a streak that ranks second in the nation behind Auburn.
Cameron Carr added 22 points for the Bears while Dan Skillings Jr. had 17, Obi Agbim scored 12, Issac Williams contributed 11 and Caden Powell took 15 rebounds in the win.
Michael Jacobs hit for 20 points and Malek Abdelgowad had 19 for Southern (4-8), which has dropped four straight games.
The Jaguars started the game with a bang, using a 7-0 run capped by a second-chance jumper by Terrance Dixon Jr. to take a 12-6 lead four minutes in. Baylor got on track with its own run, scoring 14 of the ensuing 19 points punctuated by Carr’s two free throws at the 12:35 mark to go up 20-17.
The Bears pushed their lead to eight points when Agbim canned a 3-pointer with 7:54 before halftime. Baylor then missed 10 consecutive shots from the floor and went almost six minutes without point as Southern trimmed its deficit to 33-29 after a pair of free throws by Jacobs.
Baylor finished the half on a 7-2 run finalized by a 3-pointer from Agbim to take a 40-31 lead into the break.
Yessoufou and Carr led the Bears with a dozen points apiece before halftime, while Powell had already snatched 11 rebounds. Jacobs paced Southern with nine points in the first half.
Baylor asserted itself with an 8-0 run to open the second half, building the margin to 48-31 after a free throw by Skillings with 18:09 to play. The Bears kept swinging, going up by 27 points when Yessoufou poured in a 3-pointer with 14:41 remaining. From there it was just a matter of how large the final margin would be.
–Field Level Media
