Postseason Begins Today
March 12, 2015 09:37 AM | General
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(23-8)
(23-8)KANSAS CITY – West Virginia opens postseason play with today’s Phillips 66 Big 12 Championship quarterfinal round game against Baylor at the Sprint Center in Kansas City.
Baylor earned the fourth seed in this year’s tournament with an 11-7 conference record that includes a pair of wins over West Virginia this season.
Baylor (23-8) jumped on West Virginia early and ran away with an 87-69 victory over the Mountaineers in Morgantown back on February 7, and three weeks later, the Bears once again used a fast start to beat the Mountaineers by 12 in Waco.
Rico Gathers, Taurean Prince and Royce O’Neale were effective in both games, Gathers scoring a combined 34 points and grabbing 27 rebounds, Prince scoring 35 coming off the bench and O’Neale contributing 33 in both games.
Freshman Jevon Carter stepped in for injured guard Gary Browne to score 25 points in the loss in Waco while Devin Williams led the way in the first game with 20 points and 15 rebounds.
However, despite Baylor’s comfortable winning margins, both teams were fairly close in most statistical areas except for one – free throws. There was a wide disparity in free throws in both games, Baylor making 22 of 33 compared to West Virginia’s 8 of 12 in Waco, and the Bears outshooting the Mountaineers 25-15 at the line in the win in Morgantown.
West Virginia was whistled for 47 total fouls in both games, sending Baylor to the free throw line 68 times. Baylor, on the other hand, was cited for 10 fewer infractions, sending the Mountaineers to the line for 37 attempts.
Heading into the Big 12 Championships, Baylor leads the conference in scoring margin (+9.7), 3-point field goal shooting (38.7), scoring defense (60.0 ppg.), 3-point field goal defense (29.8), rebounding margin (+8.5) and offensive rebound percentage (42.8).
West Virginia (23-8) leads the Big 12 in turnover margin (+6.9), offensive rebounding (17.0) and steals (11.1).
Prince ranks seventh in the conference in scoring with an average of 14 points per game while Gathers is 12th averaging 11.6 points per game. Gathers is also the league’s top rebounder with an average of 11.7 boards per game.
Juwan Staten ranks fifth in scoring with and average of 14.5 points per game but he was dressed in street clothes for yesterday’s shoot-around and is listed as doubtful for today’s game.
Williams is averaging 11.1 points per game and is second to Gathers among the Big 12’s top rebounders with an average of 8.2 boards per game.
Last year, Baylor reached the championship game where the Bears lost to Iowa State, 74-65.
West Virginia is making its third Big 12 tournament appearance and is still seeking its first victory in the tournament. Last year the Mountaineers were defeated by Texas, 66-49, and two years ago they lost to Texas Tech, 71-69, in an opening-night game.
Both teams are locks to qualify for this year’s NCAA tournament.
The Baylor-West Virginia game is the first of four games today at the Sprint Center. Top-seeded Kansas will play TCU at 2:30 p.m. ET, No. 2-seeded Iowa State will play Texas in the first game of the second session at 7 p.m. ET while No. 3-seeded Oklahoma will play No. 6-seed Oklahoma State at 9 p.m. ET.
The two early-session games will be televised nationally on ESPN2 while the night-session games will be televised on ESPNU.
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