Box Score By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Foundation
Kim Mulkey's got enough options on her bench that if the Baylor coach doesn't like what she's seeing, there's a good chance that change is coming.
Not even 3 ½ minutes into Thursday's game against Abilene Christian, Mulkey had seen enough to swap out five-for-five, like a line change in hockey.
"Seven possessions, and we had four turnovers," she said. "If there's anything that drives a coach crazy, it's turnovers. Missed shots don't drive me nuts. Turnovers, that's one less possession we have to score when you just turn it over. Give somebody else a shot."
Message sent.
Led by Nina Davis with 18 points and sophomore post Kalani Brown with a double-double (15 points, 11 rebounds), the fourth-ranked Lady Bears (8-1) reeled off their sixth straight win by routing the visiting Abilene Christian Wildcats, 79-34.
"Look, we're not going to play great every night," said Mulkey, whose team has won six in a row by an average margin of 45 points since a 72-61 loss at second-ranked UConn. "But if you'll pick it up on the defensive end, when you miss shots and you seem lethargic, you've got to live with it."
After jumping out to a 14-3 lead in the first six minutes, the Lady Bears saw it whittled to 19-12 going into the second quarter. And the Wildcats (3-4) still had it within single digits at 25-17 when Sydney Shelstead drained a 3-pointer with about 5 ½ minutes left in the half.
But, the Lady Bears blew it out to 17 by the break (34-17) and doubled that with a 17-0 run over an extended 6 ½-minute stretch at the end of the third quarter and start of the fourth. Freshman guard Natalie Chou completed a three-point play to put Baylor on top, 65-30, with 7:38 left in the game.
"We got killed in transition," said ACU coach Julie Goodenough, whose team was outscored 41-12 in the second half. "We were executing pretty well, but just didn't hit shots, and they were beating us in the track meet in the middle of the floor and scored so many points in transition. They shot 83 percent (10-of-12) in the fourth quarter. I didn't feel like we were crashing the boards particularly well, but we weren't getting back on defense, either, and they really capitalized on that."
That's when Baylor is at its best, with guards Alexis Jones and Kristy Wallace and even Davis leading fast breaks.
"Oh, it's fun," the 5-11 Davis said of the transition game. "Being able to think I'm a point guard sometimes and dish out a couple assists, it's always great. I love to get it to KK (Khadijah Cave, especially. She's always out running. When we run full court and it's 2-on-1 or whatever, it's show time."
Davis has struggled out of the gates this season, failing to score in double figures in three of the first six games and averaging just 10.5 points coming into Thursday's game. But this was vintage Davis, weaving through the lane and willing off-balance, unorthodox shots to somehow go through the net.
She was 8-of-10 from the field and 2-for-2 from the line, finishing with 18 points, five boards, four assists and three steals in 26 minutes.
"We have so many different weapons that even when I'm having a bad game, we have other people that are going to pick me up," Davis said. "You weather the storm, and eventually the sun's going to come out again."
The smaller Wildcats were no match for the Lady Bears' front line rotation that includes the 6-7 Brown, 6-4 sophomore Beatrice Mompremier, the 6-3 Cave and 6-4 freshman Lauren Cox. Baylor dominated points in the paint, 54-14, and finished with a 40-29 rebounding advantage.
Cave added 12 points, while Cox and senior guard Alexis Prince had seven points apiece. Shelstead, ACU's tallest starter at 6-1, led the Wildcats with nine points and seven boards but also had six of her team's 20 turnovers.
"I would be shocked if this team was not playing in the Final Four in Dallas later this year," Goodenough said of the Lady Bears. "They have all the parts. They have perimeter play, and they definitely have size, and then they have the subs to go along with that. It is a well-balanced team. We knew the size was going to be tough for us to deal with. . . . I know they got beat by UConn, and I predict when the face UConn again in the playoffs, it will be a different story."
Baylor, which is already 3-1 against ranked teams, will face No. 22/25 Tennessee (4-2) in the Big 12/SEC Challenge at 1 p.m. CST Saturday in Knoxville, Tenn. The Lady Vols lost back-to-back games to Penn State and Virginia Tech before trouncing Tennessee State, 86-36, on Wednesday.
