Baylor dominates Creighton,85-55

SAN ANTONIO -- Too big. Too strong. Too fast.

Baylor was too much of just about everything for Creighton and Doug McDermott to handle.

And because of it, the sixth-seeded Bears are rolling out of Texas toward California and the NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 after an impressive 85-55 win last night in the West Regional.

Isaiah Austin and Brady Heslip each scored 17 points and Baylor used suffocating defense to shut down McDermott, ending the career of one of college basketball's most prolific scorers. "We did a good job making it tough on him," said Bears coach Scott Drew, whose team will play second-seeded Wisconsin on Thursday in Anaheim.

McDermott, who averaged 27 points this season, finished with 15 but had only three in the first half as Baylor built a 20-point lead. McDermott ranks fifth on the NCAA career scoring list with 3,150 points.

Baylor (26-11) had five players score in double figures and shot 64 percent. The rest of the West bracket might want to pay attention to this one. A team that looked like a wreck six weeks ago with a 2-8 start in the Big 12 is brimming with confidence to match all that muscle. "We take pride in people hating on us, and we love proving people wrong," Austin said. "Everybody has bought into the one goal that we have in mind, and that is winning a national championship."

McDermott had carried the Bluejays back to the round of 32 for the third year in a row and had done it in spectacular style, leading the nation in scoring with a sublime shooting touch and uncanny knack to slither his way through defenders for layups and putback baskets.

But Baylor's defense gave him nothing: neither space to shoot nor even chances for his teammates to pass him the ball.

And for all the talk about Creighton's maturity and bonding, Baylor made the Bluejays look small and slow. Said McDermott, "This is the worst we've played all season, and it just stinks that it's the last one. But that doesn't take away from all my memories here. It's tough to go out this way."

Baylor came out blazing from long range, knocking down five three-pointers in the first seven minutes. By the time the Bears built a 20-point halftime lead, McDermott had taken only three shots, made one and had two fouls. "We knew we had them on their heels," Austin said. "We wanted to step on their throat."

When McDermott left the game with 2:31 to play, he hugged his father, Creighton coach Greg McDermott, before retreating to the bench and burying his face in a towel. "I'm not sure it was Baylor being that good or us being that bad," Greg McDermott said. "Over the course of the season you're going to have a few clunkers. We had one at the wrong time."