Baylor tops Southern in men’s hoops

(AP) — Southern University was coming off a loss at No. 1 Arizona, and had already played two other ranked teams before getting to No. 12 Baylor.
Isaiah Austin had 14 points to lead five Bears scoring in double figures in an 81-65 victory Sunday, after the Jaguars held their other three Top 25 opponents in the 60s.
“They are probably just as good as some of the Top 20 teams that we’ve played. I think any given night, they can step on the floor and win,” Southern coach Roman Banks said. “Those three bigs that they rotate keep the pressure on you. If you can’t match that length and intensity, it’s pretty hard on you.”
Austin had 10 rebounds, the first double-double this season for the 7-foot-1 center. Brady Heslip had 13 points, while big men Cory Jefferson and Rico Gathers both had 12, and Kenny Chery 10.
“They’ve got a couple of guys that can really shoot the basketball,” Banks said. “Probably on the wing, some of the other teams that we played go probably 6-6 or 6-8. But other than that, with the length on the inside, they probably have three better 5 or 4 men that we’ve played.”
The Jaguars, who made it to the NCAA tournament last season as the Southwestern Athletic Conference tournament champions, lost 69-43 at Arizona on Thursday night. The Jaguars opened the season with a loss at then-No. 17 Marquette and also lost at No. 16 Florida.
Tre Lynch had 27 points, including five 3-pointers, to lead Southern (3-9), which shot only 34 percent from the field (18 of 53) and was outrebounded 39-27.
YonDarius Johnson and Calvin Godfrey entered the game as Southern’s top scorers, the seniors averaging 12.6 and 12.4 points per game, respectively. Johnson scored two points in his 19 minutes while Godfrey was scoreless, going 0 for 4 in 20 minutes while dealing with foul trouble throughout the game.
“We played a team that pays close attention to detail and knows that those guys are shooters. They didn’t give them any space and challenged those guys,” Banks said. “The teams that we’ve been playing, if they’re not coming off screens, they’re going to have to do some other things. Rebound, get offense, get themselves in a rhythm. Tonight, they weren’t able to do that. That’s going to help us down the line because I don’t know if we’ll be guarded like that all the time.”