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Gathers, No. 22 Baylor rout Stephen F Austin 97-55 in opener
WACO, Texas (AP) Rico Gathers scored 18 points, Lester Medford had 13 points and nine assists, and No. 22 Baylor opened with a 97-55 rout of Stephen F. Austin on Friday night.
It was by far the worst loss in three seasons for Lumberbacks coach Brad Underwood, who set an NCAA record with 61 wins in his first two seasons as a head coach. That included the school's first NCAA Tournament win in 2014.
Gathers was 8 of 9 from the field and Baylor shot 64 percent to just 33 percent for SFA in a matchup of schools coming off back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances for the first time in school history.
Thomas Walkup, Demetrious Floyd and TJ Holyfield had 12 points apiece for the Lumberjacks.
Each of the schools lost its postseason opener last March, and it was a particularly painful one for Baylor.
The Bears were a No. 3 seed and leading by 12 points with under 3 minutes left when Georgia State scored the last 13 points, including R.J. Hunter's 3-pointer with 2.7 seconds left that prompted his father, and coach, to fall out of his chair on the sideline.
Baylor has been anxious to get going again, and showed it by dominating a game that looked as if it could be competitive with both teams returning plenty of scoring from a season ago.
The Bears had six players in double figures. The others were Johnathon Motley (12), Al Freeman (11), King McClure (11) and Taurean Prince (10). McClure was 3 of 4 from 3-point range as Baylor shot 56 percent from behind the arc.
For everything Underwood has done at SFA, he still hasn't beaten a Big 12 team. And the margins have been progressively wider.
After a 72-62 loss to Texas that was one of just three in the 2013-14 season, the Lumberjacks gave up a 14-0 run in the first half of a 67-51 loss to the Bears last season.
This time, SFA never recovered from a 17-2 Baylor spurt late in the first half, started by five straight points from Gathers, who also had seven rebounds. Underwood's previous worst loss was 81-63 to Xavier early last season.
And just like a year ago, shooting was a letdown for the Lumberjacks, who made just five of 26 3-point attempts last November against Baylor and five of 23 in the rematch.
Ishmail Wainwright had eight points and nine rebounds for Baylor.
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