No. 6/6 WBB Turns Attention to Big 12 Play, OSU Sunday



	#6/6 BAYLOR LADY BEARS (12-1, 1-0) Location: Waco, Texas Conference: Big 12 Head Coach: Kim Mulkey (La. Tech, 1984) Roster \| Stats \| Game Notes	#6/6 BAYLOR (12-1, 1-0) vs #OKLAHOMA STATE (10-4, 1-1) January, 12, 2020 \| 1 PM Waco, Texas \| Ferrell Center (10,284) LIVE STATS: StatBroadcast RADIO: 1660 AM/92.3 FM WATCH: ESPNU \| ESPN App Talent: Sam Gore (PBP), Renee Montgomery (Analyst) LISTEN: Tune In Talent: Bruce Gietzen (PBP), Maggie Davis-Stinnett (Color) Baylor Social Media:

	OKLAHOMA STATE COWGIRLS (10-4, 1-1) Location: Stillwater, Okla. Conference: Big 12 Head Coach: Jim Littell Roster \| Stats \| Game Notes

By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
            After snapping top-ranked UConn's 98-game home-court winning streak by beating the Huskies, 74-58, Thursday night in Hartford, the No. 6 Baylor Lady Bears (12-1, 1-0) hope to keep a couple of their own streaks going when they host Oklahoma State (10-4, 1-1) at 1 p.m. Sunday.
            Baylor has won a modest five games in a row since falling to South Carolina in its only loss of the season. Sunday, the Lady Bears will try to win their 43^rd-consecutive conference game and 47^th straight at home.
            "They're going to guard you, and they're going to be physical," Baylor coach Kim Mulkey said of the visiting Cowgirls, who were outscored 16-1 in the last two-plus minutes in falling at home to Oklahoma, 77-75. "They're coming off a loss that I'm sure broke their hearts. . . . They're not going to forget that and they're going to be motivated by it."
            With No. 2 Oregon also getting knocked off, falling 72-66 at Arizona State, Baylor certainly has a case for becoming this year's fourth different No. 1-ranked team after its history-making win over UConn. Te'a Cooper scored a game-high 27 points, NaLyssa Smith posted a double-double with 20 points and 12 rebounds, and 6-4 senior All-American Lauren Cox scored a season-high 16 points in her third game back from a foot injury.
            "Sometimes, when you coach a team, you don't know. Are we good? Are we very good?" Mulkey said. "You don't know until you play on the road against good teams. I learned a lot about our defense. We can be a very good defensive team. . . . We can score the ball at all positions, we can run a lot of different offensive looks. Just a team that doesn't get too high or too low. Let's just go play."
            As impressive as that 16-point road victory at a place where no one wins was, it was still far from perfect. The Lady Bears gave up 17 offensive rebounds and twice let UConn come back from eight-point deficits at the end of the second and third quarters.
            "We've got to fix that," Mulkey said. "Could we not hold on to it because of things we can correct? Or, was it stuff that we did a good job of, but give credit to the opponent? That's where coaching comes in: let's fix what we can fix so that that doesn't happen again."
            The way that her team kept responding when it needed to answer, Mulkey said, shows that Baylor "doesn't lack for confidence, they don't panic."
            "A lot of that is attributed to your returning players who have been in the big games," she said. "It was a game where you're in a hostile environment, and you wouldn't know it by the demeanor of the kids. We would make a good play and high-five, but we've got to move on to the next play. They make a bad play, they don't shrug their shoulders. They just keep playing."
            Oklahoma State has one of the best front lines in the league with 6-1 junior forward Vivian Gray (20.1 ppg) and 6-4 junior forward Natasha Mack, who is fifth in the Big 12 in scoring (17.3 ppg) and first in rebounds (13.6). Baylor counters with five double-figure scorers, led by Smith with 15.9 points and 7.6 rebounds per game.
            Coach Jim Littell "will present things to us defensively that will be tough, aggressive, will have effort," Mulkey said.
            "(Gray and Mack) are going to get the majority of their shots. And they're good," Mulkey said. "It's a game where I'm sure they're not real happy. This is an opportunity for them to come in here and put on a good show. Are we so happy that we think we're going to roll the ball out there and beat them? Un-uh, we don't operate that way. We came back today, and we worked, because if what you did yesterday still looks big to you today, then you haven't done much today."
            Sunday's game will be broadcast by ESPU, with Sam Gore and WNBA player Renee Montgomery calling the action. Montgomery was part of UConn's 39-0 national championship team in 2009 and won WNBA titles with the Minnesota Lynx in 2015 and '17.

LADY BEARS PICK UP SIGNATURE WIN AT NO. 1 UCONN
   Prior to last year's meeting with UConn at home, Baylor was 0-11 in the NCAA era vs. No. 1-ranked opponents. However, after a 67-58 win over the top-ranked Huskies in Waco Jan. 3, 2019 and a 74-58 win at No. 1 UConn Thursday, Baylor now has two-straight wins over No. 1s. Both Baylor head coach Kim Mulkey and UConn head coach Geno Auriema downplayed the impact of game and the result pregame and postgame, respectively. However, for Baylor it gives their non-conference resume some punch after falling to No. 5/6 South Carolina (74-59) in St. Thomas, USVI Nov. 30.
   The Lady Bears moved to 3-1 vs. ranked opponents in 2019-20 and improved to 60-15 vs. Top 25 programs away from Waco since the 2010-11 school year.
   Baylor is now 4-4 all-time vs. UConn, and the Lady Bears have stopped two impressive streaks in the last two victories over the Huskies. Baylor snapped UConn's 126 regular-season game win streak in 2019 before ending the Huskies' 98-game home win streak Thursday. It also marked UConn's worst home loss since Dec. 5, 2005 when North Carolina beat the Huskies by 23.
   Baylor's 25th double-digit run of the season came in the fourth quarter vs. UConn, a 15-0 streak that included 10-straight points from NaLyssa Smith, and the Lady Bears held UConn to just six points in the fourth quarter.
   For the second-straight season, Baylor held UConn to below 30 percent shooting from the floor. The Huskies managed just a .294 shooting mark in Waco before holding UConn to a .290 effort Thursday on 20-69 shooting.
   Baylor went 11-1 in the non-conference season this year.

SEVENTEEN BIG 12 GAMES REMAIN TO CLOSE THE SEASON; OSU UP NEXT
   Baylor's quest for a 10th-straight and 11th overall regular season title started Jan. 4 with a win at Oklahoma in the conference opener, but with UConn out of the way, the Lady Bears can shift focus on the Big 12 slate, beginning with Oklahoma State. Sunday, the two teams will square off at 1 p.m. on ESPNU as Baylor looks to extend its win streak over the Cowgirls to eight games. Baylor has taken 22 of the last 23 over OSU and 11-straight at the Ferrell Center. The Cowgirls' last win overall vs. BU came Dec. 30 2015 in Stillwater (52-45) and their last win over the Lady Bears in Waco was March 6, 2008 (72-68).

STREAKS CONTINUE TO BE ON THE LINE FOR BAYLOR
   Baylor's .931 winning percentage since the 2010-11 season with two national titles and 17 Big 12 championships is bound to create some win streaks. Sunday, the Lady Bears will lay two streaks on the line vs. Oklahoma State: A Big 12 regular-season win streak and a home-court win streak at the Ferrell Center. Baylor has won 42-straight Big 12 contests in the regular season, which is tied for the 15th best streak in NCAA history. The Lady Bears haven't lost at the Ferrell Center since Feb. 6, 2017 and after beating UConn on the road Thursday, have the nation's longest-active win streak at 46 games. 46-straight home wins is tied for the 20th-best home win streak in NCAA history and is the second best in program history.

WRAPPING UP A NINE-YEAR RUN OF DOMINANCE FOR BAYLOR'S LADY BEARS
     Baylor closed 2019 with a 335-23 record between Jan. 2, 2010 and Dec. 30, 2019 for a .936 winning percentage. Last decade produced two national championships (2012, 2019), three Final Fours (2010, 2012, 2019), 10 Sweet 16s, 10 NCAA Tournament appearances, nine Big 12 regular season championships, and eight Big 12 Tournament titles. It also saw 11 players receive WBCA First-Team All-America honors, seven earned Associated Press All-Americans, eight were named USBWA First-Team All-Americans, Kim Mulkey earned seven different National Coach of the Year honors and six Big 12 Coach of the Year awards. Six players were named Big 12 Player of the Year and 22 players earned First-Team All-Big 12.

LADY BEARS ON THE RUN
   Through 13 games the Lady Bears have 25 double-digit runs this season, including a season-high 37-0 run to begin the game vs. New Hampshire Nov. 5 and a Big-12 best 29-0 run at Oklahoma Jan. 4. In addition to the transition game on offense, Baylor's defense has allowed just 45 fast-break points on the season. Baylor is outscoring teams on the break by an average of 19.0-3.5.

LADY BEARS PIQUING ON BOTH SIDES OF THE BALL THROUGH FIRST 13 GAMES
   The 12-1 Lady Bears rank in the top 10 nationally in 12 categories through games played through Jan 10. Baylor ranks tops in the nation in assists per game (22.7), field goal percentage (.514), scoring margin (38.1) and field goal percentage defense (.300). Baylor also ranks in the top five in the nation in assists-to-turnover ratio (2nd, 1.70:1), blocked shots per game (5th, 6.2) scoring offense (2nd, 86.9), and scoring defense (4th, 48.8).
   DiDi Richards ranks fifth nationally in assists-to-turnover ratio (3.21:1) while Juicy Landrum ranks 13th (2.71:1); the pair is first and second, respectively in that category in the Big 12 rankings. Queen Egbo ranks 12th in the nation and 2nd in the Big 12 in field-goal percentage at 61.0 percent while NaLyssa Smith ranks 14th in the nation and third in the Big 12 at 60.6 percent. Juicy Landrum is shooting .474 from beyond the 3-point arc, which ranks her ninth in the nation and second in the Big 12.

THE FUTURE IS BRIGHT: LADY BEARS INK TWO TOP-10 RECRUITS FOR 2020
     Baylor head coach Kim Mulkey announced the signing of two of the top 10 players in the country Wednesday, with Irving MacArthur standouts Sarah Andrews and Hannah Gusters signing national letters of intent to join the Lady Bears in 2020.
     Gusters was the first to verbally commit to Baylor in May. The 6-4 post player is the No. 9 overall ranked player in the 2020 class and the No. 2 center by espnW's Hoopgurlz. The Dan Olson Collegiate Basketball Report ranks her ninth and second, respectively as well. After helping Duncanville High School win a state championship as a freshman, Gusters averaged 14.5 points per game as a sophomore in leading the Pantherettes to a 39-2 record and the Class 6A region finals. Gusters played AAU ball for Nike ProSkills, and her maternal grandfather, Dewey Turner, played football for the University of Texas.
     Andrews verbally committed to Baylor on social media Nov. 2 during an official visit. The 5-7 point guard is ranked No. 7 overall and the No. 2 point guard by espnW's HoopGurlz recruiting rankings and carries the same ranking from the Dan Olson Collegiate Basketball Report. Among Andrews' honors as a point guard for Irving MacArthur High School, she was a two-time TGCA 6A All-State selection in 2018 and 2019. USA Today named Andrews to the second-team All-Texas team in 2019 as well. The Dallas Morning-News named Andrews the top recruit in Texas. As a junior, she was the District 6-6A MVP after averaging 15.1 points, 7.0 assists, 5.6 rebounds and 2.9 steals for a MacArthur team that went 29-9. Andrews played AAU ball for Nike ProSkills.

SCORING IS TOUGH VS. THE LADY BEARS
   Baylor ranked tops in the nation in 2018-19 in the following categories: Assists (850), Assists Per Game (22.4), Blocked Shots (274), Blocked Shots Per Game (7.2), Defensive Rebounds Per Game (32.0), Rebound Margin (+17.0), Rebounds (1,790), and won-lost percentage (97.4). But perhaps the most consistent category the Lady Bears led the nation in, was field goal percentage defense, holding opponents to a .318 clip. That marked the third-straight year to lead the nation in that category while also ranking in the top five in eight of the last nine years.

No. 6/6 WBB Turns Attention to Big 12 Play, OSU Sunday

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Players Mentioned

Te'a Cooper

Lauren Cox

Queen Egbo

Juicy Landrum

DiDi Richards

NaLyssa Smith

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No. 6/6 WBB Turns Attention to Big 12 Play, OSU Sunday

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Te'a Cooper

Lauren Cox

Queen Egbo

Juicy Landrum

DiDi Richards

NaLyssa Smith

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