No. 2 WBB Clinches Share of 10th-Straight Big 12 Title

Monday, February 24

Morgantown, W. Va.

6:00 PM

Baylor

26-1,15-0Big 12

West Virginia

16-10,6-9Big 12

Baylor

West Virginia

No. 2 WBB Clinches Share of 10th-Straight Big 12 Title

2/24/2020 8:00:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score Box Score (PDF)Postgame Notes (PDF)

Lady Bears rout Mountaineers in Morgantown, 64-39

     MORGANTOWN, W. Va. – Fifteen years after winning her first Big 12 championship, Kim Mulkey won her 10^th in a row and 11^th overall Monday night when No. 2 Baylor rolled over West Virginia, 64-39, to clinch at least a share of another league title.
            In a matchup of the conference's top two defenses, Baylor (26-1, 15-0) held West Virginia (16-10, 6-9) to just 23.6 percent shooting overall, 3-of-19 from outside the arc and the Mountaineers' fewest points of the season.
            "We take pride in our defense," said 6-4 senior All-American Lauren Cox, who completed a 4-for-4 sweep of conference titles along with senior point guard Juicy Landrum.
            "Winning doesn't get old. That's one of the reasons why I came to Baylor was to win championships. At this point, it's kind of expected. That's how we work every day in practice. We work to be a championship team."
            Te'a Cooper hit four 3-pointers and scored a game-high 17 points for the Lady Bears, who won their 19^th game in a row and extended their conference winning streaks to 56-straight in the regular season and 44-consecutive on the road. Baylor's string of 10-consecutive conference championships is the longest active streak in the nation and the 10^th-best all-time.
            "If I'm not as excited today as I was when I started 20 years ago, then I don't need to be doing this," Mulkey said, "because every kid that comes into a program deserves to have an opportunity to wear a championship shirt and a hat. . . . Anybody can get on a roll and win three or four games in a conference tournament. When you do it for the entire regular season, that means you've done something."
            Leading second-place and 25^th-ranked TCU (20-5, 11-3) by 3 ½ games, Baylor is already assured of being the No. 1 seed for next month's Big 12 Championship in Kansas City and can clinch the outright title with a win in Saturday's 6 p.m. matchup at home against Kansas State (13-12, 7-7).
            "We need to win one more to win it outright, but we want to win all three (games)," Mulkey said of a closing schedule that also includes a March 5 home game against Texas and the regular-season finale at Iowa State three days later. "You become selfish, and you just want to run the table. We've got three left, and we'd like to win it outright. We don't want to have to depend on anybody else."
            In a quick turnaround after Saturday's 101-69 win at home over Oklahoma, the Lady Bears struggled out of the gate, missing their first seven shots. Cox hit a layup off a feed from Landrum for Baylor's first bucket nearly six minutes into the game.
            "Their defense, they just make things difficult for you," Mulkey said.
            Cooper drove inside for a scoop layup that gave Baylor a five-point lead, 11-6, at the end of the first quarter. Kirsten Deans nailed a shot just past midcourt that was initially counted, but the replay showed that the ball was still in her hand when the buzzer went off.
            West Virginia kept it close, trailing by just six with three minutes left in the first half. But, the Mountaineers went nearly 11 ½ minutes without a field goal as Baylor reeled off 17 unanswered points to go up 42-19 on a Cooper 3-pointer.
            During Baylor's run, West Virginia missed 11-straight from the floor before Deans drove in for a layup at the 5:21 mark in the third quarter.
            "One of the stats we always look at is field goal percentage defense," said Cox, who narrowly missed a double-double with 12 points, nine rebounds, five assists and two blocks. "That's one thing we try to emphasize. We work on that in practice. And I think some of the closer games we've had, it wasn't our offense that was off, it was our defense that wasn't playing that well."
            Gondrezick, who sat out the previous three games with an injury, came off the bench and scored a team-high 13 points to lead the Mountaineers. Kari Niblack added nine points and six rebounds, while second-leading scorer Tynice Martin was held to just seven points and 2-of-8 shooting.
            Baylor got balanced scoring across the board with sophomores Queen Egbo and NaLyssa Smith chipping in with nine and seven points, respectively. DiDi Richards finished with eight points, five rebounds and four assists.
            With Baylor playing two of its last three at home, Mulkey is encouraging all the Lady Bear fans to "come see these kids, because God knows they've been some great seniors on our team." In addition to Cox and Landrum, the list of seniors includes grad transfers Cooper and Erin DeGrate.