Baylor
20-1, 10-0
Texas
18-5, 8-3
No. 1/1 WBB Holds Off No. 12/14 Texas
2/4/2019 8:45:00 PM | Women's Basketball
Moon Ursin had a career- and game-high 20 points off the bench.
By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
AUSTIN, Texas – Baylor has certainly been pushed at times in a mind-boggling streak of winning 32 consecutive conference road games. But few like this.
Trailing by 21, the 12th-ranked Texas Longhorns shot a sizzling 63 percent in the fourth quarter (9-of-13) and went on a 14-2 run that threw a scare into the top-ranked Lady Bears, eventually whittling the deficit down to four.
Hitting four free throws in the last 30 seconds, though, Baylor (20-1, 10-0) had just enough to escape with a 74-68 victory Monday night at the Frank Erwin Center in taking a huge step toward its ninth consecutive Big 12 championship.
"I don't really want to say (we put it on cruise control), because I think that would take away from Texas," Baylor coach Kim Mulkey said. "I don't want to take away from their effort in the fourth quarter. That effort they gave in the fourth quarter, Lordy mercy, if they give it for four quarters, they're not going to lose many games."
Behind a career- and game-high 20 points from sophomore guard Moon Ursin off the bench, Baylor won its 33rd straight Big 12 regular-season game, 32nd on the road and ninth in a row in Austin. The Lady Bears have won 19 of the last 20 meetings with Texas (18-5, 8-3), which is now 2 ½ games behind in the Big 12 standings.
"I was just knocking down big shots in critical moments," Ursin said. "My teammates were finding me, and I was just stepping up with confidence and knocking them down."
After starting and scoring 12 in Saturday's 96-37 blowout of Texas Tech, Ursin subbed in for Juicy Landrum midway through the fourth quarter and hit two big buckets in a 9-0 run that gave the Lady Bears the lead for good.
"Her confidence is just sky-high right now," Mulkey said. "Juicy didn't play in the last game, her foot's been sore, and I think it took her out of the flow a little bit. So, Moon went in and we didn't miss a beat. She hit big shots, she guards people, she's quick, she's strong, she leaps out of the gym."
Kalani Brown, who had just two points and no field goal attempts in the first half, scored nine of her 15 points in an explosive third quarter that saw Baylor extend a 36-29 halftime lead out to 61-40.
Asked if they did anything differently to get the 6-foot-7 Brown more involved in the offense, Mulkey said, "Get her the ball."
"I wouldn't want to be Kalani Brown, bless her heart," Mulkey said. "Every time she touches the ball, she has two and three people around her. What great respect that is. At the same time, we still have to go through and let her find open players. Her disposition is so good. She's just not one that gets rattled or frustrated. She came back and got nine or 10 touches there in the second half and finished shots."
For most of the night, Baylor's post combination of Brown and 6-4 junior Lauren Cox was just too much for the Longhorns. Cox had a double-double with 10 points and 14 rebounds, helping the Lady Bears finish with a 41-28 edge on the boards.
Seemingly out of it, the Longhorns came to life in the fourth quarter and trimmed the 21-point deficit down to 67-60 on a Danni Williams layup with 2:53 left and eventually got within four as Baylor turned it over three times against the press and shot just 3-of-13 from the floor.
"They played a lot harder, they made more shots, they pressed kind of kamikaze, and we didn't handle it well," Mulkey said. "When you're behind like that, you can play like that. And we have to do a better job, starting with me. I went to the stall too early. And then two, we've got to handle the press better."
The Lady Bears also got 12 points, five assists and a career high-tying four steals from DiDi Richards and nine points, six assists, four rebounds and three steals from point guard Chloe Jackson. Texas had four players in double figures, led by Williams and Sug Sutton with 19 points apiece and a combined eight 3-pointers.
"We don't seem to panic," Mulkey said of the Lady Bears' ability to win 32 straight Big 12 games on the road. "We've got to get better in certain aspects of that fourth quarter and things we need to do better. But, you're never going to see a panic out of our team. We've got too many upperclassmen that have been in those situations now."
Baylor returns home to face TCU (16-5, 6-4) at 12 p.m. Saturday in the opener of a doubleheader at the Ferrell Center. The Baylor men, riding a six-game winning streak going into a game at Texas Wednesday night, will host Kansas State in the back end of Saturday's doubleheader at 5 p.m.
