Perhaps the next matchup on Jan. 21 will be a better exhibition of a traditional matchup between area powers Baylor and Bradley Central than they displayed Wednesday.
Only the Red Raiders played near their potential on Wednesday in a 54-38 win over the Bears on the Baylor campus.
The Bears were a step slow on defense, a little heavy-legged on almost all of their 3-point attempts and were more passive than aggressive against the Red Raiders' various trapping versions of a 2-3 defense.
Baylor's Austin Maize drives towards the basket against Bradley Central's Tucker Maroon Wednesday at Baylor High School.The result left the Raiders a step quicker, and a little fresher compared to the Bears -- who beat Soddy-Daisy 86-61 in a district 5-AAA game just 24 hours earlier.
"Coming off a break, then playing back-to-back nights is the only thing I can think of," Bradley Central coach Chuck Clark said. "That's no excuse. Practice all day tomorrow will be about running, shooting, then running, then shooting so we can get their legs tired just like in a game situation."
The Bears made five 3-pointers with leading scorer Tucker Maroon hitting four to score his 12 points. Daniel Clark added 10 points for the Bears (10-7) who did not score on back-to-back possessions until the start of the fourth quarter.
"We didn't have the same intensity as we did last night," the Bradley coach said. "Maybe I put too much emphasis on a district game and not enough on this Bradley-Baylor rivalry game.
"It may be a different story when we play again after we both play district games."
That game is just 15 days away.
Baylor won the night on Wednesday.
Forward Patrick Urey scored 11 points to lead the Raiders who had 10 players score at least one point and had all but one player entered in the scorebook contribute playing time.
"We've been talking about trying to throw it inside all year," Baylor coach Austin Clark said. "You have to put that pressure on the defense, and we did that several times to make moves in the post."
Post player Tyler Seaburg scored nine points in a couple different spurts and Urey had six of Baylor's points in the third quarter. That helped the Raiders turn a 20-15 halftime lead into a 39-22 lead through three quarters.
"We can play our zone several different ways, and the kids played with great energy tonight," the Baylor coach said. "The reason why its effective is the kids bring energy and make the rotations and they did that tonight."
The Raiders (6-3) open Region competition on Friday against Father Ryan on the Baylor campus.
"It's always better going into region off a win than a loss," the Baylor coach said. "They helped us get ready because they're physical and we were physical and Father Ryan will be physical too."
Contact David Uchiyama at duchiyama@timesfreepress.com or at 423-757-6484. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/UchiyamaCTFP.