Prince Having Career Year as a Senior
2/4/2017 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Foundation
When Alexis Prince is at her best, there are few players in the country that are any better.
Part of a top-10 class when she signed with Baylor in November 2011, the 6-foot-2 guard from Orlando, Fla., was a three-time all-state pick, a McDonald's, Parade Magazine and WBCA All-American and MVP of the McDonald's All-American game. She also won a gold medal playing for USA Basketball at the 2012 FIBA Americas U18 Championship in Puerto Rico.
But, Prince has twice undergone stress fracture surgery on both feet ÃÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢' ¬" once after her freshman season at Baylor and again during the middle of her sophomore campaign ÃÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢' ¬" and then missed 14 games last year when she had arthroscopic surgery to repair a torn lateral meniscus and clean up cartilage damage in her right knee.
Healthy for the first time in her five years at Baylor, Prince is averaging a career-high 11.7 points and 5.9 rebounds and shooting 39.8 percent from 3-point range for the second-ranked Lady Bears (22-1, 11-0) going into Saturday's 2 p.m. game at Texas Tech.
"It's all about being healthy, being comfortable and being a fifth-year senior," coach Kim Mulkey said of Prince, who's 71 points shy of joining Baylor's 1,000-point club "And boy, is she having a good senior year. But you know what, our four seniors are all having good years. And when you can say that, it's special, because you want your seniors to go out with a bang."
Ranked as the second-best forward in the country coming out of Edgewood High School, Prince was limited by injuries through most of her first four years at Baylor, including a medical redshirt season in 2013-14. She averaged just 6.7 points, 3.3 rebounds and less than 20 minutes a game.
Playing without pain for the first time, she's hit double-figure points 14 times in the first 23 games. Prince scored a career-high 23 in that record-setting 140-32 blowout of Winthrop on Dec. 15, topped that with 25 in a 91-49 road win at Kansas State on Jan. 25 and then hit a game-high 22 points with four 3-pointers in Wednesday's 83-52 win at Iowa State.
"I'd say it's because I'm healthier, and I was able to get in better shape than I have been in the past couple years," she said. "I don't feel like it's anything new. I feel like I could always score. I just haven't been doing it, because I wasn't fully healthy and playing the way I wanted to."
What's even more impressive is that Prince is doing it on both ends of the floor. Typically assigned to the other team's best perimeter player, she's become Baylor's defensive stopper, holding Iowa State's Seanna Johnson scoreless for the first time in her career. She ranks among the team leaders with 17 blocks and 15 steals and has helped the Lady Bears hold their opponents to just 51.0 points per game and a national-best 28.9 percent from the floor.
"She may not be as quick as those players, but if they get by her, she has the length and she can come and block shots from behind," Mulkey said. "And when you shoot a shot, she can reach out there because of her length. She is in the best shape of her life, she looks great, she's playing confident, and I'm really, really happy for her."
One thing that makes Prince so effective on the offensive end is the number of other weapons on the team. Eleven of Baylor's 13 players have scored in double figures this season, including 20-point games from Khadijah Cave, Nina Davis, Kalani Brown and freshman Lauren Cox and a 30-point night by senior guard Alexis Jones.
"It helps take some of the pressure off some of them, so that if they're not having a good game, then we can rely on somebody else, whether it's coming off the bench or someone that's starting to come in and give us a boost," Prince said. "I think KK (Cave) has been playing great coming off the bench. She always seems to give us that spark. But, that goes for anybody."
What makes the Lady Bears so dangerous, Mulkey said, is "not only do we have bodies to throw at you, we've got kids who score at all positions. And those kids that come in are just as good as the kids that start the game. And you just never let up. When you have them all playing good at the same time, you're difficult to beat."
That's the challenge facing an improved Tech team (11-10, 3-7) that's already posted home-court victories over Oklahoma State, Iowa State and then-No. 18 West Virginia.
Fourth-year head coach Candi Whitaker added Division I transfers Recee Caldwell (15.0 ppg., 4.4 assists) from UCLA, Jada Terry (11.4 ppg, 7.0 rebounds) from Texas A&M and Larryn Brooks (8.2 ppg) from Indiana and just signed 6-4 center Erin DeGrate, a transfer from Louisville who played with Baylor freshman guard Juicy Landrum at La Vega High School.
"They've got transfers that are now eligible, very good transfers, and they've beaten some people that I don't think people thought they could beat," Mulkey said of the Lady Raiders. "And you're on the road, you're on their home floor, and people tend to shoot better playing at home."
In a quick turnaround, Baylor will host No. 12/13 Texas (16-4, 11-0) at 7 p.m. Monday in a game that will be televised by FS1. That will be the Lady Bears' fourth game in nine days.
"I don't ever use fatigue as an excuse, because we've rested players," Mulkey said. "And if we get beat somewhere along the way, it will be because they played better. It won't be because we're tired."
