No. 2 Baylor routs Central Arkansas to stay undefeated

WACO, Texas (AP) — MaCio Teague scored 20 points on 9-of-13 shooting, preseason AP All-America guard Jared Butler had 17 points and No. 2 Baylor remained undefeated with another lopsided victory, 93-56 over Central Arkansas on Tuesday.

Jonathan Tchamwa-Tchatchoua finished with 13 points and 11 rebounds. Matthew Mayer also scored 13 points while Adam Flagler had 10 after missing the previous two games. Davion Mitchell had 12 assists and six rebounds.

Baylor (7-0), the only Big 12 team without a loss, returned from its weeklong Christmas break with its sixth win by at least 30 points this season. The Bears' closest game was a 13-point win over then-No. 5 Illinois on Dec. 2.

DeAndre Jones led Central Arkansas (1-7) with 19 points, including six 3-pointers. Eddy Kayouloud added 14 points.

Baylor went ahead to stay when Mitchell and Butler made 3-pointers on the Bears' first two shots in the first 36 seconds of the game.

Tchamwa-Tchatchoua had an alley-oop dunk on a pass from Mitchell to cap a 10-0 run that put Baylor up 30-15 midway through the first half. When Mitchell fed Tchamwa-Tchatchoua for another high-flying slam with about 13 1/2 minutes left, it was 68-35 and Central Arkansas was still without a point in the second half.

Central Arkansas missed its first 10 shots after halftime and shot 35% overall (21 of 60). The visiting Bears had 24 turnovers that led to 31 points for Baylor.

BIG PICTURE

Central Arkansas: The Bears were without leading scorer Rylan Bergersen (15.3 points per game), who didn't make the trip from Conway, Arkansas, because of an illness that wasn't COVID-19. ... They have played seven of their games on the road, with trips to SEC teams Arkansas, Ole Miss and Mississippi State before playing the Big 12 Bears.

Baylor: After the week off, and with another game tipping of about 21 hours after this one ended, the homestanding Bears had a solid performance without getting sloppy. They had only 10 turnovers, just two after halftime even when emptying the bench. ... Baylor has scored at least 80 points in seven consecutive games for the first time since 1994, and has seven double-digit wins in a row for the first time since December 2016.

BUNCH OF TREYS

Central Arkansas made 12 of 26 3-pointers (46.2%), and was only 9 of 34 (26.5%) inside the arc. Jones had 15 points by halftime, on five 3s. ... Baylor made half its shots overall (37 of 74), while connecting on 13 of 30 (43.3%) from long range. Butler made three 3s for Baylor while scoring all of his points in the first half.

UP NEXT

Central Arkansas plays its Southland Conference opener Saturday at McNeese State.

Baylor plays another afternoon game Wednesday against Alcorn State.

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