Daily Bears Report 11/24 - Happy Thanksgiving!

Today’s Events

• Turkey, All Day
• Men's Basketball, vs Michigan State, 11:00 AM, CT

Football Senior Day Re-Visited

Volleyball

Baylor volleyball (21-10, 9-6 Big 12) saw a 2-1 lead slip away, falling to the Iowa State Cyclones (17-10, 9-6 Big 12), 25-27, 25-14, 25-22, 11-25, 9-15, on Wednesday evening in the Ferrell Center. From Baylor Bears dot com.

The BU offense was paced by Katie Staiger, with the redshirt junior logging 32 kills to break the Baylor record for single-season kills.

With her 11th kill in the match, Staiger topped Elisha Polk’s program record for kills in a season (620, 1998), now holding the top spot with 642 kills and counting this year.

In set one, the Bears let a late lead at 23-21 slip away, with the Cyclones closing out the frame on a 6-2 run to steal the 1-0 match lead.

In the second, BU bounced back in a big way, tying the match at 1-1 with a 25-14 win, holding ISU to a .081 hitting clip while the Bears hit .387.

In the third, Baylor took a 25-22 set win, taking a 2-1 lead in the match.

The Cyclones took control in the fourth and fifth, hitting .583 and .588 to take the final two sets and the match.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Katie Staiger (32 kills) set a new season and career-high in kills, posting the fourth-highest match kill total in program history.

• Staiger (642) passed Stevie Nicholas (613, 2000) and Elisha Polk (613, 1997 and 620, 1998) to set a new Baylor record for the most kills in a single-season.

• Nicole Thomas (7 blocks) set a new season and career-high in blocks.

“Very frustrating loss. It was frustrating for me, personally, because the team didn’t reflect some of the core values from training that have been important to us all year. It’s ultimately on me in making sure they’re doing that, inspiring them to do that, motivating them to do that. Sometimes you could just see looks on faces where we weren’t ready to battle. We’ve only been good this year because we showed up ready to battle, and know the outcome, we can’t control. Tonight we didn’t battle like we know how to and we were disappointed with the outcome.” – Baylor head coach Ryan McGuyre.

Baylor closes the regular season, hosting Kansas for Senior Night on Saturday, Nov. 26 at 1 p.m. in the Ferrell Center.

Happy thanksgiving

Men’s Basketball

The Bears take on Michigan State in about 10 minutes. Kendall has that Our Daily Bears Preview and Game thread here.

Yesterday’s Action

PARADISE ISLAND, Bahamas (AP) Al Freeman scored 15 points and came up with three baskets during a critical second-half sequence to help No. 20 Baylor beat VCU 71-63 on Wednesday in the opening round of the Battle 4 Atlantis. From Baylor Bears dot com.

Jonathan Motley scored a team-high 19 points before fouling out for the Bears (4-0). In addition, Manu Lecomte shook off a rough shooting game to finish with 16 points, including a hanging layup while being knocked to the ground for a three-point play to go with several key free throws in the final minute.

JeQuan Lewis had 21 points for the Rams (3-1), who went without a basket for roughly 6 1/2 minutes during the second half.

VCU used a late-half burst to lead 36-28 at the break and shot 58 percent in the opening half, but it cooled in the second half as the Bears' defense tightened.

BIG PICTURE

VCU: The Rams just couldn't find someone to step up and make a big basket as the empty possessions mounted during the critical second-half stretch. That included a run of six straight misses with a few turnovers during that field-goal drought.

Baylor: Coach Scott Drew could at least feel good about his team's toughness to grind this one out after trailing through the first 9 minutes of the second half.

UP NEXT

VCU: The Rams will play the loser of the St. John's-Michigan State game Thursday on Day 2 of the three-day tournament.

Baylor: The Bears will play the St. John's-Michigan State winner Thursday in the winner's bracket semifinals.

Postgame

Football

No, not third down again.

During home games at McLane Stadium, public address announcer Derek Smith adds a bit of resounding bass to his voice for one certain moment. From WacoTrib’s Brice Cherry.

“It’s third dowwwwwwwn,” Smith says, whenever Baylor’s opponent finds itself in that particular situation.

Throughout the season, though, Baylor’s defense has not exactly proven menacing in third-down situations. They’ve mirrored a traffic light — sometimes they’ll flash red and force a stop. But just as often, if you catch them at the right time, teams will see green and speed right through their intersection.

After its 42-21 home loss to Kansas State, Baylor ranks 95th nationally among 128 FBS teams in third-down defense, allowing opponents to convert nearly 43 percent of the time. The Wildcats hit on 7 of 14 third-down plays against the Bears, in the process extending several scoring drives.

Nobody wants to rank 95th in the country in any category, and the fact that they’ve put themselves in this position rankles the BU defenders.

“You’ve got to have a killer instinct,” safety Patrick Levels said. “When it’s third down, that’s the time where either you’re going to let them get a first down and let them continue to drive, which is not good for the defense, or put it all in right here on this third down and get this stop, give the offense a chance to go down and get in the end zone.”