Baylor boys roll past Signal Mountain at Best of Preps

Any thoughts of a letdown for the Baylor boys' basketball team in its first-round game at the Best of Preps Tournament were quickly erased Thursday evening. The Red Raiders, who had easily handled Signal Mountain by 21 points just two weeks ago, proved early they weren't going to overlook the Eagles.

Baylor jumped out to a 9-0 lead and had built a commanding 13-point advantage by the end of the first quarter on the way to a 79-45 win to remain unbeaten through nine games this season and advance to today's tournament semifinals. The Red Raiders will face Brainerd at 5:30 p.m.

"It was really important to jump out early and set the tone," Red Raiders coach Mark Price said. "I didn't think our defensive effort in the first half was all that good, despite the way we took the lead. Sometimes you can be deceived when the ball is going in.

"A big part of our success so far this season has come from the defensive end, and I just thought we were a little lax. But I thought we were much better in the second half."

Signal Mountain's first points came midway through the first quarter on a short jumper by Travion Williams, and with just more than a minute to go before halftime, the Eagles were facing a 46-23 deficit.

Beyuan Hendricks scored 14 of his game-high 22 points in the first half, and Lorenzo White added 12 of his 17 in the third quarter to pace Baylor.

"Beyuan is a high-level player and maybe the most underrated recruit in the state," said Price, who's in his first season at Baylor after seven seasons as an assistant at Belmont University. "There's no doubt he can play at the mid-major level.

"We took five days off over the holidays before coming back to practice, so it was good to see that the layoff didn't break our momentum."

Malone Howley scored 13 points to lead the Eagles (7-11), who fall into the consolation bracket and will take on Ooltewah at 11:30 this morning.

Contact Stephen Hargis at shargis@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6293. Follow him on Twitter @StephenHargis.

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