The Tribune

By RENALDO DORSETT

Sports Reporter

rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

Backed by a dominant frontline, the Baylor Bears spoiled the homecoming celebration for Lourawls “Tum Tum” Nairn Jr and ended his team’s bid for a Battle 4 Atlantis title.

Nairn followed up Wednesday’s career night with five points, six rebounds and three assists in the No.24 Spartans’ 73-58 loss to the No.20 Bears yesterday in the tournament semi-final at the Imperial Arena. They will advance to face the No.10 Louisville Cardinals in today’s championship matchup.

Baylor’s frontcourt duo of 6’10 Johnathan Motley and 7’1” Jo Lual-Acuil Jr led the Bears to outscore the Spartans by 22 in the paint and produced a 36-29 rebounding advantage.

Motley scored 20 of his game high 26 points in the first half and also added six rebounds and three assists. Lual-Acuil took his turn to dominate the second half and added 14 points and eight rebounds.

Ishmail Wainwright nearly notched a triple double with seven points, eight rebounds and eight assists.

Miles Bridges was the only Spartans player to reach double figures with 15 points, five rebounds and three blocks. Matt McQuaid added eight.

The Bears moved to 5-0 with their second win over a ranked team this season while the Spartans fell to 3-3 for just the third time in the Tom Izzo era.

The Spartans had eight different scorers in the first half and Nick Ward converted a three- point play to give them their biggest lead of the game (26-16) with 7:58 left in the half. They eventually took a 33-30 lead at the break.

Baylor took their first lead of the game almost automatically once play resumed for the second half.

An Al Freeman three, followed by a Motley dunk gave them a 35-33 advantage and sparked a 12-2 run.

They eventually outscored the Spartans 55-30 over the final 27 minutes.

The Spartans, who shot 48 percent in the first half, shot just 38 percent in the second, including 1-10 from three point range. Meanwhile Baylor shot 55 percent from the field and 50 percent from beyond the arch.

The Spartans have played a brutal schedule to open the season including matchups against No.8 Arizona in Hawaii at the Armed Forces Classic and No.1 Kentucky in New York at the Champions Classic. Following the Battle 4 Atlantis, they face No.6 ranked Duke on Tuesday.

“I’m not making an excuse but I did a terrible job of scheduling and I think it caught up with us a little bit. We just need more time to prepare than we’ve had and this turnaround was almost insane and we just don’t have a team where we can change enough things to accommodate that. I just think we looked awfully tired and I can accept that. That’s my fault not theirs. You cant prepare in an hour or two. I don’t have a veteran team and this was the most brutal turnaround I’ve ever had in my coaching career. That part bothers me for these guys because I don’t’ think I was fair to them.

The Spartans have played the season thus far without key big men Gavin Schilling and Ben Carter who have been sidelined with knee injuries.

Nairn said despite the loss it was still a positive experience to be able to play at home again.

“It’s been tough on us but we can’t make excuses for it. It’s the schedule we have and we just have to do a better job with it. Some of our bigs got hurt so we went down in a size a bit but we will just deal with what we have and be better,” he said, “I came here to win a tournament championship and it hurts not to be able to play in that but its always fun to play back home.”

The Spartans will face Wichita State (5-1) at 1 pm in the third place game today, broadcast live on ESPN2.