By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
            AMES, Iowa – Maybe at some point, winning a Big 12 championship at Baylor was a goal or even just a dream. Not now, it's the expectation. 
            With a string of 11-consecutive championships on the line, NaLyssa Smith responded with her 20^thdouble-double of the season with 28 points and a career-high 20 rebounds, lifting the fifth-ranked Bears to a dominant 87-62 win over ninth-ranked Iowa State Monday night in a de facto championship game before a crowd of 13,907 at Hilton Coliseum. 
            Baylor (24-5, 14-3) clinches at least a share of its 12^th-straight Big 12 regular-season title and can win it outright by beating Texas Tech (10-17, 3-13) in Sunday's 2 p.m. matchup at the Ferrell Center. The Bears will also be the No. 1 seed for next week's Big 12 Tournament in Kansas City after sweeping the season series from Iowa State (24-5, 13-4). 
            "Honestly, this means a lot to me," said first-year Baylor head coach Nicki Collen, "but it will mean a lot more on Sunday, because we've got one more game. We don't want to share. Call me greedy, but this isn't enough. We want to win it outright and cut down nets and be there ourselves. 
            "To go from 0-2 to where we're at, it's just a testament to this team and how they believed in one another and they believed in the staff."
            The Bears were in last place in the Big 12 standings at 0-2 on Jan. 16 after road losses at Kansas State and Oklahoma. Becoming the first team since Texas Tech in 2000 to win the league after starting out 0-2, Baylor won its ninth game in a row and 14^th out of 15 since a miraculous rally to beat Kansas, 82-79. 
            "I feel like we've been through so much adversity," Smith said, "like time after time, whether it's injuries, COVID, new coach, new staff. We always just took that adversity and put it on our shoulders and just kept working, kept putting in extra hours, film, recovery. This team has so much strength, mentally and physically, and I feel that's what got us this championship."
            And if there were any lingering doubts about Big 12 Player of the Year, Smith put those to rest with a dominant head-to-head matchup with Iowa State's Ashley Joens. While the 6-1 guard/forward still finished with 19 points before fouling out with 6:02 left, the Big 12's all-time leader in 3-pointers made was 0-for-8 from outside the arc and 4-of-19 overall. 
            "For her to go 0-for-8 from 3 when she has been shooting the basketball so incredibly well from the arc, it's just a testament to who the player of the year is in this league," Collen said of the 6-4 Smith, "and, in my opinion, the player of the year nationally."
            Leading by just one after the first quarter and trailing by one midway through the second, Baylor went on a 16-1 run to take control of the game and had a 41-29 halftime lead. Smith already had 19 points and nine rebounds by the break, hitting eight of her first 10 shots. 
            "A Big 12 championship, that's all that was on my mind," said Smith, whose 20 double-doubles is tied for the second-most in program history and one more than All-American Brittney Griner had as a senior in 2012-13. "That's the standard here at Baylor. I've been a part of this for three years now, and I just want to get my fourth. That was my thing coming back."
            Ja'Mee Asberry knocked down Baylor's only first-half 3-pointer to start a run that also included back-to-back buckets by Smith and Caitlin Bickle and a layup and two free throws by Jordan Lewis. 
            "That was one of those (games) where you have to get to halftime," Iowa State coach Bill Fennelly said, "and we probably should have just slowed it down and limped it there. . . . We were not nearly good enough in a lot of areas, and that's my fault."
            While Smith had a quieter second half with nine points and 11 boards, Lewis lit it up. The grad transfer from Alabama was 5-of-5 from 3-point range and scored 17 of her 23 points in the last 20 minutes. 
            After a tight first quarter, the Bears outscored the Cyclones, 50-25, in the second and third quarters combined and led by as many as 30 in the fourth. Bickle scored 13 off the bench, while Asberry and Queen Egbo scored 10 apiece. 
            "Obviously, NaLyssa Smith looked like the national player of the year today and played like it," Collen said. "They had no answer for her. And then, when Jordan Lewis got going, that 1-2 punch was just too much."
            Unlike previous years when the Bears would have it wrapped up with a month to go, this one came down to the last week and, essentially, one game. 
            "I think it just makes it that much sweeter," Collen said. "I think if you asked NaLyssa Smith, which was the hardest championship to win since she's been at Baylor, I don't think there's any question this is the one. We had to grind, we had to battle. We took everybody's best shot."