Champion Baylor Bears defeated the Houston Cougars 78-59 in the semifinal round of the NCAA March Madness tournament on Saturday night to advance to the championship game for the first time since 1948.
Baylor made his first appearance in the Final Four since 1950 and will go to the championship game, where Bears will face the winner of the semifinal game Gonzaga-UCLA.
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The Bears dominated the first half of the game, going into the 45-28 range while the Cougars struggled to find their defensive foot.
Houston had been holding teams with 55.8 points and 39% of pitches in four games of the tournament, while not allowing a team to score more than 61 points, but they had no chance against Baylor’s elite guards and his wealth of pitchers. 3 points.
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The Bears finished shooting 53% and hit 11 of 24 out of 3 points, with Jared Butler leading the attack, despite not having scored in the second half.
The only highlight for Houston was the offensive performance of the second year, Marcus Sasser, in the first half, with him scoring 17 of his 20 points, while the rest of the team made a combined 1 of 15 off the field.
It was a brutal end to the journey of a team that had reached the program’s first Final Four since 1984.
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The Bears go to the championship game, where they face Gonzaga, the number 1 of the general classification, or UCLA, on Monday night for their first national championship.
“That was one of my goals, to leave a legacy at Baylor,” said Butler after the game. “And you have to win national championships. You have to win. You have to be a great program, be about great things, and that is what we are doing.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.