
No. 8/7 WBB Rolls to Win in Lubbock
1/6/2019 2:10:00 PM | Women's Basketball
Freshman Queen Egbo scored a career-high 19 points to go with 10 rebounds
LUBBOCK – With the shoe on the other foot and a target on their backs in Sunday's Big 12 opener, the No. 8/7 Baylor Lady Bears handled it just fine.
Freshman center Queen Egbo recorded her second double-double in the last three games, scoring a career-high 19 points to go with 10 rebounds, as Baylor (11-1, 1-0) followed up its win over top-ranked UConn by beating Texas Tech, 73-56, at United Supermarkets Arena.
It was Mulkey's 550th career win, 18th in a row over Tech and 27th consecutive road win in conference play.
"Because we're the UConn in the Big 12, we know that we have the target on our back," coach Kim Mulkey said. "We've won it eight straight years. Any off night for us is a win for somebody else. . . . You're in the meat of our schedule now for 18 games. They know how hard it is, those upperclassmen. They know how physical it is. They know going on the road you're going to get everybody's best shot."
The only disappointment for Mulkey was the way the game ended. Leading by 15 at the break, the Lady Bears went up by as many as 31 midway through the fourth quarter before Tech closed the game on a 19-5 run against Baylor's subs.
"That was a 30-point ballgame," Mulkey said. "I subbed the bench, and it went down to 17. Needless to say, we didn't finish it the way we played the entire day."
It was the bench, and more specifically Egbo and NaLyssa Smith, that helped the Lady Bears blow this game open. With senior All-American Kalani Brown getting into early foul trouble and finishing with just 10 points in 10 minutes, it was Egbo and Smith that picked up the slack.
While Smith chipped in with 14 points and seven boards off the bench, Egbo hit eight of her first 10 shots before missing seven of her last eight.
Mulkey said the 6-foot-3 Egbo is a "tremendous athlete." She had a career-high 15 points and 13 rebounds in a 98-37 win over UTRGV on New Year's Eve before sitting out Thursday's 68-57 upset of top-ranked UConn.
"She can just elevate about you when she catches the ball on the block. She runs the floor like a deer. She's just so athletic," Mulkey said. "She got fatigued there late, but she was a spark plug for us. She's just getting better and better."
After using the 6-2 Smith as the only sub in the game against UConn, Mulkey went to her bench early and often in Sunday's game. Moon Ursin chipped in with five points as Baylor's bench outscored the Tech reserves, 40-5.
"Kalani got in foul trouble. She wasn't necessarily needed in the fourth quarter, nor was Cox needed," Mulkey said. "it was a time for those other two freshman post players to get minutes."
Tech came out firing, leading by as many as four and going up 16-15 on a layup by freshman guard Chrislyn Carr. But, Baylor closed the first quarter with a 7-0 run that included a three-point play and jumper by Chloe Jackson and a DiDi Richards bucket.
With Egbo leading the way, scoring 11 points and hitting 5-of-6 from the floor, Baylor dominated the second quarter. Jackson appeared to answer a Carr 3-pointer with a banked shot from well beyond the arc that would have given the Lady Bears a 46-28 lead at the break, but it was overturned on a replay review.
Until the lapse in the last six minutes, this was every bit as dominant as Baylor has been in winning eight consecutive Big 12 regular-season titles and seven of the last eight Big 12 tournaments.
Tech (9-4, 0-2) got 19 points from Carr, one off her scoring average, but she scored just four points in the second half and was 7-of-29 from the floor and 4-of-17 outside the arc.
"When you shoot it that many times, which I guess for her team she has to, you're going to make some," Mulkey said of Carr. "That's what I told my kids is that, 'My gosh, if you shoot it that many times, percentages are you're going to make some.' We knew that she would shoot it a lot."
Jackson had a solid all-around game for the Lady Bears with 11 points, five rebounds, four assists and three steals, while sophomore guard Sydney Goodson scored 12 of her 15 points in the fourth quarter. Cox, playing just 21 minutes, had eight points, four boards and three blocks.
Baylor returns home to host Kansas State (10-4, 1-1) at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Ferrell Center. The Wildcats are coming off an impressive 86-56 win over Oklahoma after opening league play with a blowout loss at 25th-ranked Iowa State.