TEXAS, Sporting Alert – Latest college basketball scores from top 25 games on Tuesday, December 29.
NO. 23 BAYLOR 72, TEXAS SOUTHERN 59
WACO, Texas — Al Freeman scored 21 points and Rico Gathers grabbed a double-double to guide No. 23 Baylor to a 72-59 victory over Texas Southern in college basketball action on Tuesday.
Freeman, who shot 8 of 17 from the floor, including 4 of 8 from 3-pointers, ignited a 10-0 run that helped the Bears (10-2) finally pull away from the visitors. He also had five rebounds.
“One of the things coach told us was not to get frustrated if it was a close game,” Freeman said. “Don’t go into the game just expecting to blow these guys out, because they’ve got shotmakers and they play hard.
“… We just wanted to play hard and take it possession by possession, stop by stop.”
Terry Maston added 14 points, Lester Medford had 12 points, six assists and two steals and Gathers finished with 11 points, 10 boards, three blocks and three steals for Baylor, which shot 52.9 percent from 3-point range and improved to 9-0 at home.
The Bears have won nine of the last 10 games.
Malcolm Riley led Texas Southern with 18 points, but was the only Tigers (1-11) in the double digits in the defeat.
Texas Southern dropped its last seven games, but head coach Mike Davis liked the effort of his team on Tuesday, despite not getting anything from it.
“I liked our effort. We talked about giving a great effort to get ready for our conference play,” Davis said. “I’ll take this loss on me because we’ve been working so hard on zone offense on the Christmas break because we knew we played Syracuse and Baylor.
“When (Baylor) went to the man, it changed the rhythm of the game. We weren’t sure, we weren’t patient. I want to see us get better.”
The Bears opened its Big 12 conference play at No. 2 Kansas on Saturday, while Texas Southern opens its Southwestern Athletic Conference play against Southern University at home this weekend as well.
NO. 17 SMU 81, TULSA 69
Shake Milton scored 24 points and Nic Moore added 23 and No. 17 SMU cruised to an 81-69 victory over Tulsa in a college basketball top 25 fixture and an American conference opener for both teams on Tuesday.
The Mustangs (12-0) who remain undefeated this season, shot 56.4 percent from the field on 31 of 55 shooting, while going 10 of 15 from 3-point range for 66.7 percent.
Ben Moore collected a double-double of 11 points and 10 rebounds to going with two blocks for the SMU.
James Woodard paced Tulsa with 22 points, Shaquille Harrison added 15 points, eight rebounds and five assists and D’Andre Wright ended with 14 points and six boards for the Golden Hurricane (8-5) who shot 44.1 percent.
College Basketball Scores
Tuesday, 29, 2015
No. 13 MIAMI 76, PRINCETON 64
N0. 14 PURDUE 61, WISCONSIN 55
NO. 17 SMU 81, TULSA 69
NO. 23 BAYLOR 72, TEXAS SOUTHERN 59
TEMPLE 77, NO. 22 CINCINNATI 70
