Any notion South Carolina State might have had of pulling off a big upset went away during one bad stretch.
The Bulldogs had seven turnovers while missing all five shots in the first 7 minutes of the second half, when ninth-ranked Baylor took control on the way to a 70-50 victory Tuesday night.
''The second half, they started applying pressure on us. We had six straight possessions where we got nothing out of the possession,'' Bulldogs coach Tim Carter said. ''They had six straight possessions, I believe they scored, and there's the ballgame. We never recovered from that.''
Anthony Jones opened the second half with consecutive 3-pointers, one from the right side in front of his teammates on the bench and then one from the left side, and the Bears scored the first 14 points of the second half.
That was after Baylor scored the last five points in the final minute of the first half to break the final tie.
''If you're the ninth-ranked team in the country, that's what you're supposed to do,'' Carter said. ''You're supposed to come back out after halftime and you're supposed to do what they did. And that's what a good team does.''
After the 3s by Jones, who went on to finish with a career-high 21 points, Brady Heslip also hit a pair of 3-pointers before a turnaround jumper by Quincy Miller gave Baylor a 47-28 lead.
''We needed a spark. We weren't making shots early and came out kind of sluggish,'' Jones said. ''At halftime, we were kind of down on ourselves by how we played in the first half. We felt like it was important to come out and play our basketball, the way we've been playing all season.''
Brandon Riley scored 13 points to lead South Carolina State (2-2), but also had nine turnovers. Khalif Toombs added 12 points.
South Carolina State had seven turnovers, six by Riley, before Toombs grabbed a defensive rebound and then scored with 13:08 left.
The Bulldogs closed the gap to 54-38 on a 3-pointer by Riley with 7 1/2 minutes left that capped an 11-2 run in which Toombs had two 3-pointers before Baylor coach Scott Drew called timeout.
With another game in less than 24 hours, Drew kept rotating players. This game didn't start until after 9 p.m. local time because it was part of a doubleheader and followed the top-ranked Lady Bears' 109-59 victory over Yale.
The game was tied 28-all after Omar Sanders had a tip-in for South Carolina State with 1:18 left in the first half. Sanders finished with 10 points and 10 rebounds.
''It was just slow and sluggish,'' Quincy Acy said of the Bears' play up to that point. ''We've got to work on that as a team. When it's like that, somebody has to do something to get a spark. Ant Jones came out with the buckets.''
Acy's jumper with a minute left in the first half put the Bears ahead to stay, and they were up 33-28 after A.J. Walton's tip-in just before the buzzer.
Jones was 9-of-14 shooting and had three 3-pointers. Pierre Jackson added 11 points for Baylor, which plays at home again Wednesday night.
When Carter was still at Florida State, he tried to recruit Jones.
''He hit a career high? Jiminy,'' Carter said, exaggerating that last word. ''Big-time player. Big-time shooter. If he keeps his head on straight, he has a chance to make a career, make some money. That's what it looks like to me.''
