Pierre Jackson scored a season-high 31 points to help Baylor to a 84-74 win over Boston College Thursday in the Charleston Classic. With this victory the Bears opened the season 3-0 for the sixth straight season.
Baylor will next face Colorado Friday for a spot in the Charleston Classic final. Last season they had defeated Colorado to earn a place in the NCAA final eight. The Eagles will face Dayton Friday.
Along with Jackson's 31 points, 7-foot-1 Isaiah Austin added 16 points and grabbed nine rebounds. Jackson added 15 of the Bears' first 27 points. A lot depends on Jackson and Austin for their team to perform well in the coming games.
"When Isaiah gets going it gets us all going," The Associated Press quoted Jackson as saying. "When he does something, you see him out there yelling and showing emotions. It got me going."
Brady Heslip and A.J. Walton added 10 points each for Baylor.
At one point, the Bears were trailing Boston by five points. They were finding it difficult to make shots, but with his energetic performance Austin changed the whole scene. He was equally good in offense and defense.
After Austin, it was Jackson's turn to make an impact with two 3-point shots. Now, Baylor was leading by five points. Austin shot a 3-pointer to put Baylor in a comfortable position against the Eagles 75-66 with 3:50 left.
The Baylor players, especially Austin did an excellent job of not allowing the Eagles' scorer Ryan Anderson to earn easy points. Anderson, who had 25 points in total, could manage only one of four attempts in the second period, whereas he had done a great job in the first half by making eight of 12 attempts.
"I thought the first half, they did a great job spreading us out," Baylor coach Scott Drew said. "We were giddy and gambling and not very sound at all. The second half, we did better."
Boston College coach Steve Donahue accepted Ryan Anderson has good potential to become a great player, but he has a long way to go yet. "Anderson is young and still has much to learn," Donahue said. "It's not at the point where we can dump it in to. A little fatigue maybe, but I think at one point we didn't run good offense."
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