No. 6/6 WBB Wins Big 12 Championship Over West Virginia, 76-50

Sunday, March 14

Kansas City, Mo.

Noon

Baylor

25-2,17-1Big 12

West Virginia

21-6,13-5Big 12

West Virginia

Baylor

No. 6/6 WBB Wins Big 12 Championship Over West Virginia, 76-50

3/14/2021 2:25:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score WBB_27_WVU

Lady Bears sweep 2020-21 league titles, boast 23 combined trophies

By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
            KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Struggling to figure out why she was so foul-prone, Queen Egbo went through a phase earlier this year where the 6-3 junior center decided she just wasn't going to guard anybody. That would fix that.
            "I let her know real quick, 'Oh no, you're not going to come out here and not guard anybody for fear of fouling,''' Baylor coach Kim Mulkey said.
            Capping off an impressive run in the Big 12 Championship, Egbo recorded her fifth double-double in the last six games with 18 points, 11 rebounds and five blocked shots in leading the sixth-ranked Lady Bears (25-2) to a dominant 76-50 win over 17^th-ranked and second-seeded West Virginia (21-6) in Sunday's tournament final at Municipal Auditorium.
            "I feel like this is when you want to start seeing results and seeing your hard work pay off," said Egbo, who had 41 rebounds and 14 blocks in Baylor's three-game run, tying for the third-most blocks and fifth-most rebounds in the Big 12 tournament's 25-year history. "This is what my team needs. They need this on a consistent basis. This is only going to make us better and make me better and make my teammates better when I'm playing well."
            What Egbo did in Kansas City was just a carryover from the five-game stretch at the end of the regular season when she had five-straight double-digit scoring games, including a career-best 26 in a 96-73 win over West Virginia. Over the last eight games, she has averaged 14.6 points, 11.1 rebounds and 3.3 blocks.
            "Queen Egbo now has her own identity," Mulkey said. "She is not living in somebody's shadow. She's not trying to do what previous players have done. When you find your niche, then do it to the best of your abilities, and she really is. We knew it was in her. We just kept trying to get it out of her quicker than she could get it out. Now, she's at the point where, when she doesn't do those things, we're frustrated at her, because now we expect it every game."
            There was more on Egbo's shoulders when fellow post player and tournament Most Outstanding Player NaLyssa Smith picked up her second foul late in the first quarter and sat out the last 12 ½ minutes of the half.
            Unfazed, the Lady Bears actually went on a run without her and took a 38-28 lead into the locker room at the half.
            "We have depth, and I wasn't surprised when we stretched the lead," said Mulkey, whose team won its 11^th tournament title and 23^rd Big 12 title overall in her 21 seasons at Baylor. "(Caitlin) Bickle's got enough experience and minutes. That's not a surprise. That just tells you were pretty good."
Grad transfer DiJonai Carrington scored 10 of her 14 points off the bench in the first half, helping the Lady Bears take that 10-point lead over the Mountaineers.
            Never able to get it back within single digits in the second half, the Mountaineers shot just 27 percent overall and 3-of-16 from outside the arc. Kirsten Deans and Kysre Gondrezick led West Virginia with 15 and 13 points, respectively, but were a combined 7-of-28 from the floor.
            "Needless to say, we didn't shoot the ball well," West Virginia coach Mike Carey said, "but you're not going to shoot the ball well when you don't reverse the ball and move the ball. . . . I thought we took a lot of tough shots, and bad shots led to easy shots on the other end."
            Moon Ursin added another double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds, with Baylor finishing with a 46-33 edge on the boards, 17 second-chance points on 11 offensive rebounds and a 54-22 difference in points in the paint.
            With the early foul trouble, Smith played just 23 minutes and finished with nine points, ending a string of 24-consecutive games in double digits.
            Baylor emptied the bench for the last two minutes and outscored West Virginia, 12-0, down the stretch, getting back-to-back 3-pointers from Bickle and freshman Sarah Andrews.
            "I was absolutely proud of Sarah and Hannah (Gusters) and Jaden Owens," Mulkey said. "It's hard coming in there late. No matter if you have a lead or not, you want to do good. They just had fresh legs, and came in there and attacked in transition and finished shots."
            This was Baylor's 11^th Big 12 Championship title and the 10^th time the Lady Bears have swept the regular-season and tournament titles in the same season. They have also strung together 17-straight wins since a loss to Iowa State on Jan. 16 when they returned from a 12-day COVID pause.
            Mulkey said the team is playing for last year's four seniors – Lauren Cox, Te'a Cooper, Juicy Landrum and Erin DeGrate – that didn't get to play in the Big 12 or NCAA tournaments because of the COVID shutdown.
            "Those four seniors didn't get to do this, and they would have had an opportunity to cut down another net, maybe a national championship," she said, "because we felt like we had a team last year that could get to a Final Four in New Orleans. I just couldn't get those four seniors out of my mind when we were out there celebrating today."
            Carrington and Ursin joined Smith on the Big 12 all-tournament team that included West Virginia's Gondrezick and Oklahoma State's Natasha Mack.
            Projected as a top-2 seed for the NCAA tournament that begins next week in San Antonio, Baylor now awaits the Selection Show at 6 p.m. Monday on ESPN.