Baylor
22-1, 12-0
Kansas State
15-10, 6-7
No. 1/1 WBB Stifles Kansas State
2/13/2019 9:01:00 PM | Women's Basketball
Chloe Jackson tallied 16 points, seven assists and five steals.
MANHATTAN, Kan. – Knowing that Kansas State's defense was going to sag off and dare her to shoot, Chloe Jackson was challenged to "step up and just make those mid-range jumpers."
Challenge accepted.
Scoring in double digits for the first time in five games, Baylor's senior point guard knocked down 8-of-17 from the floor and scored a game-high 16 points to help the top-ranked Lady Bears defeat the Wildcats, 71-48, Wednesday night at Bramlage Coliseum for their 35th consecutive conference win and 33rd in a row on the road.
"They don't respect it, so I've got to make them respect it," Jackson said. "It's definitely a confidence-builder, for sure. Being able to knock down some shots is big, because a lot of teams will look at that and be like, 'OK, she hit these, so we've got to come out.' I'm just taking what the defensive gives me."
With K-State (15-10, 6-7) packing the paint and trying to keep it out of 6-7 All-American Kalani Brown's hands in the post, it left Jackson and junior guard Juicy Landrum open. Jackson added seven assists and tied her season high with five assists, while Landrum buried her only two 3-point attempts and chipped in with 15 points, five assists and four boards.
"I think offensively, she just looked for her shot more," said Baylor coach Kim Mulkey, whose team improved to 22-1 overall and 12-0 in the Big 12. "I reminded her that yeah, you run the offense, and you make the first pass to get us into the offense. But, you're allowing too many people not to guard you. You need to step up and just make those mid-range jumpers. And she did tonight."
Even when Jackson and Landrum combined to score 20 first-half points and help Baylor jump out to a 40-22 lead, the Wildcats never did come out on the shooters. They made it tough all night on Brown, who took just five shots from the floor and still recorded her fourth double-double of the season with 10 points and 12 rebounds.
"They just congested the paint and made it hard for my teammates to pass me the ball," Brown said.
"They never came out, they kept challenging our perimeter players to shoot it," Mulkey said. "And they were hot and made shots. It was baffling to me, but that was their game plan. . . . You can do that all night. We've got kids that can score at other positions. I thought we were very good at sharing the ball and getting shots. Chloe Jackson and Juicy, they can nail those shots."
Just as impressive, if not more so, was a Baylor defense that limited K-State to 27 percent shooting overall and a dismal 4-of-24 from outside the arc. Peyton Williams and Kayla Goth, a duo that was averaging almost 30 points a game, hit just 7-of-30 from the floor and scored a total of 18 points.
"Let me just say one word: defense," Mulkey said. "I can't say enough about (Lauren) Cox's defense on Peyton Williams and DiDi (Richards') defense on Goff. For DiDi to catch a flight and get in here at the last minute, what a team player she is."
Facing double- and sometimes triple-teams, Baylor's post duo of Brown and Cox still came within one board of matching double-double performances. While Brown had 10 points and a game-high 12 rebounds, Cox finished with 14 points, nine boards and five assists.
Williams scored a team-high 11 points for the Wildcats, with Jasauen Beard getting 10 points and six rebounds off the bench. K-State has lost 31 in a row to Baylor but fell at home for just the fourth time this season.
The Lady Bears, who have strung together 14 consecutive wins since their lone loss of the year, return home for their next two. They host Oklahoma (6-17, 2-10) at 7 p.m. Saturday and Kansas (12-11, 2-10) at 6 p.m. next Wednesday, Feb. 20.
