Baylor
Texas
No. 9 WBB Prepares for Back-to-Back Contests vs. No. 13 Texas
2/3/2022 12:39:00 PM | Women's Basketball
Bears host Longhorns Friday, travel to Austin Sunday
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9/12 BAYLOR BEARS (15-5, 5-3) Location: Waco,Texas Conference/Affiliation: Big 12 Head Coach: Nicki Collen (Marquette, 1998) Roster | Stats | Game Notes (PDF) |
BAYLOR (15-5, 5-3) vs. TEXAS (15-4, 5-3) February 4, 2022 • 7 p.m. CT Waco, Texas • Ferrell Center February 6, 2022 • 3 p.m. CT Austin, Texas • Frank Erwin Center LIVE STATS: Stat Broadcast WATCH: ESPN2 Talent: Courtney Lyle (pxp), Carolyn Peck (analyst) LISTEN: ESPN Central Texas, BaylorBears.com Talent: Derek Smith (pxp), Sophia Young-Malcolm (Analyst) Baylor Social Media:    |
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#13/13 TEXAS LONGHORNS (15-4, 5-3) Location: Austin, Texas Conference/Affiliation: Big 12 Head Coach: Vic Shaefer (Texas A&M, 1984) Roster | Stats (PDF) | Game Notes (PDF) |
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By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
For the second time in three days, the ninth-ranked Baylor women are going to have wait, hope and pray that their opponent can make it to Waco in time for a game.
After Wednesday's 78-77 loss to No. 18 Oklahoma was delayed by 45 minutes because of the Sooners' travel issues, the 13th-ranked Texas Longhorns (15-4, 5-3) are traveling the day of the game to face the Bears (15-5, 5-3) at 7 p.m. Friday at the Ferrell Center.
"Things will need to thaw out, roads will need to clear. And the thing is, we're headed north, which it's colder," said Texas coach Vic Schaefer, who is 36-14 in his second season in Austin. "We could very well roll in there at 4 or 5 o'clock and play at 7. So, we may be eating McDonald's on the bus on the way up. I really don't have any idea."
With temperatures not expected to get above freezing until 2 p.m. or later, the Longhorns probably won't be able to make the 100-mile trip to Waco until mid- to late-afternoon.
Friday's top-15 matchup in Waco is the makeup of the scheduled Jan. 9 game that was postponed for COVID health and safety protocols. With the rescheduling, the Bears and Longhorns will play two days later with a 3 p.m. tip Sunday afternoon at the Frank Erwin Center in Austin.
"I've coached against Vic as an assistant coach when I was at Arkansas, certainly game-planned for Mississippi State," first-year Baylor head coach Nicki Collen said. "People are different, personnel is different, but system and style are the same. You had to handle the press for 40 (minutes) against them, and you know you were going to get great energy and effort."
While Collen admits that "it's a big game," she says "it doesn't mean you prepare any differently."
Baylor trails the all-time series, 59-45, but has won 25 of the last 26 meetings and swept the three games last year when both teams lost in the Elite Eight. That included the Bears' 66-55 win in the Big 12 Tournament semifinals.
"You don't need a lot of extra motivation to get (the players) excited to play," Collen said. "That's innate, to want to compete. And you're talking about competing on national television, too. So, it's a rival, it's national TV and at this point it's basically a top-10 matchup."
The casts of both teams have drastically changed since that March 12 game at the Big 12 Tournament. Texas has only three players back from a team that included 6-5 forward Charli Collier, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2021 WNBA Draft, while Baylor had DiDi Richards and DiJonai Carrington drafted and lost three others in the transfer portal.
Coming off a 65-63 loss to Oklahoma last Saturday, Texas is more guard-driven this year with the trio of Mississippi State transfer Aliya Matharu (14.9 ppg), senior Joanne Allen-Taylor (10.5 ppg) and freshman Rori Harmon (10.4 ppg,. 4.4 assists).
Featuring more of a balanced attack, Baylor added transfer guards Jordan Lewis (11.9 ppg, 5.3 assists) from Alabama and Ja'Mee Asberry (9.7 ppg) from Oklahoma State to go with sophomore guard Sarah Andrews (12.5 ppg) and the senior post duo of NaLyssa Smith (20.3 ppg, 11.5 rebounds) and Queen Egbo (10.4 ppg, 8.1 reboinds).
Andrews hit three 3-pointers and scored a game-high 23 points in Wednesday's heatbreaking loss to the Sooners.
"I think what makes them different this year is all three of their guards can shoot it," Schaefer said of Andrews, Lewis and Asberry, who have combined for 120 3-pointers. "So, there's nowhere you can really bring any help from when you're dealing with the other two big ones. It's a huge challenge."
Collen said the Bears have to recover from a physical game against OU, when they were outrebounded, 46-35.
"We competed hard down the stretch, we just didn't make enough plays," Collen said of Baylor being outscored 8-1 in the last three minutes. "We're going to have to do a lot of walk-through work (Thursday) and a lot of film work and keep them off their legs and see how they do."
Friday's game will be broadcast by ESPN2, with Courtney Lyle and former Purdue and Florida head coach Carolyn Peck calling the action.
BIG GAME JLEW
• Jordan Lewis became the third Bear in program history to notch a triple-double as the grad transfer put up 10 points, 10 boards and 11 assists at West Virginia (1/29).
• Lewis's triple-double was the first since Alexis Jones did so against Oklahoma (1/29/17) and the seventh overall in program history.
• Named the Big 12 Player of the Week, Lewis had just the second 10 point, 10 rebound, 11 assist game in a Big 12 matchup, joining Shalee Lehning (Kansas State, 2009).
WALKING DOUBLE-DOUBLE
• NaLyssa Smith is seventh in the country with 14 double-doubles on the season.
• Smith is tied for fourth alongside Danielle Crockrom (1998-02) in program history with 42 career double-doubles.
• The senior is averaging 20.2 points and 11.4 rebounds per game which ranks No. 19 and No. 14 in the country, respectively.
• Smith was recently named to the Wooden Award Late Season Top 20 Watch List.
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. 6 in the nation in 3-point percentage at 47 percent.
• Jordan Lewis joined the club with her 6-of-7 performance against Iowa State.
QUICK HITS
• 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.
• Down by four with 20 seconds on the clock, Baylor went on a 7-0 run - five of those points coming from Ja'Mee Asberry - as the Bears clawed their way to their first Big 12 win of the season at Kansas.
• Sarah Andrews and Asberry became the first BU teammates ever in program history to hit a minimum of six 3s each in the same game (Kansas).
• With its win over Missouri on Saturday, Baylor is 5-1 in Big 12/SEC Challenge games.
• For the first time since Dec. 19, 2020, Baylor held an opponent to under 30 total points (24, McNeese State) against Morehead State. It also marked the first time since that game that BU held an opponent to four single-digit scoring quarters.
• Jordan Lewis and NaLyssa Smith, along with 28 others, were named candidates for the 2021-22 Senior CLASS Award. The award recognizes a senior NCAA Division I player who demonstrates excellence in the community, the classroom, character and competition.
• Smith was named the Big 12 Player of the Week after averaging 19 points and 15.3 points per game through three games in Mexico.
• Baylor went 3-0 in the Cancun Challenge, playing three games in three days over Thanksgiving break. Smith, Lewis and Queen Egbo were named to the 2021 Cancun Challenge Mayan Division All-Tournament Team. Smith was also named the Division's MVP.
• No. 6 Baylor had a shot to send the game to overtime in the final seconds, but the 3-pointer from the left wing barely missed to give No. 3 Maryland the 79-76 win. The Terps led, 76-65, with 2:45 left in the game. Lewis answered with six-straight points, and Smith added a bucket with 1:30 to play. Then it was Lewis again with 38 seconds remaining with a 3-pointer to cut Maryland's lead to three. Baylor's defense got the stop without fouling on the other end to set up the chance for the tie.
• A second-half surge propelled the Bears to a 27-point win on the road over UT Arlington for BU's second game in three days to open the season. Baylor led the Lady Mavs by six at the half before holding the home team to a total of 22 points in the second half. Smith became the first Big 12 player of the season to record a 20/10 performance that game, while Ja'Mee Asberry hit five triples. Caitlin Bickle had an all-around game for Baylor as she finished with seven points, eight rebounds, three assists, two blocks and a couple of charges.
• BU opened the Nicki Collen era with a win over Texas State. Collen came to Baylor from the WNBA's Atlanta franchise, where she spent the last three seasons at the helm for the Dream. Her first year in Atlanta resulted in a 23-11 season in 2018, where she earned WNBA Coach of the Year honors and helped the team to the WNBA Playoff Semifinals.
