Feb. 27, 2004
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#16/21 Baylor (20-7, 8-6) vs. Texas A&M (9-16, 2-12)
Saturday, Feb. 28, 2004 - 7 p.m. (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 broadcast.
#16/21 BAYLOR VS. TEXAS A&M...
The 16th-ranked Baylor Lady Bears (20-7, 8-6) host the Texas A&M Aggies (9-16, 2-12) on Saturday night for their final home game of the season. The Lady Bears come into the game tied for fifth place in the Big 12 Conference standings at 8-6 (with Oklahoma).
For the fourth straight season, head coach Kim Mulkey-Robertson has guided her Baylor squad to a 20-win season. The Lady Bears gained 20 wins this year by completing a sweep on No. 24 Oklahoma on Saturday, Feb. 22. Six of Baylor's seven losses in 2003-04 have come against teams ranked No. 15 or higher and three have been by three points or less.
SENIOR SALUTE...
Senior players Jessika Stratton, Dionne Brown and senior manager Mike Snauffer will be honored in a pregame ceremony. Stratton, head coach Kim Mulkey-Robertson's first four-year letterwinner, has scored 927 points and dished out 376 assists which ranks No. 4 on Baylor's career list. In addition, the Colorado Springs, Colo., native is poised to set new single season records in free throw percentage and 3-point field goal percentage. She also is on track to break the Lady Bear career record in free throw percentage. In Brown's collegiate career, the 6-2 post from Georgetown, Texas, has tallied 497 points, 346 rebounds and 61 blocked shots. Snauffer, who hails from Dayton, Ohio, has been a manager for the past three seasons and recently graduated with a degree in secondary education with an emphasis in history.
BAYLOR IN THE POLLS...
Baylor continues to be ranked in the Associated Press' Top 25 Poll, they are currently No. 16, tying their season-high and moving up three spots from last week. The Lady Bears broke into the AP Poll on Jan 5 and have been ranked for eight straight weeks (see week-by-week listings on page 11). Baylor, after breaking into the Top 25 in the USA Today/ESPN Coaches Poll on Jan. 24, now sits at the No. 21 spot.
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 dropping a double overtime decision (73-72) to fifth-ranked Texas in Austin on Wednesday night, Baylor's record now stands at 20-7 overall and 8-6 in league play which places them in a tie for fifth place in the league standings with Oklahoma and behind Kansas State, Texas, Colorado and Texas Tech.
Three players are averaging in double figures for Baylor with one more just under the mark. 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 and has not relinquished it since. 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) and added two more against Kansas (20p, 11r) and Texas (18p, 13r). She is averaging a team-leading 15.7 points and 8.5 rebounds an outing and has scored in double digits in every game but two (Missouri & Oklahoma State) this season. Steffanie Blackmon, a junior post, ranks second in both categories with 15.5 points and 7.3 rebounds. Freshman forward Emily Niemann is averaging 10.3 points while senior Jessika Stratton follows closely with 9.7. Senior Dionne Brown is third on the team in rebounding with 5.5 a game.
Baylor is outscoring its opponents by 17.6 points a game and leads the league in scoring offense at 77.4 points a game. They are shooting .462 (798-1727) on the season which ranks second in the Big 12. The Lady Bears are holding their opponents to just 59.8 points a game and a .357 (569-1596) shooting average. Baylor has shot .500 or above in 11 of the 27 games this season and has been over the .600 mark once (Sam Houston State .661).
THE COACHES...
Baylor head coach Kim Mulkey-Robertson, in her fourth season, has a 92-33 head coaching record which equates out to a .736 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.
Baylor seasons under Mulkey-Robertson:
2000-01 - 21-9
2001-02 - 27-6
2002-03 - 24-11
2003-04 - 20-7
Texas A&M's Gary Blair is in his first season as the Aggies' head coach, coming to College Station after highly successful head coaching stints at Arkansas and Stephen F. Austin. Blair spent eight seasons at Stephen F. Austin where he compiled a 210-43 record then moved to Arkansas where he posted a 198-120 mark in 10 campaigns. His career record is 417-179, he is in his 19th season as a collegiate head coach.
BAYLOR RANKS AMONG NATION'S BEST IN ATTENDANCE...
The Lady Bears ranks No. 19 nationally in home attendance. Through Saturday's game against Oklahoma, Baylor has had 59,795 fans attend home games in the Ferrell Center so far this season, averaging out to 4,600 fans a game. Baylor is ahead of its final attendance average of last season when the Lady Bears averaged 4,216 spectators a game. Baylor's all-time attendance mark was set in 2001-02 when the program averaged 5,524 a game.
This is an unofficial and voluntary collection of Division I home attendance statistics compiled weekly by the University of Wisconsin Sports Information Office. NCAA attendance figures are not published until the end of the season and the final NCAA statistics are released.
COMING BACK...
Three times this season, all in Big 12 play, the Lady Bears have come back from a double-digit deficit to win the game.
- at Texas A&M - Baylor trailed by 16 in the first half and came back to win by three.
- at Oklahoma - Baylor trailed by 13 in the first half and came back to win by seven.
- Oklahoma State - Baylor trailed by 14 in the first half and won by 15.
SCOUTING THE OPPONENT...
Texas A&M Aggies, under new head coach Gary Blair, come into the game with a 9-16 record and are 2-12 in Big 12 play. Their two Big 12 wins have come against Oklahoma State (65-52) and at Kansas (69-63). However, they have lost several league games by three points or less. They dropped narrow decisions to Oklahoma State (67-65), Baylor (60-57), Texas (64-62), Texas Tech (59-58) and Kansas State (59-56). In addition, they pushed Oklahoma to overtime before losing 65-55. The Aggies are 3-8 on the road and 1-6 in league road games.
Only one player is averaging double-digit scoring for the Aggies. Senior Toccara Williams, a 5-9 guard, leads the team with 16.1 points and 7.3 assists a game. She ranks second on the team in rebounding with 5.7 a contest and is also the team's leader in steals with 100. Sophomore Tamea Scales is the team's top rebounder hauling down 6.2 a game.
THE SERIES RECORDS...
Baylor evened the series with Texas A&M at 32 all with its 60-57 victory in College Station earlier this season. Baylor has won the last seven contests the two teams have played. The Aggies' last win over the Lady Bears came on Jan. 20, 2001 in College Station, 87-81. In that losing effort, Baylor's Danielle Crockrom turned in a 41-point, 23-rebound performance. Baylor holds a 17-12 edge in games played in Waco. Texas A&M's last victory in Waco came on Jan. 5, 2000, by a score of 62-59.
