Strong Third Quarter Leads No. 7 WBB Past WVU

Thursday, December 10

Morgantown, W. Va.

6 PM (CT)

Baylor

3-1,1-0Big 12

West Virginia

4-1,0-1Big 12

Baylor

West Virginia

Strong Third Quarter Leads No. 7 WBB Past WVU

12/10/2020 9:06:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score WBB_04_WVU

Carrington’s 14-point period helps Lady Bears pull away

            MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - Baylor's lack of 3-point shooting has been great exaggerated.
            DiJonai Carrington drained three deep 3-pointers and scored 14 of her game-high 19 points in the third quarter as the seventh-ranked Lady Bears pulled away in the second half for a 65-45 win over the previously unbeaten West Virginia Mountaineers Thursday night in the Big 12 opener at WVU Coliseum.
            "People want to recruit against us and say we are all post-oriented," said Baylor coach Kim Mulkey, whose team bounced back from Sunday's loss at 16^th-ranked Arkansas in improving to 3-1. "We will shoot the 3, depending on the talent on the floor, what our strengths are, what our weaknesses are, what they give us. If we don't have to, we're going to pound it in there to the post."
            Through the first three games, Baylor connected on just 16.2 percent of its shots outside the 3-point arc (6-of-37). But against West Virginia, the Lady Bears shot 40 percent from distance and matched their season total, hitting 6-of-15.
            "You just take what they give you," Mulkey said. "I don't need any facilitators out there, I need everybody to be confident and everybody to do what you can do. If you're a 3-point shooter, let it fly. If you're a penetrator and a midrange shooter, go do it."
            NaLyssa Smith and DiDi Richards chipped in with 10 points apiece, and Moon Ursin had 12 points, eight rebounds and five assists. After scoring nine points in the first half, West Virginia's Kysre Gondrezick was shut out in the second half, missing all six shots and turning it over twice.
            "We want to be like DiDi," Usin said of Richards, the reigning National Defensive Player of the Year. "We want to come out here and take charges and stop people. We want to have more than one (defensive stopper). And if we do, we're going to be a hard team to beat. (Associate head coach Bill) Brock told me, 'You can do it.' That was kind of my motivator to get out there and guard her."
            Carrington got things going just 24 seconds into the third quarter, picking Gondrezick's pocket on the defensive end and scoring on a layup to break a 28-28 halftime tie. That started an 11-2 run that included a Carrington trey and a pair of buckets by Smith.
            "We're figuring out her strengths, what she's doing well, and she's getting comfortable," Ursin said of Carrington, who hit back-to-back 3-pointers in pushing the lead to 52-34 late in the third inning. "We keep working, and it's all going to come together. We're figuring out her strengths, what she does well, and she's figuring us out."
            West Virginia (4-1), coming off a win over Tennessee, stuck around for the first two quarters and went toe-to-toe with the defending conference and national champions. But, in the second half, the Mountaineers were outscored, 37-17, and shot a dismal 18.5% from the field.
            Baylor's biggest lead of the game was the final margin, with Richards driving through the lane and finishing with a layup off the glass to make it 65=45. WVU didn't score for almost five minutes in the fourth quarter and made just one of 13 shots in the last period.
            After a 2-1 road trip that included a 67-62 win at South Florida, the Lady Bears return to play four home games in six days, beginning with Monday's 6 p.m. matchup against Texas Tech. The Lady Raiders rolled over Angelo State, 87-42, on Wednesday and had a non-conference game against Missouri on Thursday canceled due to COVID-19.

-BaylorBears.com-