WBB Routs New Hampshire in Season Opener, 97-29

Tuesday, November 5

Waco, Texas

6:00 PM

Baylor

1-0 #2/2

New Hampshire

0-1

New Hampshire

Baylor

WBB Routs New Hampshire in Season Opener, 97-29

11/5/2019 8:40:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score PDF Box Score Postgame Notes

Lady Bears unveil championship banner, rings prior to contest

By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
            By the end of the first quarter of Tuesday night's season opener at the Ferrell Center, Kim Mulkey and New Hampshire coach Maureen Magarity had the same message: Don't look at the scoreboard.
            After getting their hefty national championship rings and seeing their latest banner unveiled in a pregame ceremony, the second-ranked Lady Bears came out on fire and scored the first 37 points of the game on the way to a 97-29 rout of the visiting Wildcats before a crowd of 7,606 on opening night.
            "What a great opportunity for us just to be here, to compete against the best," Magarity said. "Obviously, this is going to be a tough game and you almost get to the point where you don't want to look at the score. . . . The second half, I felt like we came out with a little more fight and just a little bit more focus."
            Despite all the pomp and circumstance of the ring ceremony celebrating the program's third national championship, the Lady Bears couldn't have come out any more focused. They blitzed out to a 23-0 first-quarter lead and stretched it to 37-0 on a three-point play by 6-6 grad transfer Erin DeGrate 3 ½ minutes into the second quarter.
            "What I try to emphasize is don't look at the scoreboard," said Mulkey, who started her 20^th season at Baylor by passing her former mentor and Baylor assistant Leon Barmore with her 577^th career win. "And when the game is over, were you valuable or were you a liability? After the game, I ask each of them, tell me one thing you think you could have done better. Continue to coach, continue to stress to each of them what they bring to the table."
            Sophomores NaLyssa Smith and Queen Egbo, who sat out the two exhibition games, combined for 39 points and 19 rebounds in their first action. Smith recorded her fourth career double-double with 21 points and a career-high 14 rebounds, while Egbo had 14 points in 14 minutes.
            "We were itching a lot. We knew we were supposed to be out there," Smith said. "I felt a lot more comfortable. Because I have to start this year, I know my teammates are depending on me, just like they were last year. So, it feels good."
            The 6-foot-2 Smith was joined in the starting lineup by 6-4 All-American forward Lauren Cox, grad transfer point guard Te'a Cooper from South Carolina and the returning backcourt duo of DiDi Richards and Juicy Landrum.
            "She's not replacing Kalani (Brown)," Mulkey said of the Lady Bears' 6-7 All-American center from last season. "They're two totally different type players. (Smith) just has that athleticism about her. She's always going to be around the rim, she's always going to run the floor. She's not a back-to-the-basket post player. We don't want her to be. Just be NaLyssa."
            After hitting three of her first six shots and scoring seven of Baylor's first nine points, Cox was just 1-of-7 the rest of the way. But, she still posted her 29^th career double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds.
            "I just wasn't knocking down the shots I usually make," Cox said. "You just have to do other things – pass, rebound . . ."
            The 6-6 DeGrate rounded out Baylor's double-digit scorers with 18 points in just 18 minutes, most of her points coming on layups when she got rewarded for running the floor.
            "She's been told that if you want to play here, you're going to have to run with us," Mulkey said of DeGrate, who averaged 8.2 points and 5.3 rebounds last year at Tech. "I don't care how tall you are, how big you are. Ask Kalani Brown, ask any of the post players we've had here through the years. We're going to run from foul line to foul line. If you'll run, we're a better team."
            New Hampshire finally got on the board at the 6:15 mark of the second quarter on a Caroline Soucy layup and finished the first half with just three points – the fewest ever by a Baylor opponent. The Lady Bears' previous record was five points by Texas State in 2010 and 2016.
            That stifling defense held the Wildcats to just 1-of-28 shooting in the first half and 9-of-58 (15.5 percent) for the game, including 2-of-19 from outside the 3-point arc.
            "They're just such an amazing team, just their size and their strength," Magarity said. "But, some of those shots, it was frustrating to see them. They started to get like, 'Coach, we're getting good looks, they're just not falling.' And I told them, 'I know, guys. It has a lot to do with their defense.'''
            New Hampshire was outscored by just six in the third quarter (22-16) and scored in double digits in the fourth quarter as well (24-10), with guard Helena Delaruelle leading the way with 12 points.
            Richards tied a career high with nine assists, adding six points, five rebounds and four steals in 21 minutes. All 11 Baylor players scored in the game, with freshman guard Jordyn Oliver finally getting in the scorebook on a driving layup with 1:23 left in the game.
            Starting the season with a five-game home stand, Baylor will host Grambling State (0-1) at 6 p.m. Friday. The Lady Tigers also opened Tuesday night, falling at home to Florida, 72-65.