Jan. 13, 2004
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#24/RV Baylor (13-2, 1-1) vs. #3/#3 Texas (14-1, 2-0)
Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2004 - 7 pm (CST)
Ferrell Center (10,284) - Waco, Texas
RADIO - KLRK - FM 92.9 - Rick May (play-by-play) and Lori Scott Fogleman (color analysis). Broadcast begins 30 minutes prior to game time. In addition, Dallas' WBAP (820-AM) will carry the game.
#24 LADY BEARS VS. #3 TEXAS...
The #24 Baylor Lady Bears (13-2, 1-1) face one of the toughest weeks of the season when they take on the No. 3 Texas Longhorns on Wednesday and No. 2 Texas Tech on Saturday. The Longhorns come into the contest at 14-1 overall and a 2-0 mark in Big 12 play.
BREAKING INTO THE TOP 25...
After gaining votes for several weeks in the Associated Press' Top 25 Poll, the Lady Bears finally broke in at No. 24 last week. They remained at No. 24 in this week's poll. Baylor received 50 votes in the latest USA Today/ESPN Coaches Poll, up 35 from the previous week. They currently sit at No. 28.
THE LADY BEARS...
The Lady Bears finished the non-conference portion of their schedule at 12-1. Under fourth-year head coach Kim Mulkey-Robertson's guidance the Lady Bears are 46-2 in non-conference regular season games. After splitting their first two Big 12 games, Baylor's season record now stands at 13-2 and they are 1-1 in league play.
Two 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). Young recorded back-to-back double-doubles against Colorado (14p, 11r) and Texas A&M (10p, 13r). She is averaging a team-leading 16.9 points and 8.7 rebounds an outing. Steffanie Blackmon, a junior post, ranks second in both categories with 14.5 points and 6.7 rebounds. Freshman forward Emily Niemann is averaging 9.9 points. Baylor's two seniors Jessika Stratton and Dionne Brown follow closely with 8.9 and 8.5 points, respectively.
Baylor is outscoring their opponents by 27.0 points a game and is shooting a league-leading .493 (466-945) on the season. The Lady Bears are holding their opponents to just 54.3 points a game and a .327 (290-888) shooting average. Baylor has shot .500 or above in nine of the 15 games this season and has been over the .600 mark once (Sam Houston State .661).
Sophia Young NEARING 500...
Sophomore Sophia Young, a 6-1 post, needs just 19 rebounds to reach 500 for her career. Through 50 games she has hauled down 481 rebounds.
She could become the fastest active Big 12 player to reach 500 career rebounds. Here's a breakdown of active Big 12 players who have reached 500 rebounds and how long it took them:
Stacy Stephens, Texas - 54 games
Caton Hill, Oklahoma - 61 games
Kendra Wecker, Kansas State - 63 games
Nicole Ohlde, Kansas State - Junior season
Evan Unrau, Missouri - Junior season
Trisha Skibbe, Oklahoma State - Junior season
Tera Bjorklund, Colorado - Senior season
SCOUTING THE OPPONENT...
Texas Longhorns, currently ranked No. 3 in both the AP and Coaches' Polls, come into the game with 14-1 record overall and 2-0 mark in Big 12 play. The Longhorns' lone loss came at Penn State (79-59). They have posted victories over four current top15 teams: Duke (85-77), Tennessee (70-60), Georgia (71-58) and Oklahoma (63-58). Texas is 7-1 on the road this season, 3-1 in away games and 4-0 on neutral courts.
Four players are averaging in double figures for the Longhorns and two others are just below that mark. Junior forward Heather Schreiber leads the team at 13.7 a game. Freshman forward Tiffany Jackson comeS off the bench to score 12.0 and leads the team in rebounding with 8.1 a contest. Junior guard Jamie Carey scores 11.5 a game and senior center Stacy Stephens tallies 10.1 points and 6.8 rebounds an outing. Just under the double-digit mark are Kala Bowers and Nina Norman with 9.9 and 9.8, respectively.
THE SERIES RECORDS...
Texas leads the series 49-13 and has a 21-8 series lead in Waco. The Longhorns took two games from the Lady Bears last season, prior to that Baylor had won four straight. As a head coach Kim Mulkey-Robertson is 4-2 versus Texas. Baylor's most recent victory over the Longhorns in Waco came on Feb. 16, 2002 (76-69).
THE COACHES...
Two Women's Basketball Hall of Famers meet up in Wednesday's game. Texas' Jody Conradt was inducted in 1999 and Baylor's Kim Mulkey-Robertson entered the Hall of Fame in 2000.
Baylor head coach Kim Mulkey-Robertson, in her fourth season, has an 85-28 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.
Since taking over the head of the Lady Bear program four years ago Mulkey-Robertson has posted the second-best win total among Big 12 coaches:
Oklahoma - 90-25
Baylor - 85-28
Texas Tech - 85-25
Texas - 85-30
Colorado - 82-29
Kansas State - 78-31
Iowa State - 70-36
Missouri - 62-43
Oklahoma State - 46-58
Nebraska - 45-56
Texas A&M - 42-56
Kansas - 36-65
*Baylor, Colorado, Texas Tech and Texas are the only Big 12 teams to win 20 or more games in each of the past three seasons.
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.
Texas' Jody Conradt, a 1963 Baylor graduate, is in her 35th season overall as a head coach and her 28th as the Longhorns' skipper. She has a career record of 829-265 and is 714-203 with the Longhorns.
