No. 2 WBB Posts 69-53 Win over Texas on Senior Night

Thursday, March 5

Waco, Texas

7:30 PM

Baylor

28-1,17-0Big 12

Texas

18-11,10-7Big 1

Texas

Baylor

No. 2 WBB Posts 69-53 Win over Texas on Senior Night

3/5/2020 10:01:00 PM | Women's Basketball

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Seniors Te'a Cooper and Lauren Cox combined for 37 points

by Krista Pirtle
Baylor Athletics Communications

WACO, Texas – It took a bit of arranging, but all four seniors fit at the table for the postgame interviews. With Lauren Cox and Erin DeGrate on the outsides, Te'a Cooper and Juicy Landrum settled in the middle with head coach Kim Mulkey standing behind them.

Fresh off a 69-53 win over Texas in front of more than 9,000 golden-clad Lady Bear faithful, the seniors were all smiles as they reflected on their final regular-season contest in the Ferrell Center. The Lady Bears are now 17-0 at home this season and have strung together 56-straight home-court victories, the nation's longest active home winning streak.

"It's so exciting because all four of them scored and all four of them were emotional for different reasons," Mulkey said. "They had their families here. There's just something, unless you've put on that uniform, there's something about taking it all for the last time … They'll have an opportunity in the playoffs to host the first and second round here, but the emotions of, 'Wow, I won't ever do this again,' just come flooding out. You certainly want to leave with a victory."

Te'a Cooper led the way for Baylor with 20 points, her 12^th career game to reach the milestone. Lauren Cox followed with her second-straight double-double, and eighth of the season, with 17 points and 12 rebounds.

Fellow seniors Juicy Landrum and Erin DeGrate finished with six and four points, respectively.

A 7-0 run halfway through the first quarter by the Lady Bears - fueled by back-to-back steals by Cooper with the graduate transfer netting five points herself off those Texas errors - proved to be all the separation Baylor needed.

For the remainder of the game, the Longhorns never got closer than nine points early in the third quarter as Baylor led by double-digits for a majority of the contest.

A major key to that came as the Lady Bears "played plays out," as Texas head coach Karen Aston put it.

The Lady Bears about brought the roof off the place with one of those plays at the third quarter. As Cooper tried to hit DiDi Richards rolling to the basket, the pass went a bit too high. Richards, unwilling to give up on the play and cede a turnover, corralled the ball and threw it behind her back as she fell out of bounds. DeGrate was there to take the assist and finish with an and-one.

"It was real special to be right there," DeGrate said as a grin spread across her face. "To catch the ball and just score, I was really excited."

It was one of the loudest moments of the night inside the Ferrell Center once that ball went through the hoop as everyone in the crowd was on their feet.

"As you saw, local kids are always going to be the crowd favorite," Mulkey said. "When Juicy and DeGrate do something like that, it just gets everybody fired up."

Landrum, along with DeGrate, went to school less than six miles from the Ferrell Center at La Vega High School. The hometown hero was already emotional for her senior night before she got out of bed.

"I woke up this morning and was like, 'I'm emotional. It's an emotional day,'" Landrum said. "Waking up this morning, I had a total of three more games here. Now, (I just have) two more games here left in front of the best fans. Getting to play with Erin my last year here, that's special, and getting to play with (Lauren Cox and Te'a Cooper) too."

The Lady Bears have already wrapped up their 10^th-straight Big 12 regular-season title and will close out the regular season on the road at Iowa State on Sunday. But, as Baylor showed in front of their home crowd, these Lady Bears aren't taking their foot off the gas to cruise to the postseason. There's still business to be taken care of.

"The championship doesn't really mean anything if you lose these last however many games it is," Cox said. "We want to finish 18-0 in the league. We have one more game before we can do that."