No. 18/17 WBB Defeats Incarnate Word, 71-42

Thursday, November 10

Waco, Texas

7 p.m.

Baylor

2-0,0-0Big 12

Incarnate Word

1-1,0-0Southland

UIW

Baylor

No. 18/17 WBB Defeats Incarnate Word, 71-42

11/10/2022 9:27:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
            On a Baylor team with three WNBA Draft picks and a transfer sharpshooter from Oklahoma State, Sarah Andrews was no better than a third or fourth option most nights last season.
            Now, second-year head coach Nicki Collen wants the junior guard to be the 18^th-ranked Bears' "Batman."
            Thursday night, Missouri transfer Aijha Blackwell was closer to that role, making 10-of-13 shots for the game and scoring 17 of her 23 points in the first half to help the 18^th-ranked Bears (2-0) roll to a 71-42 win over the Incarnate Word Cardinals (1-1) at the Ferrell Center.
            "Aijha has played in the SEC, she's played against Aaliyah Boston and Victoria Saxton and Dre Edwards, and the list goes on and on," Collen said of the 5-11 forward, who recorded her 41^st-career double-double and first in a BU uniform, adding 10 rebounds. "She's not intimidated by catching it deep in the paint and powering up and making a play."
            In the first half, especially, Blackwell was about the only thing Baylor had going right. While she made eight of her first 10 shots and scored 17 points, her teammates were a combined 4-of-25, and the Bears led by just eight at the break, 26-18.
            "Go ahead and say it, that was ugly," Collen said.
            After grabbing just four rebounds in Monday's 88-50 season-opening win over Lamar, Blackwell had more than that in the first half alone (five). Holding the visiting Cardinals to just three offensive rebounds and two second-chance points, Baylor dominated the battle of the boards, 43-26, and scored 25 second-chance points.
            "I just feed off the energy of the team," Blackwell said, but it looked like it was more the other way. "I feel like when we're energized, everybody feels it."
            Both of the teams struggled to get the ball in the basket in the first quarter, hitting a combined 7-of-25 shots. Blackwell made four of her first six shots and scored nine points to help the Bears take an 11-5 lead.
            "We know we can shoot the ball," said Andrews, who was 0-for-3 from 3-point range in the first half. "You're going to have nights where the shots don't fall, but what are you going to do? We got stops on defense, we played in transition, we played through Aijha. We're going to get in the gym and put up shots, and next game we'll knock them down. I have nothing but faith that we'll knock down shots."
            Looking nothing like their first-half selves, the Bears knocked down three of their first four shots in the third quarter and scored nine unanswered points to go up, 37-20, on a pair of Jaden Owens free throws a little over 3 ½ minutes into the period.
            The Cardinals' Nina De Leon Negron slowed the train down, at least temporarily, on a 3-pointer. But, Andrews whipped a pass into Blackwell for an easy bucket, then fed freshman Doriana Littlepage-Buggs for a layup before Blackwell rebounded a miss and scored inside to make it 43-23.
            "Last game, I didn't play to my standard," said Blackwell, who had 17 points and four rebounds in the win over Lamar. "But I don't know, I just go get that orange thing out of that orange thing. That's the way I think about (rebounding, just being relentless, consistently."
            Outscoring the Cardinals, 24-7, in the third quarter, Baylor pushed the lead to 50-25. The Bears missed their first 10 shots from 3-point range before Andrews drained one from the wing with 51 seconds left in the third.
            "Honestly, I wasn't worried about whether my shot was falling or not," said Andrews, who scored 10 of her 12 points in the second half, hitting 4-for-7 overall and 2-for-3 from outside the arc."
            Freshman Bella Fontleroy, who had little to show for eight first-half minutes, scored all 11 of her points in the second half and added three rebounds, one steal and a block. Littlepage-Buggs struggled on offense, missing six of eight shots, but made up for it on the defensive end with four blocks, one steal and nine boards.
            Incarnate Word, which scored in single digits in the first and third quarters, was led by guard Aliyah Collins with 12 points.
            Baylor will face SMU (1-0) at 7 p.m. Tuesday before finishing a four-game home stand with a matchup against No. 17/18 Maryland on Nov. 20.

NOTABLES

Baylor moved to 2-0 on the year, and 17-2 at the Ferrell Center in the Nicki Collen era, with the 71-42 victory over Incarnate Word on Thursday night.

The Bears have outscored their first two opponents, 159-92.
BU has out-rebounded its opponents in 189 of the last 201 games, and 85-58 to start the 2022-23 campaign.
Newcomer Aijha Blackwell registered her first 20-point performance of the season, reaching a game-high 23 for her 20th-career 20-point outing.
Blackwell added a game-high 10 rebounds for her first double-double of the year and 41st of her career.
Defensively, Blackwell drew a team-high three charges and eight fouls in total.
Senior Jaden Owens reached another career milestone, recording a career- and team-best four steals.
Owens and freshman Bella Fontleroy earned their first career starts in a Baylor uniform.
Fontleroy finished in double-figure scoring for the second-straight game, registering 11 points.
Junior Sarah Andrews logged a team-high 35 minutes, finishing with the second-most points (12).
Nine of BU's 11 points in the opening quarter were from Blackwell.
The Bears forced 20-plus turnovers from their opponents in back-to-back games to start the season. Just five of BU's opponents recorded 20-or-more turnovers last year.
BU held UIW to less than 20 points (18) in the first half, marking the first time since holding Oklahoma State to just 14 in the opening half on March 11, 2022.