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Baylor needed its defense to take over when its three-point shooting was ice cold.
The No. 1-seeded Bears forced six Villanova turnovers in a four-minute span midway through the second half in the middle of a 16-4 run to advance to the Elite Eight with a 62-51 win over the No. 5 Wildcats.
Villanova had a seven-point lead at halftime and maintained that lead for the first few minutes of the second half. Baylor’s defense clamped down and helped flip a 37-31 Villanova lead into a 47-41 Baylor advantage.
Davion Mitchell was a big part of that run. He had two steals that directly led to layups and finished with 14 points. The Bears outscored Villanova 23-10 over the final 10 minutes of the game.
Villanova got within 5 in the final five minutes but didn’t have enough offensive firepower to come any closer. The Wildcats finished the game with 16 turnovers to Baylor’s 6.
Baylor struggles from 3
Baylor entered the game as the best three-point shooting team in the country. And the Bears were absolutely terrible from behind the arc on Saturday.
Baylor was a crazy 3-of-19 from three. Adam Flagler was the only Baylor player with two threes — he had a team-high 15 points — and Jared Butler was 1-of-9 from deep.
Had Villanova shot the ball better from behind the arc the Wildcats might have been able to pull off the upset. But it’s hard to win an NCAA tournament game when you have 10 more turnovers than your opponent and make fewer than five threes.
The Wildcats were just 3-of-17 from behind the arc. Yes, the two teams combined to shoot a dreadful 6-of-36.
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