Baylor Basketball advances to title game with blowout win over Houston

New best half of defense for Baylor on the season

After the Villanova game, Baylor’s defense looked Pre-COVID esque. In their Elite Eight contest against Arkansas, the Bears’ three-point shooting came back. Both of the Pre-COVID aspects of the Bears returned against Houston.

To put it into perspective, only three Cougars scored in the first half. Sasser had 17 of those points. Outside of Sasser, only one Cougar made a field goal and the Cougars scored three points in the final six minutes.

UH shot just 7-26 in the first half. Part of the success came against Quentin Grimes. Grimes averaged 18 points per game and ranked sixth in the country, hitting 3.4 three-pointers per game.

Grimes was held scoreless in the first half and did not make a single three-pointer, until five minutes left in the game.

Even with the Cougars having significantly more success in the second half, it did not matter as Baylor found ways to never let Houston make shots from beyond the arc.

Baylor would wind the clock down and force Houston to make a shot in the paint late.

Houston is known for having an elite defense and has held teams to below 60 points per game. On Saturday, it was the Bears that came to play on that end of the floor.

Although Houston was able to get their offensive rebounds, it rarely ended up in a made three-pointer for the Cougars. Houston finished just six of 19 from beyond the arc and had just two players make a three-pointer. Five of them coming from Sasser.