Watching Tarleton State hold Florida State to 33 first-half points in a 72-52 loss to the Seminoles, Baylor coach Scott Drew was hoping that his 12th-ranked Bears would get off to a fast start in Sunday night's game against the Texans.
But not even the ever-optimistic Drew could have seen this coming.
Boosted by a pair of 17-0 first-half runs, Baylor (3-1) built a double-digit lead in the first seven minutes, went up by 43 by the break and blew out the Texans, 104-41, before a sellout crowd of 7,500 at the Foster Pavilion.
"Whenever you play a coach Billy Clyde Gillespie team, you know they're going to play really hard and compete," Drew said. "We really wanted to make sure we got off to a fast start, and 9-of-13 from 3 is just what the doctor ordered. Anytime you can get separation against a really well-coached team, it's helpful."
A former Baylor assistant (1994-97) who has over 200 coaching victories at the Division I level with previous stops at UTEP, Texas A&M, Kentucky, Texas Tech and Tarleton, Gillespie's team returns less than 5% of its scoring from last year and has been battling injuries this year.
The outmatched Texans (1-4) couldn't handle Baylor's smothering full-court press, which forced 17 first-half turnovers and held them to just 13 points on 29.4% shooting (5-of-17).
Conversely, Baylor shot a sizzling 67% overall and 9-of-13 from 3-point range in blowing out to a 56-13 lead.
Cal transfer Jalen Celestine, who led six Baylor players in double figures with 20 points, made all three of his attempts from distance in the first 20 minutes and joined freshman VJ Edgecombe with 13 points in matching the Texans' team total.
"I felt it from the start," said Celestine, who finished one point off his career high. "It's crazy, because going into the other three games, I wasn't missing in warm-ups and I couldn't hit anything (in those games). Today, I was just able to make some shots, and my teammates thankfully and selflessly kept giving me the ball and putting me in position to score. And then, I was fortunate enough to make some shots."
While the Bears struggled at the start of the second half, missing nine of their first 11 shots, Tarleton topped its first-half scoring barely eight minutes in.
"Second half, you're fighting human nature," Drew said. "We came out and lost the first media (timeout), 10-4. But after that, really the last 11 minutes, we played a lot better."
Edgecombe got his first dunk late in the first half off an alley-oop pass from Jeremy Roach, who finished with 14 points and five assists. But he didn't need an assist on the second one, stealing the ball and driving to the hole for a tomahawk dunk and missing the free throw for the potential three-point play.
"I'll be honest, I wasn't expecting him to run," Edgecombe said. "If he didn't run, I probably would have had a windmill, I guess. I don't even think I got up that high. But he was trailing, and I can't lay up the ball. I just got to go dunk everything. I try to dunk everything to scare them."
Freshman Rob Wright finished one assist shy of a double-double with 12 points and nine assists, while Jayden Nunn scored his 1,000th career point on the first of back-to-back 3-pointers and finished with 11 points. Josh Ojianwuna had 10 points and eight boards.
Joseph Martinez hit a couple late 3-pointers to finish as the Texans' lone double-figure scorer with 11 points.
As a team, the Bears had 15 steals, hit 15-of-32 3-pointers and held Tarleton State to just 38% shooting for the game.
Running its winning streak to three in a row, Baylor will go back on the road to face 22nd-ranked St. John's (4-0) at 6 p.m. CT Thursday at the Continental Tire Baha Mar Championship in the Bahamas.
