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| Postgame Press Conference

By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Foundation

On a Senior Night when the third-ranked Baylor Lady Bears celebrated winning their eighth consecutive Big 12 regular-season title, it felt like the guest of honor didn't stick around for the party.

Even after running the table in conference play for just the third time in program history with a convincing 80-54 win over West Virginia Monday night at the Ferrell Center, the mood was tempered by the sobering reality that the Lady Bears (28-1, 18-0) might have to play the rest of the way without senior point guard Kristy Wallace.

At the start of the second quarter, Wallace was trying to chase down West Virginia guard Ashley Jones on an inbounds pass deep into the Mountaineers' back court when her plant leg slipped on the floor. She was still clutching her right knee when Johnson fed Teana Muldrow for a layup on the other end.

"Look, if Kristy Wallace could play, she would have been out there. So, you know it's serious," coach Kim Mulkey said of Wallace, who had five points, three rebound and two assists, all in the first quarter. "I'm sure they'll get an MRI, and you know what those results could be. But I can't diagnose it without a doctor telling me what it is."

West Virginia coach Mike Carey, who's had junior guard Tynice Martin out all year with a foot injury, said he "felt sick to my stomach when (Wallace) did it."

"All I saw was her laying there. I really didn't see it happen," said Carey, whose team fell to 20-10 overall and sixth in the league at 8-10. "When she was holding that knee, I've seen that so many times. Hopefully, it's not as bad, but that's not a good feeling."

An emotionally drained Mulkey said it was "just an absolutely wonderful night," but she stood far back from the podium as Baylor Vice President and Director of Athletics Mack Rhoades presented the team with the Big 12 championship trophy. She buried her face in a towel, overcome with the emotion of so many events.

"There was a lot of emotion," said Mulkey, whose team won its 25th game in a row. "The culmination of an undefeated (conference) season, third in the history of the program; playing only five players tonight; disciplining two freshmen for very minor violations, things that other coaches would never discipline for. But, if you don't teach them a lesson early, you lose them. And then Kristy Wallace. To think what this program and this team has done, not for ourselves but for this university."

With freshman guard Trinity Oliver out with an ACL injury, sophomore guard Natalie Chou sidelined with a wrist injury and freshman guards Alexis Morris and Didi Richards suspended for violation of a team policy, the Lady Bears went into the game with basically six available players. That number went down to five when Wallace went out on the first play of the second quarter.

Kalani Brown, Lauren Cox and Juicy Landrum played all 40 minutes, never leaving the floor; freshman guard Moon Ursin logged a career-high 30 minutes and didn't leave after replacing Wallace; and senior Dekeiya Cohen was replaced with just 29.9 seconds left by Chou, who was cleared to play Monday and had her left hand heavily bandaged around a hard cast.

"I can't say enough about five kids that just gutted it out against a very physical, well-coached West Virginia team," Mulkey said. "We weren't out there playing somebody that can't play. Juicy goes out there and plays the point. And Moon gets out there and does what she does. I just couldn't be prouder of a basketball team."

With a team that has gone through one adversity after another, Mulkey said she will look back many years later and realize what a blessing this team was.

"That team lifted each other up and lifted me up as a coach because they care," she said. "They care about each other, they care about this school. . . . You've got to have faith. This team, it just amazes me how they deal with tragedies, life's tragedies, and we just keep playing and we keep winning."

It was an incredibly gutty effort by a Lady Bear team that didn't substitute after Wallace's injury until those last 30 seconds, when Chou came in just so Cohen could leave the floor to a standing ovation.

"You always like to get seniors an ovation if you have the lead and you can," Mulkey said. "I think Natalie was happier than anybody. She has that old offensive line club hand that they play with in football. And she handled it pretty dang well there in the end, if you ask me."

By the end of the game, Brown, Cox and Cohen looked completely exhausted, on the brink of just collapsing.

"It's hard, especially going against a physical team like West Virginia," said the 6-foot-4 Cox, who recorded her 12th career double-double with 17 points and 16 rebounds. "But, we've just got to have mental toughness. We've just got to get through it."

Cohen added her fourth double-double of the season with 18 points, 10 boards and a career-high five blocks, and the 6-7 Brown had 14 points and eight rebounds. The Lady Bears dominated the rebounding battle, 52-32, outscored the Mountaineers, 38-22, in the paint and blocked 10 of West Virginia's 64 shots.

"Give them credit, they played defense on us, didn't give us a lot of open looks," Carey said. "It seemed like every time we went in the paint, we ate a Nike (got a shot blocked). I don't know if they have enough leather to have another game, but we ate enough of it."

Baylor also got strong guard play from Ursin and Landrum, who matched her career high with 20 points and added seven assists, five rebounds and two blocks. Ursin, who had averaged just 8.6 minutes in the 11 conference games she had played previously, chipped in with six points, four rebounds, three assists and a steal.

"Heck yeah, (Ursin) played well. Juicy played well," Mulkey said. "Moon hadn't been put in that situation. Opportunity knocked, and she wasn't as nervous as she is sometimes. She just went out there and played. I'm just happy for those two kids, in particular, because the other three are normal starters."

Asked if the team could still make an NCAA Tournament run without Wallace, Cohen said, "I believe so."

"We always try different rotations. I think we can do it without Kristy," she said. "I know she would want us to go out and play even harder for her. So, we're going to go out there, make adjustments and try to fill in where she left off."

As the No. 1 seed for the Big 12 Championship that starts Friday in Oklahoma City, Baylor has a first-round bye and will play in Saturday's 1:30 p.m. quarterfinal against the winner of Friday's 8/9 seed game between Kansas (12-16, 3-4) and either Kansas State (15-14, 7-11) or Iowa State (12-16, 6-11).