No. 1/1 WBB Sweeps Big 12 Championships

Monday, March 11

Oklahoma City, Okla.

8 p.m.

Baylor

31-1

Iowa State

25-8

Iowa State

Baylor

No. 1/1 WBB Sweeps Big 12 Championships

3/11/2019 10:01:00 PM | Women's Basketball

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Kalani Brown earned tournament Most Outstanding Player honors.

By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
            OKLAHOMA CITY – For 30 minutes, the 13^th-ranked Iowa State Cyclones gave top-ranked Baylor everything it wanted in Monday's Big 12 Championship final at Chesapeake Energy Arena.
            Even when the Lady Bears jumped out to an early 12-point lead, the Cyclones never went away.
            But, in the fourth quarter, Baylor (31-1) put them away with a stifling defense that forced six turnovers and held Iowa State (25-8) to just five points on 2-of-10 shooting from the floor as the Lady Bears pulled away for a 67-49 win to sweep the league's regular season and tournament titles for the eighth time in the last nine years.
            "I think we locked down on defense, we started getting steals, getting out and running, and I think that eventually wore them out," said 6-4 junior forward Lauren Cox, an all-tournament pick who finished with 14 points, eight rebounds, three assists and three blocks.
            Chloe Jackson, a grad transfer from LSU playing in her first conference tournament championship, told the team before the fourth quarter started. "We're going to bust it open!"
            "We were doing a good job defending them all night, but our offense was kind of struggling," said Jackson, who scored eight of her 16 points in the fourth quarter, providing the exclamation point with a pull-up jumper just in front of the Baylor bench. "I knew we were going to take off."
            A dogfight for those first three quarters, Baylor's defense didn't give Iowa State room to breathe in that final period.
            Alexa Middleton hit seven of her first 10 shots and scored 18 points in the first three quarters. Hounded by sophomore guards Moon Ursin and DiDi Richards, she missed her only two shots and didn't score in the fourth.
            "I just stayed in front of her, just cut her off," Ursin said. "I tried to anticipate where she might be going or maybe when she would get a shot off. I just kept my feet moving, and I just stayed patient and stayed with her. And I was able to lock her down."
            Richards did what she had been doing all game against Big 12 Player of the Year Bridget Carleton. After scoring 28 points in each of the two regular-season meetings against Baylor, Carleton was held to 13 points on 6-of-16 shooting for the game and scored the Cyclones' first two points of the fourth quarter on a jumper with 6:38 left.
            "I definitely took it personal this game," said Richards, who had four points, four steals, two rebounds, one block and an assist. "It was emphasized, 'DiDi, she scored 28, don't let it happen again.' I was like, she can't score if she can't touch the ball."
            Named the Tournament Most Outstanding Player for the second year in a row, senior All-American Kalani Brown hit a 15-foot jumper to give the Lady Bears a 48-44 lead going into the fourth and then scored six points in a 15-2 run in the first six minutes to put this one away.
            "You go with the kids that are experienced," coach Kim Mulkey said of going to Cox and Brown for the first two buckets of the fourth quarter. "What you saw is you finally saw Kalani find the second gear when she was fatigued and run the floor. You've got to push. No matter how tired you get, you've got to push. I thought we got to 50-50 balls better in the fourth quarter than we did in the first half – 50-50 balls, steals, loose balls. We were very active."
            The final dagger was Jackson's step-back jumper in front of the Baylor bench, extending the Lady Bears' lead to 63-46, as her teammates erupted from the sidelines.
            "It was pretty great," said Jackson, echoing the comment of Brown, "but all credit to my teammates. They gave me that confidence that I could knock down a shot. And Coach talked about it early, pay attention to the shot clock. I knew I had to do something with this."
            Baylor's trio of double-figure scorers combined for 47 of Baylor's 67 points, nearly outscoring Iowa State's team by themselves. Brown had 17 points and seven rebounds and was 5-of-6 from the line, while Jackson added 16 points, five rebounds and five assists playing all but the last minute.
            "This is a special team, and it's just surreal," said Jackson, who didn't even make it to the SEC Tournament semifinals in two seasons at LSU. "This is what I came here for, and I wouldn't want to do it with another group of girls."
            Following a 75-69 semifinal win over Texas, Iowa State coach Bill Fennelly said one of the biggest keys was avoiding the knockout punch that Baylor usually lands in the second or third quarter, if not earlier.
            The Lady Bears looked like they were on the verge of running the second-seeded Cyclones out of the gym when they hit eight of their first 12 shots from the floor and went up 18-6 on a pair of Cox free throws at the 2:28 mark in the second quarter.
            But, Iowa State answered by closing out the quarter on a 7-0 run and tying it up at 18-18 on a Middleton trey. Every time it looked like Baylor might be pulling away, the Cyclones answered time and time again.
            "I thought our kids played as hard as they could play," Fennelly said. "I couldn't be prouder. It's kind of been the same cycle when we play Baylor. It's been (Carleton and Middleton), and they didn't get a whole lot of help. For us to be down four going into the fourth quarter, we gave ourselves a chance, but Baylor's defense was great and we just couldn't get some offense from some other people."
            Middleton and Carleton scored 18 and 13 points, respectively, to lead the Cyclones, who shot just 37.7 percent for the game and 3-of-15 from 3-point range. After hitting 11-of-28 from outside the arc against Texas, Iowa State only attempted 15 against Baylor.
            "We change people's approach to the basketball game because of our defense," Mulkey said, "whether that's Cox and Kalani's presence in the paint, whether it's DiDi Richards is not going to give up as many 3's as you're used to taking. But, I've never played an Iowa State team that drove with their guards like that."
            In the end, though, it didn't matter what Iowa State tried, Baylor's defense had the answer.
            "That's what's going to win you games in the long run, anyway, defense," Ursin said. "You've got to guard people. That's what Coach always says, 'You have to guard people.' Offensively, we've got (Brown and Cox). So, that's not a problem for us. But, defensively is where we win most of our ballgames."
            It was enough to carry Baylor to its 10^thBig 12 tournament title, ninth in the last 11 years and its national-best 23^rdconsecutive win going into the NCAA Tournament.
            As Monday's press conference closed, Big 12 moderator Peter Irwin turned to Mulkey and said, "Coach, congratulations on a great season. Best of luck in the Final Four."
            Whoah, Peter, they've got to get there first.
            "The public might say it's a disappointment and a failure and I didn't feed the monster if we don't get to the Final Four. So be it," Mulkey said. "We're still relevant and we'll fight till the last second ticks off that clock, because I know how hard it is. And a lot of things have to go right. A lot of teams get on a roll. We're pretty good, so we'll see what happens."
            Joining Brown and Cox on the all-tournament team were Carleton and Middleton from Iowa State and Texas guard Sug Sutton.
Baylor, expected to earn the No. 1 overall national seed for the NCAA Tournament, will host a watch party for the selection show at 6 p.m. next Monday, March 18, in the Ferrell Center Stone Room. The first and second rounds of the NCAA Championship is scheduled for the following weekend, March 22-25.