No. 5 WBB Outlasts Oklahoma State, 65-58

Wednesday, February 23

Stillwater, OK

6:30 PM

Baylor

22-5,12-3Big 12

Oklahoma State

8-16,3-12Big 12

Baylor

Oklahoma St.

No. 5 WBB Outlasts Oklahoma State, 65-58

2/23/2022 8:39:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score Box Score (PDF)

By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
            STILLWATER, Okla. – Facing an Oklahoma State team that has struggled to score, the fifth-ranked Baylor women gave up 26 points on 19 turnovers and 13 second-chance points on 14 offensive rebounds.
            And still "found a way."
            Senior All-American NaLyssa Smith recorded her 18^th double-double of the season with 19 points and 15 rebounds and helped the Bears hold off the Cowgirls, 65-58, Wednesday night at Gallagher-Iba Arena in a game that was much closer than expected.
            "I think it was definitely an eye-opener for our group," said Baylor coach Nicki Collen, whose team won a season-high seventh-straight game, improving to 22-5 overall and tied atop the Big 12 standings with ninth-ranked Iowa State (23-4) at 12-3.
"Sometimes, you've just got to find a way, especially on the road. And I thought at least we did that. We found a way. We stayed composed and we got stops when we needed to."
            Getting off to a slow start for the fourth-straight game, the Bears fell behind 7-0 in the first 3 ½ minutes and were still down 11-4 when Collen turned to her short bench for a little help.
            Providing an instant spark, Caitlin Bickle and Jaden Owens helped Baylor close the first quarter with eight unanswered points and take its first lead, 12-11, on a driving layup by Sarah Andrews in the final seconds.
            "That was the biggest adjustment we made, because they brought energy," Collen said. "It's not like Jaden was scoring, but Cait did a really good job of screening and separating, getting an easy one and kind of extending to the high post. I just thought they brought a lot of energy, we started executing, we got stops and we chipped our way back into it."
            After missing four of her first five shots, Smith was 4-for-4 and scored 10 of her game-high 19 points in the second quarter as Baylor took a double-digit lead and went into the break up 34-25 despite a banked-in 3-pointer by Macie James.
            "We played much better in the second quarter. That was our best quarter from an execution perspective," Collen said. "But, they banked in three shots that they weren't trying to bank in tonight. Should we give up those shots? No. But, they also banked in two 3's and a 15-footer. You take those off the bard, and you wouldn't say our defense was horrible, because they would have scored 50 points."
            Baylor's defense was far from horrible, holding the Cowgirls (8-16, 3-12) to 30.7% shooting. The Bears just couldn't put them away.
            It was a particularly tough day for Lauren Fields, who came in averaging better than 16 points per game. She finished with 12 points, but was 4-of-23 from the floor, 3-for-12 from outside the arc and had five of the Cowgirls' 13 turnovers.
            "We just tried to stay connected to her," Collen said defending Fields. "We had a variety of people guard her. Jordan (Lewis) guarded her, Ja'Mee (Asberry) guarded her, Jaden guarded. We just tried to mix up matchups and keep people fresh. We did a good job of guarding our yard. Staying in front of her, making her change direction and take a lot of shots that I thought were under duress."
            With OSU missing its first eight shots and going scoreless for almost 3 ½ minutes, Baylor stretched its lead to 39-25 on a pull-up jumper by Andrews and a step-back 3-pointer by Asberry, who spent her first four years of college at Oklahoma State.
            Just when it seemed like the game was slipping away from them, the Cowgirls responded with a 13-2 run and pulled within one, 44-43, on a Kassidy De Lapp layup off a turnover with 2:17 left in the third.
            "One thing about Oklahoma State, they keep pursuing. They don't quit playing in transition," Collen said. "They did a good job, even when we had numbers, of filling in from behind and never giving up plays. We just had so many turnovers in transition when we had numbers, where we just needed to make a simple play, and we'd try to make a home run."
            Andrews knocked down a pair of 3-pointers in a 7-0 run over the last two minutes of the quarter to push Baylor's lead back to 51-44.
            And then in the fourth quarter, when OSU pulled within 54-50, Baylor answered with a pair of buckets by Queen Egbo and a driving layup by Andrews that stretched it back to double digits.
            "I felt like Sarah made big plays, Lys made big plays, Queen made big plays. Even Jordan (Lewis) came in and attacked and got an important layup for us," Collen said. "I thought she had struggled, quite frankly on both ends, so that was just a big gut-check play for her to want the ball and take that shot when she had struggled."
            Egbo had a string of double-doubles stopped at four, but finished with 13 points, six rebounds, two blocks and two steals and scored six fourth-quarter points. Andrews had 17 points and four assists and knocked down the back-to-back 3-pointers in the third quarter when the Cowgirls had pulled within one.
            In the first game of a Ferrell Center doubleheader on Saturday, the Baylor women will host Kansas (19-6, 10-5) at 2 p.m. The Jayhawks were blown out by ninth-ranked Iowa State, 85-59, Wednesday night at home.