GAMEDAY Mens Basketball
Baylor 74, UC Santa Barbara 56
By ARNIE STAPLETON
AP Sports Writer
DENVER - Caleb Lohner scored a season-best 13 points in just 18 minutes, and No. 3 seed Baylor beat UC Santa Barbara 74-56 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
Adam Flagler led the Bears with 18 points, and LJ Cryer scored 11 of his 15 points in the second half.
Baylor (23-10) overcame a one-point halftime deficit to advance to play the Creighton-North Carolina State winner on in the South Region.
Lohner's only other double-digit performance since transferring from BYU to Baylor for this season came back in November when he scored 11 against Virginia.
The Gauchos (27-8) looked like easy pickings for the Bears in the opening minutes before they used a 13-1 run to take a 26-22 lead.
The Gauchos led the Mountain West Conference with a .493 shooting percentage and that sharpshooting carried over to Ball Arena, where they shot 61.5% in the first half to take a 36-35 lead into the locker room.
That all went away after halftime, however. The Gauchos were held to 30.4% shooting in the second half and the Bears pulled away.
Miles Norris led the Gauchos with 15 points. Ajay Mitchell added 13.
BIG PICTURE
UC Santa Barbara: The Gauchos are a program on the rise. They won their second Big West championship in three seasons. They are 132-53 since 2017-18.
Baylor: The Bears have a long history of March Madness maladies. But they avoided the same fate as their 2014-15 squad that lost as a third seed to 14th-seeded Georgia State 57-56. The following season, they lost to 12th-seeded Yale 79-75. And last year they fell to eighth-seeded North Carolina 93-86 in overtime in the second round as a No. 1 seed.
March 17, 2023
| UC Santa Barbara | ||||||||||||
| Player | Pos | Min | FG-FGA | FT-FTA | 3P-3PA | OR-TR | Ast | Blk | Stl | TO | PF | Pts |
| M. Norris | F | 34 | 6-8 | 1-2 | 2-4 | 1-4 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 15 |
| A. Kelly | F | 27 | 2-3 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 1-7 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 4 |
| A. Mitchell | G | 38 | 5-12 | 3-4 | 0-2 | 0-2 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 13 |
| C. Wishart | G | 32 | 2-6 | 0-0 | 1-4 | 0-3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 2 | 5 |
| J. Pierre-Louis | G | 27 | 2-6 | 0-0 | 1-2 | 0-1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 5 |
| C. Anderson | 21 | 2-7 | 1-2 | 0-3 | 1-2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 5 | |
| E. Kipruto | 12 | 2-3 | 1-1 | 0-0 | 0-2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 5 | |
| M. Belic | 6 | 2-3 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | |
| J. Kukic | 1 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| A. Sanni | 1 | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Totals | 199 | 23-49 (.469) |
6-9 (.667) |
4-16 (.250) |
4-23 | 12 | 1 | 3 | 14 | 15 | 56 | |
| Baylor | ||||||||||||
| Player | Pos | Min | FG-FGA | FT-FTA | 3P-3PA | OR-TR | Ast | Blk | Stl | TO | PF | Pts |
| J. Bridges | F | 22 | 4-5 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 8 |
| F. Thamba | F | 10 | 0-1 | 1-2 | 0-0 | 1-2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| A. Flagler | G | 37 | 7-10 | 1-2 | 3-5 | 0-1 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 18 |
| L. Cryer | G | 29 | 6-13 | 2-2 | 1-6 | 0-0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 15 |
| K. George | G | 25 | 2-9 | 4-6 | 1-7 | 0-3 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 9 |
| D. Bonner | 22 | 2-2 | 0-0 | 2-2 | 0-0 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 6 | |
| C. Lohner | 18 | 5-5 | 2-2 | 1-1 | 1-5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 13 | |
| J. Tchamwa Tchatchoua | 17 | 2-3 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 3-9 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 4 | |
| J. Ojianwuna | 12 | 0-2 | 0-2 | 0-0 | 1-3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 0 | |
| L. Love | 5 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 1-1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | |
| Z. Loveday | 1 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| A. Sacks | 1 | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| J. Turner | 1 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Totals | 200 | 28-51 (.549) |
10-16 (.625) |
8-22 (.364) |
7-29 | 14 | 1 | 5 | 9 | 13 | 74 | |
