Baylor
Oklahoma State
No. 1/1 WBB Stays Perfect in Big 12 Play
1/30/2019 9:16:00 PM | Women's Basketball
Lady Bears defeat Oklahoma State, 66-58.
STILLWATER, Okla. – Playing their first game as the No. 1-ranked team in the country in almost six years, nothing came easy for the Baylor Lady Bears Wednesday night at Gallagher-Iba Arena.
If not for some dead-eye shooting from the free throw line, the Lady Bears (18-1, 8-0) might have walked out of the gym with their first conference loss in two years.
Instead, Baylor shot 83 percent from the line (24-of-29) and outscored Oklahoma State by 17 at the charity stripe to pull out a hard-fought 66-58 road win over the Cowgirls, extending their Big 12 regular-season winning streaks to 31 overall and 31 straight on the road.
"I told (OSU head coach Jim Littell) after the game, 'Your kids executed your game plan to a tee. And if they play like that every night, they're going to win a lot of basketball games,''' said Mulkey, whose team also won its 10th game in a row and sixth straight against OSU. "It's hard to win, guys, it's hard to win on the road against well-coached teams."
No different than most teams, Oklahoma State packed the paint to try to contain Baylor's post combo of Kalani Brown and Lauren Cox. But in the opening half, the Lady Bears shot just 27 percent from the floor (8-of-30) and turned it over 10 times, taking a 29-27 lead into the break.
"They weren't doing anything we haven't seen," said Cox, who scored 12 of her team-high 16 points in the first half. "They were packing the paint, making us shoot outside shots. We were just missing shots that we usually make. They were just being real physical with us."
It was that physicality that proved the Cowgirls' undoing, though, as Baylor scored 12 points from the line in each half. Cox and Brown were a combined 14-of-16 from the line and helped the Lady Bears dominate the boards, 49-31, getting 14 second-chance points off 13 offensive rebounds.
"It was very obvious that was part of their game plan," Mulkey said of OSU, which was whistled for 23 fouls. "You've got five fouls to give, throw a bunch of bodies in there at Kalani Brown and don't let get many touches. That's what a lot of people do to her, unfortunately. Those six shots, she has to work for them every night. She kept working, found some open teammates.'
Brown recorded her 33rd career double-double with 11 points and 12 rebounds, while Cox had her third of the season and 21st of her career with 16 points and 13 boards. Juicy Landrum and DiDi Richards rounded out Baylor's double-figure scorers with 15 and 12 points, respectively, with Richards adding eight rebounds, five assists, two blocks and a steal.
Scoring double-digit points for the fourth time in the last seven games, freshman guard Ja'Mee Asberry hit six 3-pointers and poured in a career-high 22 points by the midway point in the third quarter. But, she missed her last four attempts and finished 8-of-18 overall and a near-perfect 6-of-8 from outside the arc.
Mulkey said she didn't do anything differently on Asberry in the fourth quarter, "I just challenged Chloe Jackson to do a better job of coming off that screen."
"I don't want to say she did a better job because I'd have to go look at film," Mulkey said. "It could have been that Asberry didn't shoot it as much and was looking for the two wing players. Or, it could be Chloe did. . . . I thought we pretty much did a decent job on (Vivian) Gray and (Braxtin) Miller. Our two best perimeter defenders made them work for everything they got. If Asberry can give them that kind of production, that's three great offensive weapons for Oklahoma State."'
Jackson, who had nine points, five rebounds and two assists but also turned it over five times, accepted Mulkey's challenge. She blocked an Asberry 3-pointer on OSU's first possession of the fourth quarter and fed Cox for a 3-pointer that put the Lady Bears back on top for good, 51-48, after trailing by as many as six late in the third quarter.
"I knew we needed something, and I had missed some other 3's," Cox said. "But this one, I was feeling it, I stepped right into it, and it felt good."
Gray and Miller, who came in as two of the league's leading scorers, were just 10-of-34 from the floor and were held well below their season averages with 12 points apiece.
"Their record may not show it, but they're one of the top teams in the Big 12. They have some great players," Cox said of OSU, which fell to 12-7 overall and 3-5 in the league. "A road win is always big for us because going on the road anywhere is tough."
Baylor returns home to host Texas Tech (10-10, 1-8) at 1 p.m. Saturday before going back on the road for a matchup against No. 12/14 Texas (17-4, 7-2) at 6 p.m. Monday in Austin.
