Baylor Basketball: Bears win Battle 4 Atlantis with stunning 2nd half rally versus Louisville

Baylor basketball trailed by as many as 22 points, but stormed back to win the Battle 4 Atlantis against Louisville.

If you had any doubts about the Baylor Bears, they were crushed this week in the Bahamas.

The Bears won the Battle 4 Atlantis after rallying down as many as 22 points against the Louisville Cardinals in the championship on Friday afternoon at Imperial Arena. Their 66-63 win over the Cardinals was their third top-25 win of the season and was their sixth victory of the year.

Johnathan Motley led the Bears with 15 points and six rebounds, while King McClure and Terry Maston scored in double figures off the bench.

“We’ve said, we believe in our bench,” Baylor head coach Scott Drew said after the victory. “And it really came through and gave us a huge lift tonight. King (McClure) he got us going with that spurt.”

It was a tale of two halves for Baylor.

In the first half, the Bears had difficulty against Louisville’s length, pressure and defensive prowess. They fell behind by as many as 22 points, didn’t hit a single three and had six turnovers to Louisville’s one.

Things changed drastically in the second frame, as the Bears started carving up Louisville’s defense. Drew’s team shot 65 percent from the field, received 25 combined points from McClure and Maston and scored nine points off turnovers. They also packed it in defensively, forcing Louisville to take uncomfortable outside shots.

Louisville also had six turnovers in the second half, including two on consecutive possessions that led to Jake Lindsey layups on the other end.

Rick Pitino, who is down two scholarship players due to the recent escort scandal, attributed their blown lead and poor second half play to “fatigue.”

“We could not have played better basketball than we did in the first half. That was a spectacular display,” Pitino said postgame. “In the second half, seven straight times in a row we were in the wrong defense, running down and we gave up easy baskets. And that’s a sign of fatigue from three days, mentally and physically…We were literally walking around.

“This loss is all me, not the players. It’s all me. There’s no way you can play three days in a row and have Donovan (Mitchell) play 36 and 34 (minutes). The reason they are in the wrong defense is because they’re tired.”

But this hasn’t been the first time this tournament that Baylor has completely flipped the game in the second half. In their first game against VCU, they trailed by eight at the break before pulling out a victory. They were neck-and-neck with Michigan State in the semifinals before overpowering them on the glass and in the paint in the second 20 minutes.

The Bears are a veteran-laden team who play their best basketball when it matters most. And that’s bad news for the rest of the Big 12 — other than Kansas of course. Iowa State has looked impressive early this season, but very few teams can match the Bears’ early season resume.

Baylor crushed a top-10 Oregon team on their home court, they beat a ranked Spartans team and somehow pulled out a shocking win over Louisville. If that doesn’t move the needle then I don’t know what does.

On Monday, Drew’s squad is likely to move up into the top-10. Right now, the Bears are clearly the second best team in the Big Ten.

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When Motley is on, he’s terrific, but the Bears also have depth, toughness, size, shooting and versatility. And they have a chance to show off their team against a highly ranked opponent one more time before Big 12 Conference play when they play Xavier at the beginning of next month.

For Louisville, this loss certainly hurts. They didn’t play a very good game against Old Dominion to start the tournament and were very disappointing in the second half of the championship. They struggle to shoot the ball from the perimeter and must play an up-tempo pace in order to score consistent baskets.

Obviously, that doesn’t bode well for a team that is down two scholarships and isn’t particularly deep.

But if Louisville has one thing going for them, it’s their defense. Regardless of the second half, the Cardinals have an elite defense that they can hang their hat on. It’s not at full form in November, but it’s going to be hard to score on them in a couple months when they are getting more rest.

Next: Five reasons why Kansas will win it all

The Cardinals are good right now, but the Bears are even better. The Big 12 better watch out for Motley and company.

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Baylor Basketball: Bears win Battle 4 Atlantis with stunning second half rally versus Louisville

By Carmine Carcieri | Nov 25, 2016

Baylor basketball trailed by as many as 22 points, but stormed back to win the Battle 4 Atlantis against Louisville.

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