Baylor
West Virginia
No. 11 WBB Readies for Road Contest at West Virginia
1/28/2022 9:25:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Riding 4-Game winning streak, Bears gearing up for Saturday Showdown
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11/14 BAYLOR BEARS (14-4, 4-2) Location: Waco,Texas Conference/Affiliation: Big 12 Head Coach: Nicki Collen (Marquette, 1998) Roster | Stats | Game Notes (PDF) |
BAYLOR (14-4, 4-2) at WEST VIRGINIA (10-7, 3-4) January 29, 2022 • 1 p.m. CT Morgantown, W. Va. • WVU Coliseum LIVE STATS: Stat Broadcast WATCH: Big 12 Now on ESPN+ Talent: Andrew Caridi (pxp), Meg Bulger (analyst), Anjelica Trinone (reporter) LISTEN: 104.9FM, BaylorBears.com Talent: Derek Smith (pxp), Sophia Young-Malcolm (Analyst) Baylor Social Media:    |
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WEST VIRGINIA MOUNTAINEERS (10-7, 3-4) Location: Morgantown, W. Va. Conference/Affiliation: Big 12 Head Coach: Mike Carey (Salem, 1980) Roster | Stats (PDF) | Game Notes (PDF) |
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By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
With a schedule that looks more like the NBA, the 11th-ranked Baylor women will play four games in the next nine days, a stretch that could test a team that is predominantly using a seven-player rotation.
The grind for the Bears (14-4, 4-2) begins with a road trip to Morgantown, W. Va., to face the West Virginia Mountaineers (10-7, 3-4) at 1 p.m. CT Saturday at WVU Coliseum in a place where they've never lost (9-0).
"Look, they're banged-up. Most players in the country are," said first-year Baylor head coach Nicki Collen, whose team has strung together four-straight wins. "But, they're also young, they still have young legs. We're trying to kind of go the extra mile in terms of taking care of their bodies. We're always going to look at our situation from a prep perspective.
"But, do we expect to win every game we play? Yes. Does that change our expectations? No. I think if we can play three games in three days in Cancun, with a short roster, we can play four games in nine days."
Baylor is coming off an 88-80 shootout road win over Texas Tech (9-10, 2-6), which rallied from a 16-point first-half deficit to tie it up late in the fourth quarter. Sarah Andrews drained a tiebreaking 3-pointer with 2:20 left as the Bears outscored the Lady Raiders, 9-1, to close out the game.
Tech shot 53% overall, including a sizzling 11-of-15 from the 3-point arc. Bryn Gerlich scored a career-high 22 points, while Vivian Gray and Taylah Thomas had 21 and 13 points, respectively.
"I think it's a little bit of the Baylor blessing and curse," Collen said. "Teams play with a little more underdog mentality, a little more nothing to lose. So, they're letting it fly from spots that they, quite frankly, don't even usually shoot it from. . . . But, some of our rotations were bad, we made bad decisions. It wasn't a lack of effort, we just didn't stick to who we were guarding and what they were good at."
But, for the second time in a row, the Bears found a way to win a down-to-the-wire game on the road. After losing four of their first six games decided by single digits, they scored seven unanswered points in the last 14 seconds to beat Kansas, 82-79, and then held the Lady Raiders without a field goal for the last 2 ½ minutes.
"I think we've done really well since our game against Oklahoma," senior forward Caitlin Bickle said of an 83-77 loss at OU in Baylor's first game back from a COVID pause. "We really turned the corner in, at least when we're in tighter games, of finishing. . . . I can tell you, we were calm, cool, collected with a minute to go (in Sunday's win at Tech)."
Baylor, the 11-time defending Big 12 champion, was in last place after an 0-2 start in league play. But, winning four in a row, the Bears have climbed up to fourth and are actually tied with 13th-ranked Iowa State (17-3, 6-2) No. 18 Oklahoma (17-3, 6-2) and No. 9 Texas (15-3, 5-2) in the loss column with two apiece.
"We, obviously, didn't play as well as we would have liked to (versus Tech) in certain aspects, on the defensive end," said Bickle, who had 12 points and seven rebounds off the bench. "But, we just toughed it out and got the win."
After a 1-3 start in league play, West Virginia has won two-straight, beating Oklahoma State on the road, 61-57, and jumping out to a 17-1 first-quarter lead in rolling over TCU, 66-54, Tuesday night at home.
The Mountaineers are led by the inside-out duo of KK Deans (15.2 ppg, 3.8 assists) and 6-2 junior forward Emery Martinez (11.6 ppg, 8.7 rebounds), who has recorded three-consecutive double-doubles.
"They make you uncomfortable offensively, and their defense can create offense," Collen said. "They really can get in passing lanes, get steals, get in transition, get easy buckets, get to the foul line that way. . . . If you don't cough up the basketball and can defend them in the half court on every possession, you have a chance to win."
The Bears play three games next week, hosting Oklahoma on Wednesday and Texas on Friday before closing it out with the short road trip down I-35 to play the Longhorns in Austin next Sunday, Feb. 6.
"This is the greatest time of the year," Bickle said. "Who doesn't want to go head-to-head playing other teams and being competitive every single night? Nothing beats that, nothing beats March Madness, nothing beats Big 12 Conference play. . . . Every game we go into, we want to go 1-0, and I think it's great when you get another win under your belt."
Saturday's game will be streamed by Big 12 Now on ESPN+, with Andrew Caridi, Meg Bulger and Anjelica Trinone calling the action.
FOUR IN A ROW
• Over the last four games, Baylor is averaging 6 points higher than the season average in addition to shooting .466 from 3, compared to the season average of .352.
• Speaking of 3s, Baylor's guards are shooting at a blistering rate from long range. Sarah Andrews is red hot at 65 percent, followed by Ja'Mee Asberry at 55 and Jordan Lewis at 50.
• Baylor's starting five during this win streak is averaging double figures. NaLyssa Smith leads the way with 17.8, followed by Andrews with 16, Lewis with 13.5, Queen Egbo with 13 and Asberry with 10.3. Caitlin Bickle isn't far behind with 8.5 points per game.
TOP 10 WIN
• Baylor picked up its first ranked win - and top-10 win - of the Nicki Collen era with an 87-61 victory over then-ranked No. 7 Iowa State on Sunday. It marked the worse loss since 2018 for the Cyclones.
• It was a true team effort for the Bears as shown by the 26 assists on 32 buckets. Over BU's three-game win streak, Baylor has assisted on 79 percent of its made baskets.
• Jordan Lewis led the charge offensively with 24 points off 9-of-11 shooting. The grad transfer went 6-for-7 from the 3-point line to tie her career high triples in a game.
• Queen Egbo went to work on the boards, pulling down a career-best 21 rebounds. That total tied her for eighth all-time in program history alongside Kalani Brown, Maggie Davis Stinnett and Jackie Valentine.
• Sarah Andrews continued her hot streak from the perimeter, shooting 4-of-5 from downtown.
• NaLyssa Smith added 17 points of her own to go with three blocks.
WALKING DOUBLE-DOUBLE
• NaLyssa Smith is third in the country with 13 double-doubles on the season.
• Smith is fifth in program history with 41 career double-doubles.
• The senior is averaging 20.2 points and 11.8 rebounds per game which ranks No. 20 and No. 6 in the country, respectively.
LET IT FLY
• Baylor's program record for triples made came on Dec. 18, 2019 against Arkansas State when Juicy Landrum caught fire and set an NCAA record with 14 triples. Besides that record-setting performance, BU hadn't drained more than a dozen shots from deep since 2011.
• BU's record for 3-point attempts in a season came in 2013-14 when the Bears attempted 596 3s.
• From that season to 2020-21, Baylor made 10 or more 3-pointers in a game only five times across a total of 281 games (1.78 percent). BU has done so four times this season.
• At Kansas, Baylor nearly set a record with a 14-for-29 display from the perimeter. BU's 14 treys marked the second most in program history.
• Prior to this year, only 14 Bears had made six or more 3s in a game. Two of them had done it multiple times (Makenzie Robertson, 2012, 2014) and Jennifer King (1990, 1991, 1993).
• Sarah Andrews and Ja'Mee Asberry have already joined that elite club this season. Andrews went 6-for-8 against Morehead State and from deep and Asberry fired off 6-of-8 against Alcorn State. Asberry then went 6-for-11 at Kansas, and Andrews set a career-high with a 7-for-10 mark.
• Andrews' seven 3s tied for third in program history. She is now one of six Bears in program history to hit a minimum of seven triples in a game.
• Andrews is currently No. 10 in the nation in 3-point percentage at 45.5 percent.
• Jordan Lewis joined the club with her 6-of-7 performance against Iowa State.
