No. 2/1 WBB Hosts Texas Tech on ESPN+ Saturday



	#2/1 BAYLOR LADY BEARS (16-1, 5-0) Location: Waco, Texas Conference: Big 12 Head Coach: Kim Mulkey (La. Tech, 1984) Roster \| Stats \| Game Notes	#2/1 BAYLOR (16-1, 5-0) vs TEXAS TECH (13-4, 2-4) January, 25, 2020 \| 2 PM Waco, Texas \| Ferrell Center (10,284) LIVE STATS: BaylorStats.com RADIO: 1660 AM/92.3 FM WATCH: Watch ESPN Talent: Lincoln Rose (PBP), Jim Haller (Color) LISTEN: Tune In Talent: Bruce Gietzen (PBP), Maggie Davis-Stinnett (Color) Baylor Social Media:

	TEXAS TECH LADY RAIDERS (13-4, 2-1) Location: Lubbock, Texas Conference: Big 12 Head Coach: Marlene Stollings Roster \| Stats \| Game Notes

By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
            After spending the last three years at Texas Tech, 6-6 grad transfer Erin DeGrate said it will be "weird just to be on the opposite side" when No. 2/1 Baylor (16-1, 5-0) hosts the Lady Raiders (13-4, 2-4) at 2 p.m. Saturday.
            Baylor coach Kim Mulkey, whose team has won a national-best 47-consecutive conference games and 49 in a row at home, said "maybe (DeGrate) will get them fired up" after the Lady Bears struggled in Wednesday's 66-57 road win at TCU.
            "I think they're going to have extra incentive because of the we played the last game," Mulkey said, "and being at home brings a little bit more out of you."
            But, one thing Mulkey won't do is try to pull a scouting report out of DeGrate, who averaged 8.1 points and 4.6 rebounds in two seasons with the Lady Raiders before transferring to Baylor this summer.
            "I don't operate that way. I lean on my coaches and go in there and present a scouting report," Mulkey said. "I keep in mind, just as I did (when grad transfer point guard Te'a Cooper faced her former team at South Carolina in the fall), that she's playing against her old team. But, we don't really over-emphasize that, if we emphasize it at all."
            Degrate said Tech seems to have improved in coach Marlene Stollings' second season. Coming off an 89-84 win over Oklahoma, the Lady Raiders have nearly matched last year's win total (14-17).
            "Two of my best friends are on the team, Brittany (Brewer) and Sydney (Goodson), so I talk to them maybe once a week," said DeGrate, who is averaging 6.7 points, 2.8 rebounds and 1.8 blocks per game. "They're a better team . . . more dialed-in and more focused on the plan that Coach has for them."
            The 6-foot-5 Brewer leads Tech with 14.7 points, 10.4 rebounds and a Big 12-best 4.6 blocks. She was named to the Naismith Women's Defensive Player of the Year Midseason Team along with Baylor's duo of 6-4 senior All-American Lauren Cox (12.0 ppg, 8.1 rebounds, 3.0 blocks) and 6-1 junior wing DiDi Richards (7.2 ppg, 5.1 assists, 2.1 steals).
            Admitting that she is a "little bit partial," Mulkey said there's no on the list "any better than" Cox and Richards.
            "So, how do you pick one over the other at this point?" Mulkey said. "Just give them Co-Defensive National Players of the Year, because one has to do it in the paint (Cox) and help everybody; and one has to do it on the perimeter (Richards). We don't win without those two on the defensive end of the floor."
            The reigning Big 12 Freshman of the Year, Chrislyn Carr came off the bench for just the second time in her career and had 24 points in the win over Oklahoma. St. John's transfer Andrayah Adams poured in a career-high 29 points against the Sooners, while freshman Alexis Tucker and UConn transfer Lexi Gordon average 13.8 and 12.5 points, respectively.
            "(Stollings') second year, they're a little bit more focused and know what they're supposed to do," Mulkey said. "When you have a new coach, you're trying to please them and trying to get minutes, and they probably understand her better now. What I see in Texas Tech is a team that will push it hard in transition. . . . They've added depth on the perimeter, and they're all looking to score the ball."
            Playing without 6-2 sophomore forward NaLyssa Smith (16.3 ppg, 8.1 rebounds), who was sidelined by an ankle injury, Baylor struggled in Wednesday's 66-57 road win over TCU. The Lady Bears were just 8-of-20 from the free throw line, missing 10 of their first 12.
            Mulkey said the Horned Frogs were "more passionate and intense than we were, and (they) outhustled us on a lot of things and did some things to put themselves in position to beat us. We just gutted out some plays there and won the ballgame and made enough free throws at the end to win it."
            This is the first of back-to-back home games, with the Bears hosting Iowa State (11-6, 3-3) at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday in a game that will be nationally televised by FS1. Saturday's game will be streamed by Big 12 Now on ESPN+, with Lincoln Rose and former Baylor men's head coach Jim Haller calling the action.

BAYLOR ON THE CUSP OF EVENING ALL-TIME SERIES WITH TEXAS TECH
   Texas Tech & Baylor will meet for the 93^rd time Saturday with a back-and-forth series favoring the Lady Raiders by just two games. The story of the series comes in two dominant chapters: Texas Tech's 34-game win streak from 1984-2002 and Baylor taking 30 of the last 31 contests, including 20 straight.
   Tech's dominance of Baylor came when legendary head coach Marsha Sharp, who won a 1993 NCAA title and compiled a 572-175 (.766) record from 1982-2006. Enter Kim Mulkey, and the Lady Bears fell three-straight times to Sharp's Lady Raiders, but since then, the Lady Bears have held the upper hand, going 37-5 since then.
   With the first of two matchups in the regular season between the two programs, if Baylor extends its 20-game win streak over the Lady Raiders, the series could be even at 47 games apiece before the season's end.

STREAKS CONTINUE TO BE ON THE LINE FOR BAYLOR
   Baylor's 9-point win at TCU Wednesday gave the program a school and Big 12 record 46-straight wins over conference opponents in the regular season. A 47^th-straight win Saturday would tie Baylor for the 10^th-best streak in NCAA history for consecutive conference victories.
   In addition, the Lady Bears will look to extend the nation's longest active home win streak. Baylor's win over No. 17 West Virginia Jan. 18 gave Baylor 49-straight home wins with its last loss coming Feb. 6, 2017 to Texas. A 50^th-straight win at the Ferrell Center would give Baylor the 16^th longest home-win streak in NCAA history and trails the school record of 69-straight home wins from 2011-14.

LADY BEARS ON THE RUN
   Through 17 games the Lady Bears have 28 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 85 fast-break points on the season. Baylor is outscoring teams on the break by an average of 17.9-5.0.

COX & RICHARDS NAMED AS 15 FINALISTS FOR NAISMITH DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR
   Lauren Cox is the 2-time Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year, and DiDi Richards' reputation for her on-ball defense earned her First-Team All-Big 12 honors last year. This year, those performances have carried over to national recognition as the pair made the Naismith Defensive Player of the Year Midseason Team, which includes just 15 players.
   Cox has missed time due to injury, but is still averaging 3.0 blocks and 1.1 steals per game while opponent's offensive scouting reports are scrambled when they face the Cox-led Lady Bears. Richards' steal numbers are up to 2.1 per game, she's added 15 blocks this season and still draws assignments for each opponent's top perimeter player thoughout the season.

LADY BEARS PIQUING ON BOTH SIDES OF THE BALL THROUGH FIRST 17 GAMES
   The 16-1 Lady Bears rank in the top 10 nationally in 14 categories through games played through Jan 19. Baylor ranks No. 1 in the nation in assists per game (23.0), field goal percentage (.514), field goal percentage defense (.299), rebound margin (15.5), scoring defense (49.3), scoring margin (37.2), and 3-point field goal percentage defense (.233). Baylor also ranks in the top 5 in scoring offense (86.5), total assists (2nd, 391), blocked shots per game (5th, 6.4), total blocks (5th, 109), and 3-point field goal percentage (4th, .402).
   DiDi Richards ranks 6th nationally in assists-to-turnover ratio (3.07:1) while Jordyn Oliver checks in at 15th (2.53:1). NaLyssa Smith ranks 12th in the nation and leads the Big 12 at 60.0 shooting from the floor while Queen Egbo is 14th and second, respectively with a .596 mark. Juicy Landrum is shooting .447 from beyond the 3-point arc, which ranks her 13th in the nation and second in the Big 12.

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.

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. 2/1 WBB Hosts Texas Tech on ESPN+ Saturday

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Players Mentioned

Te'a Cooper

Lauren Cox

Erin DeGrate

Queen Egbo

Juicy Landrum

Jordyn Oliver

DiDi Richards

NaLyssa Smith

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No. 2/1 WBB Hosts Texas Tech on ESPN+ Saturday

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Te'a Cooper

Lauren Cox

Erin DeGrate

Queen Egbo

Juicy Landrum

Jordyn Oliver

DiDi Richards

NaLyssa Smith

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