Cooper, Egbo Notch Career Highs in Win over HBU

Thursday, November 14

Waco, Texas

7:00 PM

Baylor

3-0,0-0Big 12

112

Houston Baptist

2-1,0-0Southland

Houston Baptist

Baylor

112

Cooper, Egbo Notch Career Highs in Win over HBU

11/14/2019 9:28:00 PM | Women's Basketball

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Cooper scores 23 first-half points while Egbo posts 21 points

By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
            Certainly, there will be tougher tests down the road.
            But, playing without 6-4 senior All-American forward Lauren Cox for the first time in almost two years, the second-ranked Baylor Lady Bears (3-0) got career nights from grad transfer point guard Te'a Cooper and sophomore center Queen Egbo in a 112-42 rout of the Houston Baptist Huskies (2-1) Thursday night before a Ferrell Center crowd of 7,539.
            "We have to make some adjustments with Cox being out, and it's not like we don't have the talent," said Baylor coach Kim Mulkey, whose team won its national-best 32^nd consecutive game and 42^nd in a row at home. "We just have to adjust to not having her on the floor and make sure that everybody does what they do best and go compete."
            Missing her first game since Nov. 18, 2017, when she missed the team's trip to UCLA, Cox is sidelined by a stress reaction after an MRI detected a "hot spot" in her right foot.
             "We'll rest her as long as we can rest her," Mulkey said of Cox, who recorded double-doubles in each of the team's first two games this season. "It's nothing major, it's not a fracture."
            Making her first career start, 6-3 sophomore center Queen Egbo was 9-of-13 from the floor and finished with a career-high 21 points to go with six rebounds, three steals and a block in 23 minutes.
            Mulkey said Egbo "tried to do too much" in the first half, when she had four points and three turnovers. She came
            "I wouldn't say nerves, I just didn't seem as comfortable in the first half," Egbo said. "In the second half, I was looser and I knew what to expect at the time and I knew just run the floor and let the game come to you," Egbo said. "In the first half, I think was just over-thinking and, like Coach said, trying too hard."
            Cooper, who had scored 16 points combined in the first two games, matched Houston Baptist with 13 first-quarter points and helped the Lady Bears take a 30-13 lead. She scored all 23 of her points in the first half and added a career-high 10 assists for her first career double-double.
            "That felt good," Cooper said of the 10 assists. "I'm at the point guard position again, so that's refreshing. . . . I didn't really make anything happen. My teammates found me, I made shots. In the second half, they made shots. That's just how the game went."
            Part of Houston Baptist's problems, particularly in the first half, was just fouling too much. The Huskies were hit with 16 fouls in the first half, giving Baylor 17 free throws to take a 56-22 lead into intermission.
            "We weren't used to that speed and athleticism," said HBU head coach Donna Finnie, whose team had posted lopsided wins over LSU-Shreveport and Paul Quinn. "We don't face that . . . ever. The girls, just adjusting to the pact they were having to plat at and reach in a little too much, gave them way too many free throws."
            For the third-straight game, every available player scored for the Lady Bears. Sophomore forward NaLyssa Smith added 16 points and seven rebounds, while 6-6 grad transfer center Erin DeGrate contributed 14 points and six boards in 19 minutes.
            "I tell these people, you're as good as the people around you," Mulkey said. "You can't go play this game by yourself and be successful. (DeGrate) has got players around her who get her the ball and make it easy for her. She is comfortable with her surroundings, and she's blessed with the size."
            HBU, which shot just 26 percent overall (15-of-58) and 2-of-21 from 3-point range, was led by Lauren Calver with 11 points off the bench. The Huskies held their own on the boards, getting outrebounded 44-30, but got outscored 68-20 in the paint and 24-2 in fast-break points.
            Wrapping up the five-game home stand, Baylor will face 25^th-ranked South Florida (3-0) on Tuesday and then Lamar (1-2) next Thursday, Nov. 21, before heading to the Virgin Islands for the Paradise Jam.