Ja’Kobe Walter poured in 24 points and fellow freshman Yves Missi added 14 points and 14 rebounds as No. 13 Baylor rolled to an 88-72 win over Oregon State on Wednesday in the semifinal of the NIT Season Tip-Off in New York.
Baylor advances to play Florida for the championship on Friday afternoon. Oregon State will play Pitt in the consolation game.
The Bears (5-0) led by 18 points at halftime and by 19 after a putback layup by Missi with 15:02 to play. Oregon State never got closer than 13 points the rest of the way even though it shot 63 percent from the floor over the final 20 minutes of play.
Jalen Bridges also had 14 points for the Bears, who shot 52.4 percent from the floor and had just seven turnovers, five of them in the second half.
Dexter Akanno led Oregon State with 16 points, with Jordan Pope adding 13, DaJohn Craig hitting for 12 points and KC Ibekwe scoring 10 for the Beavers (3-2), who have dropped two straight games.
The Bears took charge early, sweeping to a 15-4 lead at the 14:53 mark of the first half after a 3-pointer by Bridges. Baylor expanded its advantage to 13 points twice over the ensuing three and a half minutes, the latter on Miro Little’s layup with 11:08 to play in the half.
Oregon State cut the deficit to 25-16 on Ibekwe’s driving layup with 7:03 remaining but the Bears swung back, forging a 6-0 run on baskets by Josh Ojianwuna, Walter and Nunn to push their lead to 15 points. Walter’s four-point play with 42 seconds to play in the half lifted Baylor to a 44-26 advantage at the break.
Walter led all scorers before halftime with 12 points, with all those coming over the final 5:45 of the half. The Bears outshot Oregon State 51.5 percent to 34.6 percent and committed just two turnovers.
Craig paced the Beavers with 10 points over the first 20 minutes of play.
–Field Level Media
