Baylor
3-0
Arizona State University
1-1
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | F |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Baylor | 8 | 16 | 19 | 22 | 65 |
| Arizona State | 19 | 16 | 12 | 12 | 59 |
No. 4 WBB Tops Arizona State in "Showdown on the Rez"
11/11/2018 9:24:00 PM | Women's Basketball
NaLyssa Smith had 16 points and 11 rebounds to lead the Lady Bears.
By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
After a couple home-court blowout victories to open the season, the fourth-ranked Baylor Lady Bears got the kind of test "that will make us better," coach Kim Mulkey said.
Playing on a Navajo Reservation in Defiance, Ariz., the Lady Bears (3-0) struggled out of the gates, turning it over six times in the first five minutes and trailing 23rd-ranked Arizona State (1-1) by as many as 14 points in the first half.
But, switching to a bigger lineup in the second half and playing lock-down perimeter defense, Baylor rallied to defeat the Sun Devils, 65-59, in Sunday's "Showdown on the Rez" to remain unbeaten.
"It wasn't pretty, which I expected. We needed this game," Mulkey said. "It's just one game, but it was a great environment, we'll grow up from this. I worry about executing things, which you saw a lot of bad basketball. But, I thought in some critical points in the game, we really did execute and get the ball in the hands of the right people."
Particularly in the second half, "the right people" were the inside trio of Kalani Brown, Lauren Cox and freshman NaLysssa Smith, who recorded her second straight double-double with 16 points and 11 rebounds.
"In the first half, they didn't necessarily surprise us, but just the way they were playing us we couldn't get the ball inside," said Cox, who had 14 points, nine rebounds and three assists. "They were fronting us, they had help side, so we didn't know how to get it inside. The second half, I think we were working harder inside to get position, and the guards were able to get us the ball."
One of the biggest keys was Brown staying out of foul trouble. She scored just one bucket before picking up her second foul at the 4:33 mark in the first quarter and sat out the rest of the half.
"It goes without saying, Kalani is too valuable to our team to play one minute," Mulkey said. "But, I wasn't putting her back in. I have a simple rule: you pick up two fouls in the first half, you're going to sit."
Knocking down 8-of-18 from 3-point range in the first half, Arizona State went up by as many as 14 in the second quarter and led by 11 at the break, 35-24.
"They were lighting it up," Mulkey said. "Kids that we didn't know about shooting the 3 were making the 3. There's an old adage that maybe the Golden State Warriors don't believe in this, because they shoot them all the time, but you can live and die by the 3. In the first half, the 3 got them the lead. I hope our defense fatigued them a little bit, and they shots they were making in the first half they started missing in the second half."
Smith kept the Lady Bears within striking distance in the first half, scoring 10 of her game-high 16 points, while Brown scored 12 of her 14 points in the second half.
Clawing back, Baylor tied it at 43-43 on a rebound and put back by Cox before the Sun Devils closed the third quarter on a 4-0 run to go up 47-43. The Sun Devils hit just one third-quarter trey and were 3-of-12 from outside the arc in the second half.
"We're a man-to-man team," Mulkey said. "I'm stubborn. I'm going to make you get out there and make a shot with me guarding you. Probably the biggest adjustment in the game was moving (Cox) to the perimeter with her size and (Smith) coming in and working inside with Kalani."
The Lady Bears hit five of their first six shots in the fourth quarter and went on a 12-0 run, taking the lead on a Smith fast-break layup, followed by a Juicy Landrum 3-pointer and a Cox layup to make it 55-47.
"I just thought our fight and our will to win carried us until we could get Kalani back on the floor," Mulkey said.
Grad transfer point guard Chloe Jackson gave Baylor its fourth double-figure scorer with 10 points, five assists and four rebounds in 40 minutes. Courtney Ekmark and Kianna Ibis combined for five of ASU's 11 3-pointers and scored 13 points apiece.
"I hate to lose worse than anybody, but if I would have walked in that locker room after this game and we would have lost, I would have had a lot of positive things to say," Mulkey said, "because these are the kinds of games that will make us better."
Baylor will host Southern at 6 p.m. Thursday before going back on the road to play South Dakota State and Georgetown in two weeks at the South Point Shootout in Las Vegas.
