No. 2 WBB Hangs Tough in Home Win over No. 22 South Florida

Tuesday, November 19

Waco, Texas

7:00 PM

Baylor

4-0,0-0Big 12

South Florida

4-1,0-0AAC

South Fla.

Baylor

No. 2 WBB Hangs Tough in Home Win over No. 22 South Florida

11/19/2019 9:32:00 PM | Women's Basketball

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Baylor takes first ranked win of the season

By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
            Out of sync on the offensive end without 6-4 senior All-American forward Lauren Cox, the second-ranked Baylor Lady Bears relied on the thing that makes Cox one of the best players in the country. Defense.
            After slicing through its first three games like a sharp knife through liquid butter, Baylor (4-0) grinded out a hard-fought 58-46 win over No. 22 South Florida (4-1) Tuesday night before a Ferrell Center crowd of 7,485.
            "That was a battle, wasn't it?" said Baylor coach Kim Mulkey, whose team has won 33 in a row overall, 43 straight at home and 53 consecutive non-conference games. "Two teams that got after each other. It was physical. We got to the foul line 39 times. You make a little more than we did from the foul line, you might could've breathed a little more."
            Nothing about this game was easy.
            Baylor shot just 35.6 percent from the floor, made 1-of-6 from outside the arc, missed 14 free throws (35-of-49) and failed to score at least 60 points for the first time since a 60-57 loss to Oregon State 3 ½ years ago in the 2016 NCAA Tournament Elite Eight.
            "Our offense is not in the flow yet," Mulkey said. "We think one option, two options, and then we're supposed to score. It's going to take some time, but we'll get there."
            The Lady Bears' struggles didn't extend to the defensive end, though, where Baylor forced 19 turnovers, blocked seven shots and held South Florida to 29 percent shooting (17-of-59) overall and 7-of-24 from 3-point distance.
            "We knew that if we couldn't score on offense, as long as they didn't score, we were going to win the game," said junior wing DiDi Richards, who had eight points, five rebounds, two blocks and a team-high seven assists and three steals.
            Baylor jumped out to a 13-4 lead in the first quarter, but South Florida guard Elisa Pinzan drained a desperation 3-point shot near the midcourt line to make it a 15-10 game.
            The Bulls' inside-out balance of Pinzan (14 points, six assists) and former junior college All-American forward Bethy Mununga (16 points, 12 rebounds) helped them stay within reach until a bookend 13-4 closing run over the last 6 ½ minutes.
            Mununga drained a 3-pointer from the corner, then scored a layup off an assist from Pinzan that cut the deficit to 45-42 with 6:33 left. But, the Bulls hit just one of their last eight shots from the floor, with Baylor stretching it to a double-digit lead when Juicy Landrum hit the Lady Bears' only 3-pointer of the night with 1:07 left in the game.
            "I don't just look at that one moment in the game, because there were many moments where they cut it," Mulkey said. "Good teams compete. They competed and we competed. I can't criticize this team because of what they did today. We will get better in areas, but defense won this game for us."
            After starting the first game that Cox missed because of a stress reactor in her right foot, 6-3 sophomore center Queen Egbo came off the bench to record her fourth career double-double and first of the season with 16 points and 10 rebounds.
            Egbo was just 2-of-8 from the free throw line, but scored six of her 16 points in the final quarter with the game on the line.
            "It felt good, knowing your team trusted you and your coaches trusted you to put you in a situation where every single play matters," Egbo said. "It's definitely not an opportunity you want to give away."
            The biggest thing was Egbo "was giving us a post presence," Mulkey said. "We could see her number. She was running the floor and posting up big."
            NaLyssa Smith and grad transfer point guard Te'a Cooper scored 12 points apiece, while Landrum played every minute and finished with 10 points, eight rebounds, three steals and two assists.
            On the defensive end, Richards held South Florida guard Enna Pehadzic to just three points on 1-of-11 shooting and 1-of-7 from outside the arc. Coming into the game, Pehadzic was the Bulls' leading scorer (15.5 ppg) and had knocked down 51.6 percent of her 3-point attempts (16-of-31).
            "It's what I'm supposed to do, guard their best player," Richards said. "It's what I've been doing since last year. . . . I don't feel like it had an effect on my offensive game. I just wasn't able to complete shots at the end of the day, but I got to the free throw line."
            The Lady Bears wrap up their season-opening five-game home stand with a matchup against Lamar (1-2) at 7 p.m. Thursday before traveling to the Virgin Islands to play Washington State (2-0), 18^th-ranked Indiana (3-0) and No. 5 South Carolina (4-0) in next week's Paradise Jam.