No. 1/1 Lady Bears Roll Past OSU in Second Half

Saturday, March 2

Waco, Texas

1 p.m.

Baylor

Oklahoma State

No. 1/1 Lady Bears Roll Past OSU in Second Half

3/2/2019 3:51:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score PDF Box Postgame Notes Postgame Quotes

Kalani Brown (14 points, 13 rebounds) and Queen Egbo (11 points, 10 rebounds) recorded double-doubles.

By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
            When the Ferrell Center crowd of 5,995 gave Baylor seniors Kalani Brown and Chloe Jackson a standing ovation midway through the fourth quarter of Saturday's game, it wasn't good-bye, it was more like see you real soon.
            Expected to receive the No. 1 overall national seed for the third time in program history, Baylor will be back here in three weeks for the first and second round of the NCAA Tournament.
            Playing in her last regular-season home game, the 6-foot-7 Brown recorded her 37^thcareer double with 14 points and 13 rebounds in helping the top-ranked Lady Bears (27-1, 17-0) shake off a sluggish start to dominate the Oklahoma State Cowgirls, 76-44, Saturday afternoon on Senior Day.
            "I probably won't play in front of another crowd like this one. Baylor's fans are amazing," said Brown, who has won 71 of 72 home games with a 128-9 overall record in her four-year Baylor career. "They go with us wherever we go. I've never seen a fan base like this for women's basketball."
            Brown and the Lady Bears didn't give the home fans much to cheer about for the first 19 minutes, hitting just nine of their first 36 shots and leading the visiting Cowgirls (14-14, 5-12) by just two going into the last minute of the first half.
            "They're trying. It's not like they all want to miss at the same time, but you've got to grind and stay with it," Baylor coach Kim Mulkey said. "And then you tell them, that's why you play defense. Your defense will win games for you when your offense isn't very good."
            Baylor missed four layups and 12 other shots in the lane in the first half, with the post trio of Brown, Lauren Cox and freshman NaLyssa Smith combining to hit just 3-of-17 from the floor and Juicy Landrum missing her first five shots.
            "You're putting it on the glass, you're doing everything right, and they roll out," Brown said, "and you're just like (exasperated sight). Keep shooting, you know?"
            Trailing for most of the first quarter, Baylor took its first lead of the game on a three-point play by Jackson at the 1:10 mark, going up 13-12. Vivian Gray scored 10 of her game-high 23 points in the first quarter and missed two free throws with 24 seconds left with a chance to give the Cowgirls the lead back.
            The second quarter didn't go much better, with the Lady Bears missing 15 of their first 18 shots. They were leading by just two before Landrum made a free throw and then scored on a layup off a steal right before the half to put Baylor up 25-20 at the break.
            Brown scored six points in an 11-0 run to start the third quarter, and Landrum drained a 3-pointer that extended the lead to 47-25, and Baylor never looked back.
            "Everybody thinks you just go in there and put a magic wand on them," said Mulkey, when asked about her halftime message. "What are you going to tell them? They're trying hard, they're all just missing layups and shots. It was just a tale of two halves. There was nothing magical to go in there and tell them. You see why defense is important to us. We still had a five-point lead at half, shooting it that poorly. Then, we came out in the second half and extended the lead because we started making shots."
            Baylor shot 60 percent from the field in the third quarter, outscoring the Cowgirls, 26-7, and taking control of the game to go up 52-27.
            "They just wear you down with their strength and size," OSU coach Jim Littell said. "We looked up in the second half, and they're running. It wasn't anything fancy. They ran to the block, buried us underneath the goal post and shot two-footers or we fouled them. It's just a lot for us to handle with their size and strength."
            Even in the fourth quarter, when the starters barely got off the bench other than to bring the seniors off the floor for one last ovation, the Lady Bears continued to extend the lead. They went up by as many as 38 before a late 3-pointer by Ja'Mee Asberry, who scored all nine of her points in the final period.
            Freshman Queen Egbo registered her third double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds, Landrum hit three 3-pointers and finished with 14 points and Jackson had nine points, three rebounds, two assists and two steals.
            Gray led all scorers with 23 points, but was just 2-of-8 from the floor in the second half. Sophomore guard Braxtin Miller was 1-of-7 overall and 0-for-3 from outside the arc and scored 13 points below her 15-point scoring average.
            "Everybody's going to come at me thinking, 'Oh, she's the best defender, so I'm going to go at her,''' said sophomore guard DiDi Richards, who had four points, six rebounds, a game-high six assists and two blocks. "(Gray) is a great player, and she attacked me in the first half. So, in the second half, I took it personally and made it a goal to not have her score on me as much in the second half."
            Baylor also dominated the boards in the second half (36-8), finishing with a 60-32 edge for the game, and outscored the Cowgirls in the paint, 48-12. Smith added seven points and 11 rebounds, giving the Lady Bears three double-figure rebounders for the first time since Dec. 13, 2017 (versus McNeese State).
            In the final regular-season game, Baylor faces West Virginia (19-8, 10-6) at 6 p.m. Monday in Morgantown, W. Va. The Mountaineers were playing at last-place Kansas Saturday night.