No. 5/4 WBB Scores 127 in Exhibition Win

Thursday, November 1

Waco, Texas

7 p.m.

Baylor

0-0

127

Texas A&M-Commerce

0-0

Texas A&M-Commerce

Baylor

127

Photo by: Baylor Photography

No. 5/4 WBB Scores 127 in Exhibition Win

11/1/2018 10:28:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score Box Score Postgame Notes Postgame Quotes Highlights

Queen Egbo led the Lady Bears with 24 points.

By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider

Even without one true point guard, the fourth-ranked Baylor Lady Bears are sharing the ball quite nicely.

Led by LSU grad transfer Chloe Jackson (seven assists, zero turnovers), Baylor had nearly a 4-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio with 38 assists and just 10 turnovers in wrapping up exhibition play with a 127-61 rout of Texas A&M-Commerce Thursday night before a crowd of 5,063 at the Ferrell Center.

Freshman center Queen Egbo scored a game-high 24 points in 27 minutes, and even flirted with a triple-double, finishing with nine rebounds and six assists. Eight of Baylor's 10 scholarship players that saw game action scored in double figures, with freshman guard Honesty Scott-Grayson adding 16, Kalani Brown and NaLyssa Smith 15 apiece, Moon Ursin and Juicy Landrum both with 13 and Trinity Oliver and Caitlin Bickle each with 10.

"I'm very pleased with Chloe Jackson. That's a kid that's never had to play point guard, and she can do it," coach Kim Mulkey said. "She pushes the ball up the floor. She's going to be fine. . . . We did some good things tonight. We didn't turn the ball over. We don't have a problem scoring. Our problem is on the defensive end. We're not guarding the basketball well enough as a team."

Sophomore DiDi Richards and freshman Aquira DeCosta were both held out of the game for precautionary reasons because of injuries.

Baylor dominated in every way possible, but the Lady Bears' size advantage played out in a 51-19 edge on the boards, 84-20 in paint points and 30-4 on second-chance points. The visiting Lions started a pair of 6-footers but had no one that could match up with the size of the 6-7 Brown or the 6-3 Egbo.

After fouling out in just seven minutes of the Lady Bears' exhibition opener against Langston University last Friday, Egbo said she "used that as motivation not to foul out of this game and I really thought about what I was doing on the defensive end to try to prevent those same type of fouls."

Mulkey said Egbo's foul trouble in the exhibition opener was "contagious, from one freshman to another," with both Smith and Bickle fouling out of Thursday's game.

"That isn't coaching. I can't take the blame for fouls," Mulkey said. "You've got to figure out how to get your hands off of the, move your feet; and they will. I personally think it's fatigue sometimes, because they're having to play harder than they've ever played in their life. And they're having to learn defensive principles that are probably different from high school. I think it's they want to do good and just get too aggressive. I think it's a little bit of all of it."

One thing is certain, Mulkey's not afraid to dip into her bench. Barely a minute and a half into Thursday's game, she swapped out her five starters for the next five off the bench with the Lady Bears leading just 1-0 after missing their first four shots from the field and one of two from the line.

"I didn't think the first group had enough energy," Mulkey said, "so I brought that second group in real quick, and they did really good."

Baylor's subs, led by Egbo and Grayson, hit their first seven shots and stretched the lead to 16-3.

Egbo had 14 points by halftime and was an efficient 10-of-16 from the floor for the game, helping the Lady Bears go up 56-30 by the break.

"Just posting up and being a strong post player is my best aspect to my game is what I feel like," she said.

With six newcomers, including five freshmen, Mulkey said it will take a while for her to figure out the lineup and rotation.

"I needed to find somebody to play the point. I think Chloe is the first place I go. I think she's doing fine," she said. "You know you've got (Lauren) Cox and Kalani. Then you work around those three kids. You've got Juicy returning, you've got DiDi returning, then you've got to look at your freshmen. They're going to be up and down. I wish I could look into a little magic ball and see which one's going to play good tonight, and that's the one that's going to get to play. You take them in and out. That's what we have to do all year with six new faces. I can't just roll the ball out there."

Like Jackson, Landrum is probably more comfortable at the shooting guard spot, but "I'm kind of used to playing the point guard."

"Coach moves me from (point guard) to (shooting guard). And Chloe relieves me, and I relieve her," said Landrum, who hit two fourth-quarter 3-pointers to get into double digits and finished with six assists and just one turnover. "In practice, Coach always tells us just to alternate and go from 1 to 2, and whoever is closer to the ball just catch it and move and go. If I'm at the 2, Chloe just goes to the 1. And if I'm at the 1, she moves to the 2."

Baylor opens the regular season as the early part of a doubleheader with the men next Tuesday, Nov. 6, facing Nicholls State at 6 p.m.