Baylor
Oklahoma State
No. 4 WBB Readies for Phillips 66 Big 12 Championships
3/10/2022 7:56:00 PM | Women's Basketball
Bears to face Oklahoma State in quarterfinals
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4/4 BAYLOR BEARS (25-5, 15-3) Location: Waco,Texas Conference/Affiliation: Big 12 Head Coach: Nicki Collen (Marquette, 1998) Roster | Stats | Game Notes (PDF) |
BAYLOR (25-5, 15-3) vs. OKLAHOMA STATE (9-19, 3-15) March 11, 2022 • 1:30 p.m. CT Waco, Texas • Ferrell Center LIVE STATS: Stat Broadcast WATCH: ESPNU Talent: Andrea Lloyd and Chuckie Kempf LISTEN: ESPN Central Texas, BaylorBears.com Talent: Derek Smith (pxp), Sophia Young-Malcolm (Analyst) Baylor Social Media:    |
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OKLAHOMA STATE COWGIRLS (9-19, 3-15) Location: Stillwater, Okla. Conference/Affiliation: Big 12 Head Coach: Jim Littell (Southwestern, 1977) Roster | Stats (PDF) | Game Notes (PDF) |
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By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Queen Egbo might be a "handful," as first-year head coach Nicki Collen puts it. But, she also recognizes that her fourth-ranked Baylor team is "at its best when Queen is at her best."
"When you look at us analytically, that's the difference in our wins and losses is Queen," said Collen, whose top-seeded Bears (25-5) will play ninth-seeded Oklahoma State (9-19) at 1:30 p.m. Friday in the Big 12 Tournament quarterfinals at Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City.
"Her production, her putting the ball in the basket, her energy – which to me equates to rebounding – the numbers are staggering in terms of wins and losses. Obviously, it's not a huge sample size, because you're talking about five losses. But, it is what it is. She struggled against Maryland and Michigan. Therefore, we struggled against Maryland and Michigan."
In Baylor's five losses this season, the 6-3 senior center averaged 5.8 points and 5.0 rebounds and shot 37.9%. By comparison, in the Bears' 25 wins, she has averaged 12.1 points and 9.2 rebounds and shot 51%.
But, where Egbo has made the biggest difference has been on the defensive end, where she ranks third in the Big 12 with 54 blocks and top-10 in the league with 5.6 defensive rebounds per game and fourth on Baylor's team with 27 steals.
"I feel like I'm taking my defense to a whole 'nother level," said Egbo, a second-team pick on the Associaed Press All-Big 12 team. "I'm the person our team can rely on, like if I get beat, I know Queen's right there, and they're not going to go up and challenge her. That's just my role on the team. I want to make presence known on the defensive end."
With Egbo as the defensive anchor, the Bears have allowed just 60.6 points per game and a 36.5% defensive field goal percentage that's second in the Big 12.
"When she locks in defensively, she's one of the best defenders in the nation," senior forward Caitlyn Bickle said of Egbo. "And then, whenever she's going to the boards, I think that's where Queen makes her living."
Hitting her stride in the last month of the season, Egbo recorded four-straight double-doubles in February, including 14 points and a career-high 21 boards in a 25-point blowout of Iowa State. In Baylor's current 10-game winning streak, she's averaged 11.7 points and 8.9 rebounds.
Egbo credits her pick-and-roll game, which has "grown exponentially."
"I feel like we have great passers," she said. "And because our great passers are also great shooters, they have to play it true. The can't back off Sarah (Andrews), J-Lee (Jordan Lewis) or Ja'Mee (Asberry). Not very many post players are athletic enough or laterally quick enough to be able to move in a pick-and-roll. I just give all the credit to our guards, because they're the ones who make the reads and make the passes. I've just got to finish the layup."
The bright spotlight on 6-4 senior All-American NaLyssa Smith has helped Egbo in a couple of ways. First, the double-teams on Smith oftentimes leave her with open layups or extra spacing for rebounds. Plus, Egbo gets some of that spotlight as well, projected as a first-round pick in the 2022 WNBA Draft.
"People take so much pride in trying to stop Lys, they kind of forget about me," Egbo said. "But, they also relax off of you and don't respect you. But, I feel like they're learning to respect everybody. Even though Lys is definitely one of the best players in the country, I feel like because the spotlight is on her, it's allowed opportunities for other players on the team and is just making them and us so much better."
Playing alongside her, Smith (22.3 ppg, 11.7 rebounds) said Egbo has improved her "scoring around the rim, for sure, and just falling in love with defense."
"You see her get those monster blocks every game, and I feel like that can help her stock grow a lot," Smith said, "where a lot of people focus on offense. When you become that one player that focuses on defense, that could put her on a lot of people's radar."
After winning its 12th-consecutive Big 12 regular-season championship – and fourth-straight for Egbo, Smith and Bickle – Baylor will try to win its 10th Big 12 Tournament in the last 12 years and 12th overall.
The top-seeded Bears will face an Oklahoma State team that made it out of the first round with a 73-58 win over eighth-seeded Kansas State. Baylor is 5-0 against the Cowgirls in neutral sites and swept the home-and-home series this year, pulling out a 65-58 win in Stillwater.
Junior guard Lauren Fields is OSU's go-to player, averaging 16.0 points, 4.2 rebounds and 1.9 assists per game. After missing the first meeting in Waco because of a COVID pause, Fields made just 4-of-23 from the field and scored 12 points in the game at Stillwater.
Friday's game will be broadcast by ESPNU, with Andrea Lloyd and Chuckie Kempf calling the action. If Baylor wins, the Bears would play in the noon semifinal Saturday against the winner of Friday's opening 11 a.m. game between 21st-ranked Oklahoma and fifth-seeded Kansas.
TWELVE IN A ROW
• Baylor clinched a share of the regular-season Big 12 title with a 25-point win on the road at No. 8 Iowa State in front of a record crowd at Hilton Coliseum.
• BU's streak of 12 regular-season titles in a row is the longest active streak in the country in men's AND women's hoops.
• The streak ties for fourth all-time in WBB behind Green Bay 20 (1999-2018), Louisiana Tech 15 (2003-17), Stanford 14 (2001-14) and Old Dominion 12 (1993-2004).
• With 24 combined conference championships, Baylor ties Stanford for the most among Power 5 schools since 2004-05.
• With a win over Texas Tech on Sunday or an Iowa State loss on Saturday, Baylor would clinch the championship outright.
• Baylor became the first school since Texas Tech in 2000 to start league play 0-2 and end up winning the conference title.
BIG 12 AWARDS ROLLING IN
• Baylor was well represented in the All-Big 12 awards that were announced Monday evening as each member of BU's starting five was honored.
• NaLyssa Smith became the first player to receive Player of the Year accolades in back-to-back seasons since BU's Brittney Griner did so from 2011-13. Courtney Paris (Oklahoma, 2007-09), Nicole Ohlde (Kansas State, 2003-04) and Stacey Dales (Oklahoma, 2001-02) are the only other Big 12 players to accomplish the feat.
• Jordan Lewis was named the Newcomer of the Year. Since the graduate transfer rule has been implemented, Baylor has had one such player win the Newcomer of the Year Award in the Big 12 in four-straight seasons – Lewis (2022), DiJonai Carrington (2021), Te'a Cooper (2020) and Chloe Jackson (2019).
• Smith and Lewis were All-Big 12 first teamers, while Sarah Andrews landed on the second team. Ja'Mee Asberry and Queen Egbo were honorable mention.
• Smith also received Big 12 All-Defensive Team honors.
WALKING DOUBLE-DOUBLE
• NaLyssa Smith is fifth in the country with 21 double-doubles on the season. That mark puts her at second all-time in Baylor history.
• Smith is tied for third in program history with 49 career double-doubles alongside Maggie Davis-Stinnett (1986-89, 1990-91)
• The senior is averaging 22.3 points and 11.7 rebounds per game which both rank No. 8 in the country. She is the only player in the country who is averaging 22+ points and 11+ rebounds per game.
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 five 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.
• Jordan Lewis joined the club with her 6-of-7 performance against Iowa State.
• Baylor - with 204 3s on the season - has the second-highest 3pointer total for a single season in program history.
• Asberry is fourth in program history with 69 3s made this season.
