No. 6 WBB Cruises to 77-56 Win at Oklahoma

Saturday, January 4

Norman, Okla.

4:00 PM

Baylor

Oklahoma

Photo by: Chris Jones Photography

No. 6 WBB Cruises to 77-56 Win at Oklahoma

1/4/2020 8:32:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

Te’a Cooper hit four 3-pointers and scored a career-high 32 points.

             NORMAN, Okla. – Baylor showed the kind of flexibility it will take to win a 10^th-consecutive Big 12 title and potentially make another Final Four run.
            Trailing Oklahoma by double digits 6 ½ minutes into Saturday's game at the Lloyd Noble Center, coach Kim Mulkey went to a smaller lineup that subbed in 5-6 guard Moon Ursin for 6-2 forward NaLyssa Smith.
            The sixth-ranked Lady Bears (11-1, 1-0) responded with a 29-0 run and held the Sooners (7-6, 0-1) scoreless for more than nine minutes to open Big 12 play with a 77-56 win over OU before a crowd of 3,186.
            "That's what you do," said Mulkey, when asked about making the adjustment late in the first quarter, when Baylor trailed 15-4. "That's why we get paid the money we do. . . . In our sport, you've got to make quick adjustments. Is it the right one? Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn't.
"I just felt like we needed to go small, and Moon went in there and a tremendous job. Moving DiDi (Richards from wing to forward), we haven't had to do that this year with DiDi. I just thought she battled in there."
            Grad transfer point guard Te'a Cooper drained four 3-pointers and scored a career-high 32 points to help the Lady Bears run their winning streaks to 43 consecutive Big 12 regular-season games, 36 straight conference games on the road and a series-high 10 in a row versus the Sooners.
            "We don't win without this one," Mulkey said of Cooper, who was 14-of-22 overall and 4-of-7 from 3-point range. "She had a phenomenal game, she was very confident shooting the ball. It's good to have her on our team."
            Cooper's previous high was 31 points when she was playing for South Carolina last year in a 90-85 overtime loss to Drake on Nov. 24, 2018.
            "It just so happened that I was the one that was open sometimes, and we were really feeding off each other," said Cooper, whose previous best at Baylor was 23 on Nov. 14 versus Houston Baptist. "My shots were falling, and they got me the ball."
            Oklahoma, coming off a 44-point loss at UConn, hit six of its first 11 shots and jumped out to a 15-4 lead on a 3-pointer by Madi Williams. That's when Mulkey went with the smaller lineup, moving the 6-1 Richards inside and adding more quickness on the perimeter with Ursin.
            Baylor closed the first period on a 13-0 run to go up 17-15 on a layup by senior All-American Lauren Cox, who had 14 points, six rebounds and a block in her second game back after missing the previous eight games with a foot injury.
            "The only way you get her back in the flow is continue to feed her, continue to play her," Mulkey said of Cox, who was just 5-of-17 from the floor. "She's just a competitor. Frustration will set in with Lauren even if she was in great shape because that's how much of a competitor she is."
            The Lady Bears' extended run included the first 16 points of the second quarter, turning steals into layups and pushing the lead to 33-15 on a bucket by Juicy Landrum, who scored in double digits for the sixth time this season with 12 points.
            "We started off really slow, so we needed to (force turnovers) to start getting into the game and get into the flow and get back to Baylor basketball," Cooper said.
            Oklahoma shot just 28.6 percent from the field (8-of-28), including 4-of-18 from outside the arc, and turned it over nine times in the first half in falling behind 38-23.
Taylor Robertson, the national leader coming in with 5.5 made 3-pointers per game, led the Sooners (7-6, 0-1) with 20 points and drained four treys. Ana Llanusa, one of the leading scorers in the Big 12 with a 17.8-point average, scored just three points and was 1-of-9 from the field when she fouled out.
            "She's just got such a quick release on her shot," Mulkey said of Robertson, who was 4-of-12 from outside the arc and a perfect 8-for-8 from the free throw line. "As she grows and becomes more experienced, she figures out how to draw fouls on those quick shots when she knows she's probably not going to make it."
            Baylor takes a break from conference action to face top-ranked UConn (11-0) at 6 p.m. CST Thursday in Hartford, Conn., in a game that will be televised by ESPN.
            "We understand the challenge ahead of us," Mulkey said. "But, no matter what happens in Connecticut, we're going to turn around and get ready for our next Big 12 opponent. And we're going to give it our best shot. Heck yeah, we want to win. But, at the end of the day, we've got 17 more Big 12 games that will mean just as much as that one game."