It might've been an exhibition game, but Baylor basketball showed its mettle early and proved the Bears could be a force this season. Going up against a top-five Florida Gators team, we didn't know what to expect from Scott Drew's team.
Despite a sloppy first half that found Baylor trailing by three, the Bears got their offense rolling the second half. Florida guard Boogie Fland would hit a three to tie the game and send it to overtime, but the Bears weren't going to be denied in Jacksonville.
Baylor fought and clawed its way to an impressive 82-76 win over the Gators. Here are three takeaways from the game.
Isaac Williams/Kayden Mingo were bucket-getters
It was Cameron Carr and Tounde Yessoufou last season. While it's an extremely small sample size, the scoring duo might be Kayden Mingo and Isaac Williams this season. The Penn State transfer led all scorers, scoring 31 points, while knocking down 11-of-15 free throw attempts.
Mingo only made two three-pointers, but he did his work driving the lane and making contested jumpers. His eight rebounds can't go without notice, too.
Isaac Williams was second on the team, scoring 17 points. He made 3-of-4 three-pointers and was active on the offensive side of the court. Florida should be among the better defensive teams this season, and what Baylor did against the Gators was quite impressive.
Concerns on the boards
One of our storylines heading into the game was how Baylor's bigs would handle the Gators. Florida has one of the top frontcourts in the country and has the size to compete. The Bears opted to start freshman Elijah Williams at the '4' to give them some spacing alongside Juslin Bodo Bodo.
But Baylor was outmanned on the boards. The final number was Florida 46-41, but that's largely because of the Bears' rebounding numbers in overtime. The Gators, for most of the game, dominated the glass.
Florida also had 26 offensive rebounds. That's going to be an area that we need to see improvement from when the season begins. But, it's not like Baylor is going to see Florida every game — or again.
Bench scoring was the difference
Starters Brett Decker Jr. (three points) and Elijah Williams (two points) did very little scoring for Baylor. But that's okay when you have Isaac Williams coming off the bench, along with other contributors. Isaac Celiscar scored seven points, Evan Chatman had six points, and Maikcol Perez scored five.
The key difference was bench scoring between the two schools. Baylor's bench out-scored the Gators' bench 33-3. Florida's bench went a combined 1-for-14 from the field and that shows how dominant the Bears' defense was.
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