“When I usually get hot, I don’t miss,” said Maston, channeling his inner Yogi Berra with that line. “But it was really mostly because of (Manu Lecomte) and my teammates spacing the floor for me. So I just knocked down open shots.”

Baylor’s combination of latitude and longitude often had the Tigers lost on defense. The Bears’ frontcourt players present such problems for teams in the paint that it creates open-shot opportunities from the outside for BU’s guards. Baylor connected on 5-of-7 long-range bombs in the first half and 8-of-14 for the game, often on wide-open looks.

“They were a good team last year, but this year they counter everything you do,” Texas Southern coach Mike Davis said. “We came out in the second half and I think at one point we were shooting 60-something percent from the field and they were shooting 75. Every time we tried to force them to do something, they made the shot.”

Baylor led 7-6 after the first four minutes, then seized control with an 18-1 run over the next seven minutes. Again, the Bears kept the Tigers scrambling defensively, with shooters like Manu Lecomte and King McClure bombing away from downtown while Jo Lual-Acuil (14 points, 10 boards, 3 blocks) crashed the boards for tip-ins.