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Baylor knocks off McDermott, Creighton

Mar 24, 2014 - 5:07 AM San Antonio, TX (SportsNetwork.com) - Baylor's midseason swoon is a distant memory. The white-hot Bears will enter the Sweet 16 brimming with confidence following another lights-out performance.

Doug McDermott, meanwhile, saw his storied NCAA career come to an abrupt end following another bitter third-round exit.

Brady Heslip nailed five of the Bears' 11 3-pointers and Baylor routed Creighton 85-55 on Sunday in the third round of the NCAA Tournament.

"It's one of those games as a coach that you look back and say we were pretty good tonight," Baylor head coach Scott Drew said.

The sixth-seeded Bears (26-11), who were 11-of-18 from beyond the arc, began the season 12-1 and rose as high as No. 7 in the rankings before falling apart with a 2-8 start in conference play.

They turned the season around by winning 10-of-11 before losing to Iowa State in the Big 12 title game.

Baylor will face second-seeded Wisconsin in the West Regional semifinals on Thursday.

A teary-eyed McDermott, who finished with 15 points on 7-of-14 shooting, came out with 2:31 left to a standing ovation from the fans in attendance.

"This is the worst we've played all season, and it just stinks that it's the last one. But that doesn't take away from all my memories here. It's tough to go out this way," McDermott said.

The game was tied 7-7 early on before Royce O'Neale, Kenny Chery and Heslip knocked down triples before Chery hit Baylor's fourth trey in a span of 3:09 to give the Bears an early 19-7 lead.

McDermott and the third-seeded Bluejays (27-8) never had an answer.

Baylor was 7-of-9 from beyond the arc in the first half and led 40-20 at the break.

McDermott, who averaged 27 points this season and ranks fifth on the NCAA career scoring list, had just three in the opening frame.

McDermott skipped a chance to enter the NBA Draft after his junior season for an opportunity to get Creighton to its first round of 16 in school history. Instead, the Bluejays are out following a third straight third-round exit.

Heslip finished with 17 points, as did Isaiah Austin, while Chery and Cory Jefferson added 14 points apiece for the Bears, who thrashed 11th-seeded Nebraska, 74-60, in the second round.

The Bears shot 63.8 percent (30-of-47) from the floor.

Baylor, which led by as many as 34 in the second half, advanced to the Sweet 16 for the third time in five years.

Game Notes

Baylor outrebounded Creighton 32-22 ... Creighton still owns a 3-1 advantage in the all-time series ... The Bluejays lost in the third round to top-seeded North Carolina in 2012 and second-seeded Duke last year.