Tounde Yessoufou poured in 19 points and Obi Agbim added 17 as Baylor used a decisive run over the first six minutes of the second half to roll past Minnesota 67-48 on Wednesday in a College Basketball Crown quarterfinal game at Las Vegas.
The Bears (17-16) advance to play Oklahoma, a 90-86 winner over Colorado in overtime in an earlier quarterfinal, on Saturday in one of the event’s semifinals.
Baylor and Oklahoma are guaranteed at least $50,000 in NIL money to be split among the players for their victories on Wednesday.
After leading by five points at halftime, the Bears ran away via a 17-1 run after the break. Yessoufou scored nine of those points, including the first six of the spurt, as Baylor stoked its advantage to 21 points. From there, the Bears cruised to the finish line, repelling a mild run by Minnesota that culled the margin to 12 points with 8:01 left.
Cameron Carr added 15 points and nine rebounds for Baylor, which held the Golden Gophers to 38.8% shooting from the floor.
Cade Tyson led Minnesota (15-18) with 19 points and seven rebounds. Langston Reynolds added 13 points.
Baylor was up by as many as five points in the early going before the Golden Gophers rallied to take an 18-16 lead on Bobby Durkin’s 3-pointer near the midpoint of the first half. The Bears then jumped back to the front via an 8-0 run capped by a turnaround jumper from Yessoufou with 6:41 left in the half and pushed the margin to 27-19 after Agbim’s 3-pointer 44 seconds later.
Minnesota trimmed its deficit to 29-26 on Tyson’s layup with 1:29 left before Dan Skillings Jr. answered with a putback layup that sent the Bears to a 31-26 lead at the break.
Tyson’s 13 points led all players before halftime while the Bears used a more balanced attack paced by Agbim’s nine points.
–Field Level Media
