Asberry Shuts Down TCU's Best Threat

By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
            Averaging just over 10 points per game, Ja'Mee Asberry will have a tough time making the All-Big 12 team at the end of the season. But if Nicki Collen has anything to do with it, the Baylor senior guard should make the league's All-Defensive team.
            Case in point, TCU guard Tomi Taiwo came into Saturday's conference opener at the Ferrell Center averaging 14.5 points per game and ranked among the league leaders with 29 made 3-pointers. Hounded by Asberry and Sarah Andrews, the Iowa transfer scored just six points on 2-for-8 shooting overall and was 0-for-3 from outside the arc in the Horned Frogs' 64-42 loss.
            "She's the one player on their team who can really get going and get points up in a hurry," Collen said of Taiwo, who had scored in double figures in 10-straight games. "I thought Ja'Mee was really, really good on her. And when she picked up a couple fouls, I thought Sarah picked up the slack and did a good job."
            Despite picking up two fouls in the first 3 ½ minutes of the game, Asberry played all but two minutes in the first half and held Taiwo to just three shot attempts. She did make a floater in the lane that started a 13-4 run third-quarter run, helping the Frogs (6-6, 0-1) pull within one, 30-29.
            But, the Bears closed the third period on a 7-2 run and scored the first 15 points of the fourth quarter to push the lead back to 52-31. Taiwo was 0-for-1 in the fourth, when Baylor outscored the Frogs, 27-11.
            "Ja'Mee is hard to screen. She's super-fast and super slippery and rarely isn't engaged," Collen said. "She doesn't go to sleep. It sounds like an obvious thing, but it's really easy to get to ball-watching or want to take a break on defense. . . . If they have a shooter, and they're going to run her off a lot of screens, (Asberry) is always going to get that kid."
            Asberry also finished off Baylor's 15-0 run to start the fourth quarter, hitting a runner in the lane, and then hit a pair of late 3-pointers to finish with 16 points, four assists, three rebounds and a steal.
            "I think we've got to be locked in like that the entire game," said Andrews, who hit a pair of 3-pointers in Baylor's decisive run and finished with 14 points. "We see them go on a run, and all of a sudden, it's time to lock back in. I think we've got to play like that from start to finish We can't take plays off, we can't slack."
            Overall, Baylor's defense held TCU to a season-low 42 points while forcing 23 turnovers. The Frogs shot just 31% overall (15-of-49) and a dismal 1-for-12 from outside the arc.
            "We had that stretch (in the fourth quarter) where we weren't able to respond to that by scoring ourselves," said Pebley, whose team missed its first eight shots from the field in the quarter and didn't score until the 4:33 mark. "It might have broken us at that point."
            But, it started with shutting down the Frogs' best scoring threat. Taiwo had had less than eight shot attempts just twice this season.
            "We were pretty good in their sets," Collen said. "Some of the things they try to do to get her shots, we were really, really good in."
            Andrews said the Bears played "good team defense."
            "She's a really good player, she's longer than our guards," Andrews said of the 5-foot-10 Taiwo. "Everybody was in a gap, we helped off. I think it was just a team effort in stopping her."
            After the conference-opening win at home, the Bears will go on the road for their next two, facing 20^th-ranked Oklahoma (11-1) on Tuesday in Norman and No. 22/25 Kansas (11-1, 1-0) next Saturday in Lawrence.

NOTABLES

The No. 23 Baylor women's basketball team opened Big 12 play with a 64-42 win over the visiting TCU Horned Frogs on Saturday afternoon inside the Ferrell Center.
Baylor moved to 46-5 all-time against TCU, winning its 34th-straight against the Horned Frogs.
With the victory, the Bears improved to 17-10 in Big 12 openers.
The 22-point win marked the eighth time this season the Bears had bested their opponent by at least 20 points.
Baylor forced 23 turnovers by TCU, making it the sixth time this season the Bears have forced their opponents to turn the ball over at least 20 times.
Fifth-year Caitlin Bickle poured in a season- and game-high 19 points, shooting 8-for-12 from the floor and 3-for-4 behind the 3-point arc.
Sophomore Kendra Gillispie matched a career-high with seven rebounds, as Bickle and Darianna Littlepage-Buggs also recorded seven boards apiece.
As a team, the Bears outrebounded the Horned Frogs, 35-29, marking the 198th time in the last 212 outings BU has grabbed more than its opponent.
For the 10th time this year, senior Jaden Owens led the team in assists, dishing out five, while adding a team-high three steals.
The Bears held TCU's top scorer, Tomi Taiwo, who was averaging 14.5 point per game coming into the contest, to just six points, which marked her second-lowest output of the season for the Horned Frogs.

Asberry Shuts Down TCU's Best Threat

Players Mentioned

Sarah Andrews

Ja'Mee Asberry

Caitlin Bickle

Kendra Gillispie

Darianna Littlepage-Buggs

Jaden Owens

Footer