Davion Mitchell, No. 1 Baylor Beat No. 2 Houston for 2021 NCAA Title Game Berth

The Baylor Bears are going to the national championship for the second time in program history after beating Houston 78-59 in the Final Four of the NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament on Saturday in Indianapolis.

The Bears rolled off a 39-12 run to take a 45-20 halftime lead. That span included 10-0 and 11-0 runs. Houston played far better in the second half and cut Baylor's lead down to 16, but the Bears' 25-point halftime edge was too much to overcome.

Junior guard Jared Butler led the Bears with 17 points (all in the first half) on 6-of-9 shooting. Fellow junior guard Davion Mitchell added 12 points and 11 assists for the Bears.

Houston sophomore guard Marcus Sasser led the Cougars with 20 points, 17 of which occurred in the first half. Junior Cougar guard Quentin Grimes scored all 13 of his points in the second half.

Baylor will now play the winner of Gonzaga and UCLA in the national championship Monday.

Notable Performances

Baylor G Jared Butler: 17 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals

Baylor G Davion Mitchell: 12 points, 11 assists

Houston G Marcus Sasser: 20 points, 4 rebounds

Houston G Quentin Grimes: 13 points, 2 steals

Fantastic 1st Half Propels Baylor to Win

Led by Butler's scoring and Mitchell's distributing, Baylor put on a first-half clinic.

Butler's 17 first-half points occurred on 6-of-8 shooting (4-of-5 from three-point land). The rest of the Bears were excellent as well with 28 points on 10-of-20 from the field.

Matthew Mayer came off the bench to kick-start the Bears' 39-12 rally with five points:

Butler later nailed one of his four first-half three-pointers from the wing to give Baylor a 22-11 edge:

He stayed hot from downtown, nailing back-to-back shots from deep to provide the Bears with a 33-17 advantage:

Butler excelled thanks in part to excellent ball movement facilitated by Mitchell, who had seven first-half assists. ESPN Stats & Info posted about Mitchell at the half while also noting where Baylor stood in Final Four history following its opening 20 minutes:

But he took care of business himself as well, nailing a three-pointer as time expired in the first half:

The combination of a potential NBA lottery pick in Mitchell, a possible first-round selection in Butler and a host of Bears who got hot from deep, dominated the boards and played tight defense ultimately put Houston in a hole it could not crawl out of Saturday.

Fantastic Houston Season Ends in Final Four After Rough 1st Half

Saturday simply wasn't Houston's evening, as a 16-minute stretch saw an early 8-6 lead turn into a 45-20 Cougars deficit by halftime.

Credit to Houston for outscoring Baylor 47-39 outside that run. The Cougars clearly did not pack it in after halftime, scoring 39 points to Baylor's 33.

However, this game ultimately boils down to a few facts.

First, Mitchell and Butler were unstoppable, as previously noted.

Second, Baylor's dominance on the boards played a big part in the Bears' win. The No. 1 seed grabbed 20 versus Houston's 11 in the first half, getting second-chance points and preventing Houston from doing the same. It was a team effort on the glass, too, with four players grabbing at least four boards.

Third, the Cougars struggled outside Sasser, who had 17 points scoring on 6-of-11 shooting (5-of-8 from three-point range) in the first half. However, the rest of his teammates scored just three points on 1-of-15 shooting before halftime.

Taylor Rooks of Bleacher Report mentioned Sasser and the team's performance during the first half:

Baylor entered Saturday with the third-most efficient offense in the nation, per KenPom.com, so Houston needed to keep pace on offense barring an excellent defensive performance. Neither happened in a first half where everything that could have gone wrong did.

However, Houston has a lot to be proud of after a 28-win season saw the Cougars land in the Final Four for the first time in 37 years.

The future is ultimately bright under head coach Kelvin Sampson, who has completely rebuilt a Cougars team that had made the NCAA tournament just once between 1993 and 2017.