LEXINGTON | Chad Baker-Mazara had a conversation with himself during halftime of Auburn's game against Creighton on Saturday night. The guard struggled in the first 20 minutes, scoring five points on 2-of-7 shooting as the No. 1 Tigers trailed the Bluejays 37-35.
"Just being in a slump the past couple games, I was tired of it, trying to get out of it," Baker-Mazara said.
Whatever he said to himself, he should bottle it as Baker-Mazara came out of the locker room on fire, scoring 12 of Auburn's first 16 points as the Tigers tried to take control and get to the Sweet 16.
The Dominican Republic native did it in various ways. Baker-Maza drove to the basket for his first points of the second half, then drained a three before driving again for a layup to give him seven points in the first 4:02 of the half.
He was back at it again less than two minutes later, hitting a jumper while getting fouled for a three-point play. Thirty seconds later, a foul pushed him to the floor, and Baker-Mazara looked in visible pain. After getting his feet under him and making two free throws, he went to the floor again and had to be subbed out.
Bruce Pearl had a funny reason why his guard was injured.
"Chad is 175 soaking wet, and he's got a bony ass," the Auburn coach said. "When he lands on the ground, it's wood on bone. He probably got a pretty good bruise. Hopefully, that's all it is."
Baker-Mazara finished with 17 points as Auburn pulled away from the Bluejays in an 82-70 victory. His spark at the start of the second half had his teammates praising him after the game.
"It's something that we needed," Tahaad Pettiford said. "It was a tight game, scoring back and forth. His scoring kinda broke us apart and gave us the energy and the boost that we needed."
"That man's a walking bucket," Chaney Johnson said. "He's a little crazy, but he's a walking bucket. That's my brother. Chad, he's going to give a lot to this team, and he's playing on a hurt hip and was still out there giving buckets and playing great defense and dishing the ball out. It's great to play with a player like him."
And, in typical Baker-Mazara fashion, he made sure he got the last word in against the Bluejays, who he lost to in the NCAA Tournament while at San Diego State.
"I'm so glad you mentioned," he said while smiling. "Some guy was laughing in the interview, too. Hopefully, he thinks it's funny now. They knocked me out a couple years ago. It's funny because coach, when he was shaking hands, he came up and said, 'We're even now, 1-1.' So we'll have to see next year -- if CB gets to come back."
