The Makai Mason Show: 3-point barrage by Baylor leads to 90-64 victory over TCU

Baylor senior guard Makai Mason couldn’t miss. Or at least it seemed that way.

Mason drained 3-pointers from the corner. From the wing. From NBA range. Heck, it didn’t matter if they were contested or not.

TCU couldn’t do anything to stop it. Or even slow it down.

Mason had a career night and Baylor thoroughly whipped TCU 90-64 on Saturday night at the Ferrell Center. Mason finished with a career-high 40 points on 14-of-20 shooting, including 9-of-12 from 3-point range.

“It was pretty fun,” said Mason, who made his first eight shots of the second half, including six 3-pointers.

“I was locked in. My teammates did a great job of finding me. Got some pretty easy looks just by penetration and kicks.”

Mason was on so much that his teammates joked about whether they even had to “crash the boards.” Freddie Gillespie recalled a conversation he had with Flo Thamba when he subbed in.

“I asked, ‘Are you still crashing the boards or no?” Gillespie said, laughing. “Then Flo said we’ve got to do it for film. Fair enough.”

Well, they got good film. Baylor dominated on the boards, winning the rebounding battle 40-26. The Bears also finished with 21 assists compared to TCU’s nine.

Baylor (15-6, 6-2 Big 12) showed why it’s the hottest team in the Big 12, winning its sixth straight.

TCU (15-6, 3-5 Big 12), meanwhile, fell to 0-5 on the road in Big 12 games. The Frogs have been on the wrong side of consecutive blowouts -- Texas Tech won by 19 on Monday, and Baylor won by 26 on Saturday.

The 26-point loss is the biggest loss this season for TCU, and the 90 points are the most its surrendered.

“We got hammered today, so there’s not a lot of things to feel good about,” TCU coach Jamie Dixon said. “It’s one loss. It’s a big margin, but it still counts as one and we’ve got to go win Wednesday against Oklahoma State.”

Baylor took a 9-8 lead on a jumper by Mario Kegler with 15:32 left in the first half, and stayed in front the rest of the way. The Bears led by as many as 11 in the opening half, courtesy of Mason’s 13 points in the opening half.

Baylor pulled away early in the second half. Mason opened by scoring the first seven points, including knocking down his fourth 3-pointer of the game with 18:05 left.

Mason then drained consecutive 3-pointers in a 31-second stretch to extend the Bears lead to 55-35 with 14:53 left. Mason didn’t hesitate throwing it up from anywhere on the court.

Asked about feeling that good with his shot, Mason said: “I don’t even really look at the 3-point line then, honestly. I’m just looking at the basket. It was just one of those nights.”

Baylor coach Scott Drew said Mason had an impressive shootaround session before the game. More important, Saturday is now Mason’s career night instead of the when the then-Yale guard dropped 31 points on Baylor during a first-round NCAA Tournament victory in 2016.

“Thank goodness,” Drew said, smiling. “My wife brings that up more than anyone else, so I’m happy.”

Mason acknowledged it is a “funny story” that he shot a No. 5-seeded Baylor team out of March Madness a few years ago and is now likely shooting Baylor into it.

Baylor finished 15-for-28 (53.6 percent) from 3-point range, and 55.6 percent from the field. The most 3-pointers an opponent had made against TCU was nine before Saturday. TCU finished just 4-for-14 from 3-point range.

TCU, believe it or not, entered with the Big 12’s best 3-point defense in league games, limiting opponents to just 28.8 percent. The Frogs went into the contest hoping to hold the Bears to five or fewer 3-pointers.

They fell short in that regard, as well as their desire to win the rebounding battle by 10. The offense failed to reach the 70-point mark for the fifth consecutive game, too.

Frogs junior guard Desmond Bane, one of the team’s leading scorers, isn’t overly concerned about the offense for now.

“I’m not worried about it,” Bane said. “We’ll get things back clicking Monday or Tuesday, got two days to prepare for Oklahoma State on Wednesday. That’s our focus.”

The focus and storyline Saturday was Mason and his first career 40-point game. He became Baylor’s first player to score 40 points in a conference game since 1985.

“Obviously it was their night, wasn’t ours,” Dixon said. “Start to finish.”

This story was originally published February 2, 2019 at 9:00 PM.