Box Score By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Foundation
During one of her "Come to Jesus" meetings, Baylor coach Kim Mulkey challenged her freshman posts to "be women about it."
Taking that message to heart, Beatrice Mompremier and Kalani Brown were a combined 15-of-18 from the floor and finished with 33 points, 11 rebounds and four blocks as the sixth-ranked Baylor Lady Bears dominated the inside in throttling the visiting TCU Horned Frogs, 72-55, Saturday afternoon before a crowd of 7,081 at the Ferrell Center.
"I've said it since we signed these two. On paper, they're everything you want," said Mulkey, whose team improved to 16-1 overall, 3-1 in the Big 12 and 11-0 at home. "But when you get them here, you have to break them down to build them back up. It's not high school anymore. I've been gentle with them for about a month and letting them feel good about themselves. But now we're at another level with conference. It was time to turn up the heat. They were going to respond to it, or they were going to fold."
The 6-foot-7 Brown, who had better than a point per minute with 15 points in 14 minutes, said the Lady Bear duo had to learn how to "be physical, more aggressive and hold on to the ball."
"Just power up," she said. "Coach's mission is to `be women about it.' So, we were just trying to go hard."
"They're freshmen, they're going to make mistakes," Mulkey said. "But we can't wait for them to grow up."
TCU (10-5, 2-2) simply had no answer for Baylor inside, with 6-3 freshman Jordan Moore struggling to hold her own against the Lady Bears' constant wave of posts. Baylor dominated on the boards (42-29) and finished with a 52-10 edge on points in the paint.
"What Baylor's bigs do is just build their guards' confidence," said second-year TCU head coach Raegan Pebley. "Their guards can really take any shot they want, because they know their bigs are underneath, ready to get some offensive rebounds and get themselves to the foul line."
Zahna Medley and AJ Alix came out firing for the Horned Frogs, each hitting a 3-pointer in the first four-plus minutes as TCU went up 13-7. Medley drained another trey for a 17-13 lead, but Brown finished off a late 5-0 run by the Lady Bears with a rebound and put-back at the buzzer to put Baylor up by one.
The Baylor defense took it up a notch in the second quarter, holding TCU to 27 percent shooting from the field (3-of-11) and just 1-of-4 from outside the arc as the Lady Bears extended the lead to 35-27.
"I thought our defense was pretty good, and it started with our guards," Mulkey said. "I really challenged Alexis Jones and Kristy (Wallace) to get better defensively. Where they were so good today - those guys can shoot threes - and I thought we started getting over picks better. And I thought our posts did a better job today, when their man set the pick, of being in position to help your guard."
In a pivotal 9-0 run in the third quarter, Baylor went back to attacking inside. After Wallace fed Khadijah Cave for a bucket, Mompremier scored on back-to-back layups and Jones capped it with a layup off a steal and snowball pass from point guard Niya Johnson, pushing the lead to 48-32.
One of the only negatives in the game was Mompremier's dismal free-throw shooting. Hitting just 41.7 percent coming in, she missed on 11 of her 13 attempts from the foul line.
"I'm not Beatrice's free-throw coach. She's her own coach, so it's on her to get better," Mulkey joked.
Mompremier says it becomes mental. "I keep thinking, `Oh, it has to go in. It has to go in.'''
While the other inside players dominated, 5-11 junior forward Nina Davis struggled mightily. She was just 1-of-6 from the field and scored two points, snapping a streak of 33 consecutive games with double-digit points.
"She's entitled to have an off night," Mulkey said of Davis. "Nina doesn't miss many of the shots she took today. They played a zone, and sometimes in a zone it's hard to find her. You have to present yourself in a way where we get it to you. It's good in a lot of ways, because we had to play without her in the first half, and grow up when your All-American doesn't have a good day."
Junior guard Alexis Prince, who missed the last 14 games with a knee injury, returned to the court for the first time in nearly two months and had two points, two rebounds, one assist and a block in 10 minutes off the bench.
Medley (16) and Alix (15) led the Horned Frogs, hitting four 3-pointers apiece, while Moore had a strong fourth quarter and finished with 11 points, five boards and three steals.
Baylor remains home to host West Virginia (13-3, 2-1) at 7 p.m. Tuesday in a game that will be televised by FOX Sports Southwest-Plus. The Mountaineers have won two in a row since opening league play with a 65-54 loss to No. 4 Texas and play Texas Tech Saturday night in Morgantown.
