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Trae Young Remains on Fire, Drops 44 Points, 9 Assists as Oklahoma Beats Baylor
January 31, 2018
In what has become a common theme of the 2017-18 college basketball season, Trae Young put on a show in an Oklahoma win Tuesday night.
The freshman scored 44 points with nine assists to lead the Sooners to a 98-96 home victory over Baylor. His pair of free throws gave his team the lead with 23 seconds remaining, which ended up being the decisive points in the win.
Young finished 11-of-20 from the field, including 6-of-11 from three-point range, while also going 16-of-19 from the free-throw line.
The Sooners defense left much to be desired, as Baylor kept pace throughout the night. Manu Lecomte led the way with 29 points, while Nuni Omot added 23 and helped the visitors take a four-point lead with under three minutes remaining.
However, Young was just too tough to stop, once again making shots from everywhere on the court:
He scored 31 of his points in the second half, continuing to put his name in the record books:
Young, who leads the country in both points and assists, was coming off one of his worst games of the season, as he finished with just 17 points on 6-of-17 shooting in a loss to Alabama on Saturday. Fortunately for Oklahoma, he bounced back three nights later with his second-highest-scoring outing of the year.
Between Young's explosive scoring and Khadeem Lattin's contributions on both ends of the court, the Sooners were able to survive a tough test at home.
Oklahoma moved to second place in the Big 12 at 6-3, but it's clear there will be no easy games during the conference season. The squad goes on the road Saturday to take on Texas.
Baylor is now in last place in the conference at 2-7, although a home matchup against Iowa State Saturday provides a decent chance for a bounce-back game.