No. 2/1 WBB Surges for 87-79 Win over Texas Tech

Saturday, January 25

Waco, Texas

2:00 PM

Baylor

17-1,6-0Big 12

Texas Tech

13-5,2-5Big 12

Texas Tech

Baylor

No. 2/1 WBB Surges for 87-79 Win over Texas Tech

1/25/2020 4:21:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score Box Score (PDF)Baylor Postgame Notes

Juicy Landrum posted her sixth 20-point game of her career in the win

By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
            Since Texas Tech had already launched 379 shots from 3-point range this season, it wasn't a big surprise that that's where the Lady Raiders chose to attack.
            But, 39 in one game?
            "I don't know that I expected that many, but you do what you've got to do. And it was very effective," said Baylor coach Kim Mulkey, whose No. 2/1 Lady Bears (17-1, 6-0) survived Tech's 3-point barrage and a fourth-quarter run to hold on for an 87-79 win that wasn't really that close.
            Much like Wednesday's 66-57 road win at TCU, though, this one was still much closer than maybe anyone expected. The Lady Bears, who have now won 47-consecutive conference games and 50 in a row at home, had blown out their first four league foes by an average margin of 37.5.
            "Sometimes, you need to credit the opponent," Mulkey said. "You need to say, 'Hey, Baylor's getting everybody's best shot, and Baylor's not at full speed.' You've got to keep perspective. We don't have the same people on the floor right now that we had when we played West Virginia or when we played UConn. But, we'll get there."
            The biggest difference has been not having 6-2 sophomore forward NaLyssa Smith, who's sat out the last two games with a sprained right ankle. That injury comes on the heels of losing 6-4 senior All-American Lauren Cox for eight games with a stress reaction in her right foot.
            "It's frustrating," Mulkey said. "But you know what, we've got players, we've got to grind it out. . . . You know what we can do when we have all of them, and that's what you keep focusing on. You just kind of pick and push and prod and grind, and do all that along the way. Sometimes, you don't push the right buttons and sometimes you do. Bottom line is we still won."
            Baylor did it with a balanced attack featuring four double-figure scorers, led by senior guard Juicy Landrum with four 3-pointers and 20 points. The post combo of Lauren Cox (17 points, eight rebounds) and Queen Egbo (16 points, eight rebounds) helped the Lady Bears win the battle of the boards, 41-33, and outscore the Lady Raiders in the paint, 40-22.
            Scoring certainly wasn't the issue. Te'a Cooper added 15 points and eight assists, DiDi Richards had a solid all-around game with nine points, eight assists and five boards, and grad transfer Erin DeGrate had seven points in nine minutes off the bench playing against her former teammates.
            "I'm so happy for Erin DeGrate," Mulkey said of the 6-foot-6 DeGrate, a former La Vega High School all-state pick who spent the last three years and graduated from Tech. "I explained that to her when she transferred. You know what you're coming into. For her to go out there and do what she did, (I'm) happy for her, and she should feel really, really good about her contributions today."
            Baylor's issues were on the defensive end.
            Tech (13-5, 2-5) hit six 3-pointers in the first quarter alone, including 2-of-3 by Brittany Brewer, who had made just 1-of-12 from outside the arc coming into the game. There were five ties and 10 lead changes in a shootout first quarter that ended with Baylor on top, 27-26.
            "Our goals coming in were to be able to shoot the ball from the outside," Tech coach Marlene Stollings said. "They're so good defensively, they don't give you a lot of stuff at the basket. So, we knew we were going to have to be able to knock down those shots."
            After making 9-of-24 from outside the arc in the first half, managing to stay within striking distance at 49-42, Tech was 0-for-7 in the third quarter and 3-for-15 overall in the second half.
            Mulkey went with a smaller lineup, replacing the 6-3 Egbo with 5-6 junior guard Moon Ursin, and also switched the 6-1 Richards over to defend 6-0 UConn transfer Lexi Gordon. After draining four 3-pointers and scoring 14 points in the first half, Gordon had just four points in the second half and didn't hit another trey.
            "We took it personal as a team, because defense is a big focus for us," Cox said of giving up 26 first-quarter points and a season-high 79 for the game. "I think you could see that at the start of the third quarter, we picked up our defense, started playing more team defense."
            Going to the smaller lineup, Baylor used a 9-0 third-quarter run to finally create some separation and took a 76-58 lead going into the fourth.
            Mulkey emptied the bench after the Lady Bears stretched it to 81-60 on a pair of DeGrate free throws, but had to bring the starters back in when Tech started to rally. The Lady Raiders hit three 3-pointers in the fourth quarter and scored the last eight points to lose by single digits.
            Brewer narrowly missed a double-double with 24 points and nine rebounds. Gordon (18) and Chrislyn Carr (16) also scored in double figures for the Lady Raiders, who were 12-of-39 from outside the arc. They took more shots from 3-point range than inside the arc (39-28).
            Baylor finishes off a two-game home stand with a matchup against Iowa State (12-6, 4-3) at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday in a game that will be televised by FS1. The Cyclones blew out Kansas, 89-67, and have won three in a row to move up to fourth in the Big 12 standings.