By TENAJH SWEETING

Tribune Sports Reporter

tsweeting@tribunemedia.net    

BIMINI native Valdez “VJ” Edgecombe Jr had a strong offensive night against the no.19 ranked Arizona Wildcats in Baylor’s recent 74-67 loss on Monday at the Foster Pavilion in Waco, Texas.

The Baylor freshman powered his way to a game-high 24 points, four rebounds and two assists while shooting 46 per cent from the field in 34 minutes of basketball action.

Despite the dynamic play of Edgecombe, the Baylor Bears were unable to overcome a tough shooting night which resulted in their 10th loss of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) DI basketball season.

The Bears fell to 16-10 (win/loss record) overall and 8-7 in the Big 12 Conference.

For the Wildcats, the team improved to 18-8 overall and 12-3 in the conference with the regular season sweep of the Bears.

An impressive performance in the first half along with hot shooting was all the Wildcats needed to put away Baylor.Tobe Awaka recorded 14 points and 12 boards to lead the Wildcats on the stat sheet.

Arizona took a slim 13-8 lead in the early minutes of the first half before Edgecombe Jr responded with a three ball to shift the score to 13-12.

The Bears eventually took the lead (22-19) later in the quarter but the Wildcats managed to run ahead to a double-digit advantage 41-31 with just 43 seconds remaining in the first half.

Edgecombe threw down a thunderous jam to put Baylor within 8 (41-33) going into the halftime break.

Baylor head coach Scott Drew spoke about Edgecombe’s resilience in the recent loss.

“He’s a winner, he’ll do what it takes to win. That’s what excited me about this group right now. If we can stay healthy with the seven [players], we’ll find ways to put them in better positions to be successful. We’re not going to shoot 22 per cent [from 3] the rest of the year.”

The Bears had some good runs, particularly late in the second half but played catch up for the rest of the game.

Baylor was cold to open the second half of play. The team missed their first five buckets and did not take the lid off the basket until the 12:22 mark.

After sitting on just an eight-point cushion at the intermission, the Wildcats extended their lead to 14 (49-35) when Awaka knocked down a two-pointer.

The Bahamian guard got most of his work done in the second half where he scored 13 of his game-high 24 points.

He helped the Bears to claw their way within 4 (63-59) after nailing a pair of free throws with 4:03 remaining in the game.

“VJ” made it a three-point game twice with less than a minute to go, but Arizona knocked down seven straight free throws during this stretch to put the nail in the coffin.

The Wildcats shot 48.3 per cent from the field while holding Baylor to 40 per cent shooting.

Additionally, Arizona utilised their size advantage to win the rebound battle 37-31.

Baylor will look to turn things around on the road against the Colorado Buffaloes on Saturday at 4pm.