This time around, the Baylor Bears were able to bear down and finish their trip to New York City with a championship, all thanks to one of their cubs.
Baylor beat Iowa 74-54 before a crowd of 5,301 at the Garden Thursday night, winning the NIT Championship just four years after losing to Penn State on the same stage with the same stakes on the line.
“I’m proud of these guys,” Baylor head coach Scott Drew said. “In [2009] we were runners-up, we saw a team celebrate. [This team] will always be remembered.”
The championship marks the first time a Big 12 school has won the postseason NIT. It also marks the first-ever men’s basketball championship for the Bears.
Freshman center Isaiah Austin (15 points) proved to be the difference for the Bears, helping Baylor (23-14) dominate in the paint offensively, outscoring the Hawkeyes 36-18.
“His performances the past two games were how he played earlier [in the season],” Drew said. “Obviously we wouldn’t win without him. He was tremendous.”
Austin did not just score however. He filled the stat sheet by picking up a team-high nine rebounds, five blocks, four assists and two steals.
Bears senior guard Pierre Jackson and junior forward Cory Jefferson, the team’s second leading scorer, combined to score 14 points as Baylor turned a slim 28-27 lead to a 42-31 cushion that put the game out of reach for good.
“In the second-half [my teammates] were getting some good screens for me to get to the paint and I got to the right spots and knocked down some shots,” Jackson said.
Jefferson scored a game-high 23 points, and Jackson added another 17 for Baylor. Jackson also picked up his fourth straight double-double with 10 assists and was named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player.
“The bigger the stage, the bigger the moment, the better he performs,” Drew said.
Baylor was able to force the Hawkeyes (25-13) into poor shot selection. Iowa shot 18-of-69 from the field, including a paltry 5-of-24 from long range.
“I think we shot a few too many 3’s,” Iowa head coach Fran McCaffery said. “I thought they got up into us on the perimeter with their quickness and I think their length bothered us at the rim.”
Iowa guard Roy Devyn Marble looked as if he was going to pick up right where he left off on Tuesday night, when he scored 21 points in a 71-60 win over Maryland. Marble’s jumper gave Iowa a 2-0 lead, the only one it would have.
Marble finished with just six points, while Mike Gesell led the Hawkeyes with 13 points.