Box Score By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Foundation
After a nine-minute scoring drought from the field that saw Baylor's eight-point lead turn into a two-point deficit, the Lady Bears didn't turn to All-American Nina Davis, the hot hand of guard Alexis Jones or even freshman posts Beatrice Mompremier and Kalani Brown.
Junior post Khadijah Cave, who hadn't scored in double figures since the start of conference play, hit a game-tying layup with 2:15 left and converted on a three-point play on the next possession as sixth-ranked Baylor escaped with a 69-64 win over West Virginia Tuesday night before a Ferrell Center crowd of 6,032.
"Niya (Johnson) saw that I was open and hit me with a quick pass and I laid it up," said the 6-foot-2 Cave, who had 13 points and seven rebounds in 25 minutes off the bench. "I just tried to present myself when they were tight on the guards."
Sophomore guard Kristy Wallace hit a clutch 3-pointer that made it a six-point game and then clinched it in the final seconds when she stole an errant inbounds pass from Bria Holmes near midcourt and iced it with a pair of free throws.
"I thought Wallace hit two big shots, but probably the biggest thing she did was she got a rebound down on the other end, late, when she was off-balance and the girl was bigger than her," Mulkey said of Wallace, who hit two 3-pointers and finished with 10 points. "She just made sure that girl didn't get and she got it. Those things help your team grow and win basketball games."
This one didn't come easy for the Lady Bears (17-1, 4-1), who have won four in a row going into Sunday's showdown in Austin against fourth-ranked Texas (15-0, 4-0). West Virginia held them to 40 percent shooting from the field (23-of-57), held its own on the boards (40-35 edge by Baylor) and just made it tough to execute in the half court.
"Nobody in the league is going to guard you better than (West Virginia coach) Mike Carey's team," Mulkey said of the Mountaineers, who fell to 14-4 and 3-2. "They just get after you, and they have size and strength. That was big-girl basketball out there tonight."
Baylor seemed to take control in the first quarter, going up by double digits on another three-point play by Cave. But Alexis Brewer drained a 3-pointer at the end of the period, beginning an 11-1 run as WVU tied it at 22-22 on a Jessica Morton jumper.
With the Lady Bears hitting just 4-of-12 from the floor and scoring 13 in the second quarter, West Virginia went up by as many as five and took a 35-34 lead into the locker room when Arielle Roberson grabbed an offensive board and hit a layup just before the buzzer.
After giving up five first-half treys, Baylor's defense tightened up and held the Mountaineers to 0-for-6 from outside the arc and 11-of-28 overall.
Jones, who scored just six first-half points, knocked down three 3-pointers and pumped in 13 of her game-high 20 points in the third quarter to put the Lady Bears on top, 55-51, going into the fourth.
"I was just open and knocking down shots this game," Jones said. "I feel like I'm getting more comfortable and getting my feel back for the game at the same time. Really, it's all about just staying focused."
Both teams struggled on the offensive end in the final quarter. After Brewer hit a layup at the 9:15 mark to make it a two-point game, neither team scored from the floor for the next five minutes until Holmes hit a driving layup that tied it at 58-58 with 4:10 left.
"I attribute that to defense, fatigue, just two good teams battling," Mulkey said of the Lady Bear drought. "Some of it us not being able to execute because of (Carey's) defense. I just thought we grew up a lot tonight. We found out a lot about ourselves."
Freshman Tynice Martin knocked down a baseline jumper that gave the Mountaineers a 60-58 lead with 3:10 left, but Baylor closed on an 11-4 run to pull it out.
Holmes had 14 and Martin 12 for WVU, while Brown had 12 points in 12 minutes off the bench for the Lady Bears. Johnson had 13 assists and ran her Baylor record to 844, tying former Texas Tech standout Erin Grant for the Big 12 mark.
In a much-anticipated top-10 matchup, Baylor faces the fourth-ranked Longhorns at 2:30 p.m. Sunday in Austin in a game that will be nationally televised by ESPN2.
