Baylor
7-0
Indiana
5-1
WBB Powers Past No. 17/23 Indiana at Paradise Jam
11/29/2019 6:52:00 PM | Women's Basketball
DiDi Richards' 20 points helps BU improve to 7-0 on the season
ST. THOMAS, U.S. Virgin Islands – Seriously pushed for just the second time in seven games, the second-ranked Baylor Lady Bears "grew up" in Friday's game against No. 17 Indiana at the Paradise Jam.
After the Hoosiers (5-1) got within four points in the fourth quarter, Baylor (7-0) closed the game on a 12-1 run in the last 3 ½ minutes and pulled away for a 77-62 victory to run its winning streak to 36-consecutive games dating back to last season.
"We grew up," said Baylor coach Kim Mulkey. "You're playing without (6-4 senior All-American Lauren) Cox. You're playing with three starters on the bench in the first half. You're playing with another starter by me in the second half. . . . I just thought we competed. I thought again our defense was special. The defense has to carry us until we can get everybody on the floor and become more poised offensively."
DiDi Richards scored a game-high 20 points, Queen Egbo recorded her sixth career double-double with 14 points and 14 rebounds and Te'a Cooper finished one assist shy of a double-double with 17 points and nine assists.
Coming off a win over fifth-ranked South Carolina, Indiana jumped out to a 9-4 lead in the first 3 ½ minutes, with the Lady Bears missing six of their first eight shots. Richards hit back-to-back jumpers and then scored one of the team's two buckets in the last minute of the first quarter to put Baylor back on top, 19-16.
Cooper, Egbo and sophomore forward NaLyssa Smith all picked up two fouls in the first half, but Baylor stretched its lead to as many as 11 and went into the halftime break with a 37-29 lead.
Indiana started the second half on a 7-1 run and pulled within 38-36 on a jumper by Aleska Gulbe with 7:16 left in the third quarter. Richards had a three-point play to get the Lady Bears back on track and helped them take an eight-point lead, 54-46, into the fourth.
"Just don't panic," Mulkey said. "You've got two kids on that floor most of the night that were starters on the national championship (Richards and senior guard Juicy Landrum). Don't let your team lose its composure. I think there was one little spurt where we kind of lost our composure. There was a time out and we gathered ourselves. We came back and just didn't look at the score. Just got play, go execute something."
The Hoosiers had one more run in them, getting to within 65-61 on a layup by Mackenzie Holmes, who finished with 11 points and seven rebounds. Grace Berger and Ali Patberg had 18 and 16 points, respectively, to lead the way.
Baylor's defense responded, holding Indiana to just one point over the last four minutes. The Hoosiers turned it over once and missed their last six shots, finishing 41 percent from the field overall and 5-of-17 from 3-point range.
"We just didn't shoot it particularly well," Indiana coach Teri Moren said. "It seems like we had a lot of great, open shots, too, but we couldn't get them to fall. Because we struggled a little bit offensively, that affected us defensively. Our kids battled, and had opportunities. But, we missed layups, we missed free throws."
Finishing out their three-game tournament run, the Lady Bears will face No. 5 South Carolina (7-1) at 7 p.m. CST Saturday. The Gamecocks bounced back from a 71-57 loss to Indiana to defeat Washington State, 68-53.
In the other second-day matchups at the Paradise Jam, top-ranked Oregon blew out UT-Arlington, 91-54; and No. 8 Louisville dominated Oklahoma State, 68-49. Louisville faces Oregon in a marquee matchup at 2:15 p.m. Saturday.
All the tournament games are being streamed on FloHoops.com.
BIG PICTURE
The Lady Bears' winning streak over Top 25 teams now stands at 10 consecutive games, dating to the 2018-2019 season. Their last Top 25 loss came Dec. 15, 2018, against then-No. 11 Stanford.
