Stephen F. Austin
Baylor
SFA Falls At Baylor, 67-51
11/24/2014 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
WACO, Texas – Junior Jared Johnson recorded a season-high 16 points off the bench, but the Stephen F. Austin men’s basketball was unable to topple Baylor in a 67-51 loss on Monday night inside Ferrell Center.
Baylor (4-0) limited the Lumberjacks (1-3) to a season-low 33.3 mark (18-for-54) from the field and 19.2 percentage (5-for-26) from 3-point land.
The loss moves SFA to 1-3 on the season, the program’s worst start since the 1998-99 season when the team opened up 0-4.
Johnson paced the ‘Jacks, finishing 4-of-10 from the field, 2-of-5 from beyond the arc and 6-of-7 from behind the line. The native of Columbia, South Carolina, also pulled down five rebounds against the Bears (4-0).
SFA placed three players in double figures in all, as senior Jacob Parker and junior Thomas Walkup netted 10 and 11 points, respectfully. Parker finished with 4-of-9 from the field with one 3-pointer and one free throw, while Walkup finished 5-of 8 with a free throw. Parker also crashed the glass for eight boards.
The Bears led the SFA 30-24 in points in the paint, 13-8 off turnovers, 14-10 in second chance opportunities and 4-0 in fast break points and, while the ‘Jacks outscored Baylor 28-17 off the bench.
After Parker scored the first four points of the game, SFA suffered a scoring drought as the Bears went on a 12-0 run to take a 12-4 lead. The pointless streak lasted 5:43 before Walkup broke up converted a layup with 12:06 left before the half.
Walkup’s layup sparked a 14-6 run over the next 4:32 to tie the game 18-18, before both teams traded 1-for-2 showings from the charity stipe to make it 19-all. The tied didn’t last long however, as Baylor closed the half on a 14-3 run to take a 33-22 lead into the break.
The ‘Jacks were able to cut the Bear lead to 10 points on five different occasions, but were never able to push it below double figures, as Baylor outscored SFA 34-29 in the second half to take the 67-51 final.
The ‘Jacks will be back in action on Thursday, Nov. 27, playing Prairie View A&M in the 2014 Continental Tire Las Vegas Invitational.
Postgame Quotes
SFA Head Coach Brad Underwood
Underwood opening statement…
“Royce O’Neale show. Wow was he special. It was the one matchup coming into the game that we really challenged our guys with, and obviously we know the outcome. Give him a tremendous amount of credit, he stands for everything that’s good about college basketball in terms of his effort. There was a play in the game where he ran from one wing and got a rebound on the other side. We worked two days on nothing but trying to block him out and then we get into a game and had tremendous slippage. I thought Taurean Prince came in and impacted the game, a young man who hadn’t been playing great for them but was very impactful. Too many mistakes by us, unforced turnovers. It seems like we get a little bit of momentum going and just do something silly, do something that was really out of character. I didn’t like our fire tonight, we had very little passion, way too many mistakes, we tried very hard to bother Kenny Chery, he’s a very talented player, and yet right there at the end of the first half we blow three ball-screen coverages that we spend a lot of time on. Baylor’s a very good basketball team, extremely well-coached team, and in my opinion a team that has a great player in Royce O’Neale and very solid guard play.”
Underwood on dictating tempo in the first half…
“I think we had three possessions in a row where we turned the ball over right at the end of the first half. We were very scared and concerned about transition. They (Baylor) have multiple guys who can bring the ball up in transition, and Chery and Medford get out and leak, and what happens a lot of time with that is you get cross-matched, and we did a great job of that for the most part. It was more of the offensive end, just breakdowns, not executing. Obviously you saw we’re not an extremely big team. Having played against Scott’s teams for years back at Kansas State, everyone has length, their length bothered us, and I made a comment to one of our coaches that I thought (Baylor) might set a world record for most blocked jump shots in a college basketball game. That’s a tribute to their length, and that’s why they play it, and they’re very effective with it.”
Underwood on if Royce was the guy circled to contain…
“Absolutely. I think there’s two things I look for in scouting once you get beyond the stats and so on: guys that are extremely passionate and high-motor that affect the game. I think he was 1-of-8 from the 3 coming into the game, yet he has had such a big impact on all of their games. When you find passion and energy, you’ve got a special player, because usually what happens, the other kids will follow, very much the case. We were very conscientious of trying to make Chery go left. He’s had one field goal going left all year. All his other ones are right, so we tried to handle ball screen action that way, but we had substitutions and blew three straight coverages with both he and Medford. We just faced a very good Xavier team, and he’s the best player we’ve seen to this point in terms of impacting the game in so many ways.”
Underwood on Scott Drew thinking SFA will win 25-plus…
“Have you seen our schedule? We’ve got two really good players, and we’re still looking for defensive chemistry, that’s something that I’ve just been visiting with the team about. We can’t make mistakes. We have to make teams score over our defense and through our defense, and yet we’ve got too many mistakes being made right now. We’ve got a challenging schedule, and Thomas Walkup and Jacob Parker are terrific young men, and Trey Pinkney for that matter, all those guys have had a lot of success. We’ll be fine, we’re going to be a good basketball team, it’s just fitting a few pieces in and getting a little bit more consistency from our new guys.”
-SFA-
