Dec. 27, 2003
WACO, Texas -
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Baylor (10-1) at Florida (9-2)
Tuesday, Dec. 30, 2003 - 5 pm (CST)
O'Connell Center (12,000)
Gainesville, Fla.
Televised live by the Sunshine Network
Mick Hubert (play-by-play) and Mark Wise (color analyst)
Waco's Time Warner Cable will carry the broadcast live locally on Channel 15.
Radio - KLRK - FM 92.9 - Rick May (play-by-play) and Lori Scott Fogleman (color analysis). Broadcast begins 30 minutes prior to game time.
LADY BEARS VS. FLORIDA...
The 10-1 Baylor Lady Bears hit the road for the fourth trip and their seventh away game this season as they travel to Gainesville, Fla., to take on the 9-2 Florida Gators. Florida will be playing just their third home game of the season. Both teams come into the game riding four-game winning streaks.
GAINING GROUND IN THE POLLS...
In the latest Associated Press (AP) Poll, the Lady Bears gained 15 votes and now have 52.They are five spots out of the top 25. The last time Baylor was listed in the AP Top 25 was at the end of the 2001-02 season when they were No. 7. Baylor received 13 votes in the latest USA Today/ESPN Coaches Poll, down one from the previous week.
THE LADY BEARS...
The Lady Bears rebounded after their first loss of the season after posting a 6-0 mark to begin the 2003-04 campaign. They suffered a 74-63 defeat at the hands of seventh-ranked Penn State on the Lady Lions' home court, the Bryce Jordan Center then returned home to defeat Southeastern Louisiana 79-46. Baylor has also posted victories over Mississippi State (88-45), Nicholls State (93-44), Washington State (76-39), Pacific (88-51), Eastern Kentucky (96-75) and Rice (79-55). The Lady Bears are coming off a sweep of the San Juan Shootout where they defeated UPR-Mayaguez (103-25), Eastern Michigan (85-70) and North Carolina State (79-63).
Three players are averaging in double figures for Baylor. With a career-high 27 points against Washington State, sophomore post Sophia Young moved into the lead for the Lady Bears in scoring and rebounding average. Young followed that game with the 19th double-double of her career with a 13-point, 10-rebound performance against Pacific and produced another double-double against Eastern Kentucky (21p, 11r). She is averaging 18.5 points and 8.3 rebounds an outing. Steffanie Blackmon, a junior post, ranks second in both categories with 14.0 points and 6.8 rebounds. Freshman forward Emily Niemann is averaging 10.5 points and senior Dionne Brown comes off the bench to contribute 10.1 points and 6.3 rebounds a contest.
Baylor is outscoring their opponents by 31.1 points a game and are shooting .504 (354-703) on the season. The Lady Bears are holding their opponents to just 53.4 points a game and a .318 (206-647) shooting average. Baylor has shot .500 or above in eight of the 11 games this season.
THE COACHES...
Baylor head coach Kim Mulkey-Robertson, in her fourth season, has an 82-27 head coaching record which equates out to a .752 winning percentage. She has produced 20-win seasons in each of her years as a head coach and has taken the Lady Bears to postseason competition all three seasons, twice to the NCAA Tournament and to the finals of the WNIT last year.
Mulkey-Robertson's record (44-2) in regular season non-conference games by year is:
2000-01 - 11-0
2001-02 - 12-0
2002-03 - 11-1 (lost at Montana State, 75-66)
2003-04 - 10-1 (lost at Penn State, 74-63)
Mulkey-Robertson was named Baylor's fourth head coach on April 4, 2000. She was inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame that same year. This past summer she was inducted into the Verizon/CoSIDA Academic All-America Hall of Fame.
Florida - Carolyn Peck is in her second season as the Florida Gators head coach. She is 18-21 at Florida and is 75-32 in four years as a head coach. Peck previously served as head coach at Purdue for two seasons where she posted a 57-11 record which included a NCAA National Championship in 1999 after a 34-1 season. Peck then moved on to become the WNBA Orlando Miracle's general manager and head coach. She came to the Gators from Orlando. She was named the 1999 Coach of the Year by both the Associated Press and the WBCA.
LARGE MARGINS...
Over their first 11 games, the Lady Bears are posting some pretty large margins.
Scoring - Baylor +31.1
Rebounding - Baylor +12.6
Steals - Baylor +6.2
Assists - Baylor +9.2
In addition, the Lady Bears are shooting an impressive .504 (354-703) while limiting the opponent to a .318 (206-647) shooting percentage. Baylor has shot over 50% in eight of 11 games this season. Their shooting percentage ranks No. 8 nationally while their field goal percentage defense ranks No. 6 in the most recent NCAA statistics.
INSIDE GAME IMPRESSIVE...
Baylor's inside game has been impressive so far this season. Sophia Young, Steffanie Blackmon, Dionne Brown and Melanie Hamerly are shooting a combined .569 shooting percentage. The quartet is 203-357 on the season. Young, Blackmon and Brown combine to score 42.6 points a game. The inside players aren't stingy either, Blackmon has dished out 23 assists while Young has 20 and Brown 11.
STRONG BENCH...
Baylor's bench has proven to be a valuable part of this year's success. The Lady Bear bench has accounted for 34.3 percent of the team's scoring so far this season. In fact, 12 times this season a player has come off the bench to score in double digits.
SCOUTING THE OPPONENTS...
Florida - After suffering through a 9-19 season last year, the Florida Gators come into the game with the Lady Bears with a 9-2 mark and riding a four game winning streak. Their two losses have come at Richmond (98-88) and at Miami (80-75). They have posted victories over Boston University (66-56), LaSalle (90-65), South Florida (70-55), Florida State (74-60), Oakland (76-72), No. 15 UC-Santa Barbara (75-49), Bethune-Cookman (86-50), Central Florida (79-48) and George Washington (80-63).
The Gators have three players averaging double figures in scoring. Vanessa Hayden, a 6-4 senior center, leads the team in both scoring and rebounding with 19.8 points and 11.1 rebounds a game. Sophomore forward Bernice Mosby comes off the bench to score 14.4 a game and Tashia Morehead, a 5-11 junior forward, manages 12,0 a game. The Gators have registered 51 blocked shots on the season, 32 of which belong to Hayden.
THE SERIES RECORDS...
Florida leads the series 1-0. They posted a 70-58 victory on Nov. 16, 1998 in Waco. The game was in the second round of the Preseason WNIT and Florida was ranked No. 22 at the time.
