KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Pig Johnson had 19 points, Andrij Grbovic scored 14 and No. 12 seed Arizona State turned away a second-half run by Baylor for an 83-79 victory over the No. 13 seed Bears in the first round of the Big 12 Tournament on Tuesday.
Santiago Trouet added 13 points and nine rebounds, Noah Meeusen scored 12 points and Massamba Diop had 11 for the Sun Devils (17-15), who advanced to play fifth-seeded Iowa State in the second round on Wednesday.
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Cameron Carr led all scorers with 25 points and Isaac Williams IV had 15 before fouling out for the Bears (16-16), who are staring at their first non-winning season since 2006-07. Tounde Yessoufou also had 14 points but was 0 for 5 from 3-point range.
Every indication is that Arizona State intends to move on from coach Bobby Hurley after this season, when his contract is up. But his team apparently has every intention of pushing off that coaching change as long as possible.
After a couple of late-season wins over Utah and No. 14 Kansas, the Sun Devils jumped ahead early on Baylor, which beat them just a couple of weeks ago in Waco, Texas. They built a double-digit lead midway through the first half and led 44-35 at the break.
Baylor trailed by as many as 15 in the second half before it began to chip away at its deficit, at one point scoring on nine consecutive trips down the floor. By the time Diop accidentally tipped Dan Skillings Jr.’s miss into his own bucket, the Bears closed to within 67-64 with 6:01 remaining in the game.
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Trouet answered at the other end for Arizona State, though, and Williams fouled out moments later on a drive to the basket. The Sun Devils promptly ran off eight consecutive points, building a lead they could take to the finish.
Up next
Arizona State has quick turnaround before playing the Cyclones in the second round.
Baylor will miss out on the NCAA Tournament for the first time in seven editions.
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