No. 9/9 WBB Rolls Over OU 84-61 At Home

Saturday, January 23

Waco, Texas

7 p.m.

Baylor

10-2,5-1Big 12

Oklahoma

4-7,1-5Big 12

Oklahoma

Baylor

No. 9/9 WBB Rolls Over OU 84-61 At Home

1/23/2021 9:10:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score WBB_12_OU

Smith drops 21, Ursin collects double-double for Lady Bears

By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
            Having to deal with Baylor's three-post rotation of NaLyssa Smith, Queen Egbo and Hannah Gusters is hard enough.
            When guards Moon Ursin and Trinity Oliver are knocking down perimeter shots at a 78 percent clip, "they're a problem for anybody in the country," Oklahoma coach Sherri Coale said.
            The ninth-ranked Lady Bears (10-2, 5-1) dominated the boards (40-14), shot 59 percent overall and had a balanced attack with five double-figure scorers to blow out the visiting Sooners, 84-61, Saturday night at the Ferrell Center.
            "I thought we got production from all positions offensively," said Baylor coach Kim Mulkey, whose team won its 12^th in a row over Oklahoma and 21^st in the last 22 meetings. "Certainly, it goes without saying that when everybody's contributing, we're very hard to guard. I think if we can continue to get perimeter production, it makes everybody's job easier."
            Down to eight players, with fourth-leading scorer Liz Scott out, Oklahoma (4-7, 1-5) got a combined 48 points from Madi Williams (29) and Taylor Robertson (19). But, the rest of the team hit just 3-of-17 from the floor and scored 13 points.
        Showing that it takes more than two, Baylor countered with an inside-out balance that Oklahoma couldn't contain. NaLyssa Smith scored a team-high 21 points for the Lady Bears, knocking down 8-of-13 from the floor and 5-of-6 from the line, for her 11^th career 20-point game. Gusters and Egbo scored 11 and 10 points, respectively, Oliver tied a career-high with 14 points and Ursin had her second career double-double with 14 points and 11 rebounds.
            "I learned a lot being in the program for four years now, and it's starting to come to me," said Ursin, who was 7-of-9 from the floor. "I'm allowing the game to come to me. I just had to be patient, and my turn's here now, and I'm not going to waste it."
            Oliver's had a similar story, averaging 2.0 points before this season with zero starts. She was also 7-of-9 from the floor and added five rebounds and three assists.
            "I tell Trinity to stay the course, don't try to be somebody you're not, good things will happen," Mulkey said. "You saw it tonight. I've seen it several times this year. If we can just keep her confidence level going, her doing things like that makes us a better basketball team."
            After leading by just two at the end of the first quarter, the Lady Bears opened the second quarter with a 13-2 run to take control and held the Sooners (4-7, 1-5) to just five second-quarter points in taking a 45-23 halftime lead.
            "Robertson and Williams, those are volume shooters. They are just going to keep shooting the ball for them," Mulkey said. "We just have to wear them down and hope they miss more than they make. And I thought that started to happen in the second quarter."
            Topping her previous best of 10 assists, DiDi Richards had a pair of alley-oops to Smith for layups and dished out five in the third quarter. Her 12 assists were three more than OU's team total (9).
            "We can score from every position," Richards said. "Coach Mulkey does a really good job of putting me in positions to hit open players. It's the different plays that Coach Mulkey draws up, and it's also the fact that it's so easy when you have Moon, (Smith), Hannah (Gusters), Sarah (Andrews), the list goes on. We're just a really good offensive team."
            Baylor led by as many as 36, but Oklahoma closed the game on a 15-2 run as the Lady Bears missed their last five shots.
            "You have to make so many concessions," Coale said. "They've got those two big kids in there, and we don't have anybody to match up. We've got a really small roster, obviously, we can't run people in to keep them fresh. They just pound and pound and they're just so physical. It wears you down, gets you tired. . . . When they knock down shots, they're very good."
            Coupled with Texas' 70-59 win over 24^th-ranked Iowa State, the Lady Bears moved back into first place in the Big 12 standings in their quest to win an 11^th-straight regular-season championship.
            Baylor turns around to host TCU (7-6, 2-6) at 7 p.m. Tuesday. The Horned Frogs are coming off a 61-53 win over Texas Tech.

-BaylorBears.com-