Mark Price has noticed a fitting trend about his Baylor boys' basketball team that was also a calling card for some of the championship teams he was a part of at Belmont University.
Strength in numbers and unselfish play has led the Red Raiders to a sizzling 14-3 record and 3-0 mark in Division II-AA East District 2 play. On Tuesday night, Baylor used a 53-point second half to run away with an impressive 85-57 road win over Chattanooga Christian.
"I have been fortunate enough to coach on some championship teams and one of the things those Belmont teams always had was balanced scoring," said the veteran coach after five of his players scored between nine and 17 points in the win over CCS. "We didn't have one guy who we had to just really ride on offense. Our team this year reminds me of some of those teams.
"If you guard one of our guys really well, we have three or four others who can get a bunch of points. It makes you hard to stop when you have that much depth offensively."
Senior Nyziah Whaley only needed a little bit of daylight to wreak havoc in the second half, in which Baylor's high-motored point guard also used his quickness on the defensive end to help spur 15 of his 17 team-high points after leading 32-28 at the break.
With Whaley and Zane Restelli drawing defenders in, the court opened up for Jack Shutters to throw down a pair of emphatic slam dunks along with Bolton Born drilling a trio of second half 3-pointers. Kevin Sacas also stepped up in a big way as he matched Restelli with 16 points for the Red Raiders.
"Nyziah is having a great year," Price said. "He is scoring the ball and managing the ball at the point guard position very well. He has taken a lot of heat off Zane and they both play really well off of each and help one another. They all help get each other better shots."
Chattanooga Christian (9-7, 1-2) was sparked by senior guard Dre Jackson, who followed up a 38-point performance in a home victory over McCallie last Friday with 34 points to go with a half dozen assists and eight rebounds.
Jackson scored 11 of his points in the second quarter, as he helped the Chargers storm back from a 21-8 deficit to cut the deficit to two in the final minute of the first half.
But Baylor did not flinch, as the team came out of halftime mentally locked in and ready to roll.
"We were off almost 10 days since our last game at McCallie. That is a really hard thing to do to pick back up right where you left off," Price said. "But these guys did a great job in our practices imitating game speed and I am really proud of them for coming on the road and playing the way they did in a region battle."
Leading scorers were Nyziah Whaley with 17, Zane Restelli with 16, Jack Shutters with 14, and Kevin Sacas with 16. Baylor moves to 14-3 overall and 3-0 in the region. We next play at home Friday against McCallie.
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