No. 4 WBB Dominates Oklahoma State in Big 12 Quarterfinals

Friday, March 11

Kansas City, Mo.

1:30pm

Baylor

26-5,15-3Big 12

Oklahoma State

9-20,3-15Big 12

Oklahoma St.

Baylor

No. 4 WBB Dominates Oklahoma State in Big 12 Quarterfinals

3/11/2022 3:32:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score FInal Book (PDF)

BU held the Cowgirls scoreless in the first quarter

By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
            KANSAS CITY, Mo. – In 1994, the Arkansas Razorbacks used coach Nolan Richardson's "40 Minutes of Hell" defense to win a national championship.
            The top-seeded and fourth-ranked Baylor Bears put poor Oklahoma State through a "living hell" in Friday's quarterfinal at Municipal Auditorium. They shut out the Cowgirls in the first quarter to set a Big 12 tournament record and held them to just 22.8% shooting and a tournament record-low 36 points total in a 76-36 blowout at Municipal Auditorium.
            "It goes back to our defense. That was our main focus coming into this game," said two-time Big 12 Player of the Year NaLyssa Smith, who recorded her 50^th-career double-double with 15 points and 10 rebounds. "We executed on defense, which made their night a living hell. The harder we played defense, the better this game was going to go."
            It certainly didn't go well for ninth-seeded Oklahoma State (9-20), which played its last game for outgoing head coach Jim Littell. In a nightmarish first quarter that saw the Cowgirls fall behind 23-0, they missed all 13 shots from the field and a pair of free throws and turned it over seven times.
            "It's hard not to be frustrated," said senior center Kassidy De Lapp, who scored seven of her team-high nine points in the fourth quarter. "You see a zero on the big screen. What are we doing? This is the Big 12 Tournament. We should be much better than this. It's hard to stay motivated when you feel like you have so much ground to make up."
            Queen Egbo, who logged her 31^st-career double-double with 15 points and 13 boards, set the tone with four blocks in the first four minutes of the game. Lauren Fields, who came in averaging 16 points per game, had an early shot blocked by Egbo and was held scoreless on 0-for-11 shooting from the field.
            "When their leading scorer and someone that can get hot and start cooking can't get the ball above the rim," first-year Baylor head coach Nicki Collen said, "certainly that set the tone that we were going to rim-protect all night."
            Spreading the wealth, the Bears got scoring from six different players in that first quarter and stretched the lead to 23-0 when Sarah Andrews drove inside for a layup.
            "We got punched pretty good early and didn't respond," said Littell, who isn't returning for his 12^thseason as head coach and 18^th in Stillwater. "We spent a lot of emotion last night (in a 73-58 win over Texas Tech). I feel bad for our kids that we ended this way."
            This game couldn't have gone much better for Collen and the Bears. In a tournament where you could play three games in a little over 48 hours, she was able to give her starters extended rest and got quality minutes out of backup freshman post Kendra Gillespie with five points and three rebounds off the bench.
            OSU transfer Ja'Mee Asberry was the only Baylor player who logged more than 30 minutes, scoring a game-high 16 points in 32 minutes against her former teammates.
            "I don't think NaLyssa ever wants to come out of the game, no matter the score," Collen said, "but I know Queen was under the weather. Anywhere we can steal minutes. The goal is to play three games in three days. Kendra gave us good, early minutes in two-minute spurts and played confidently."
            Baylor stretched the lead to 41-14 by halftime and had enough of a cushion to sit Andrews and Jordan Lewis for the entire fourth quarter. Even freshman walk-on Andrea Katramados played her most minutes in three months (4).
            One of the few lowlights for the Bears was a missed dunk by Smith with just under six minutes to play when she mistimed her jump on a breakaway after a steal.
            "I dunked in warmups, so I was feeling it," said Smith, who hasn't dunked in a game yet. "I was like, 'All right, if I can do it in warmups, I can do it in a game.' But usually I take off from the left-hand side. I'm going to try it again. Why not?"
            The 40-point final margin was the second-biggest in Big 12 Championship history.
            After turning it over 20 times in a sloppy 65-58 road win over OSU 16 days ago, Baylor had just nine turnovers in Friday's game and finished with an 11-3 edge in points off turnovers.
            Andrews and Lewis scored nine points apiece for the Bears, while the Cowgirls had no double-figure scorers. Lexi Keys, another one of OSU's top scoring threats, hit just 2-of-10 shots and finished with five points.
            Baylor advances to Saturday's noon semifinal against fourth-seeded and 21^st-ranked Oklahoma (24-7). The Sooners, who swept the season series with the Bears, avenged a 73-67 home-court loss five days earlier to beat fifth-seeded Kansas, 80-68, in the early quarterfinal.
            "I feel like it's a time of redemption," said Smith, who was presented her Big 12 Player of the Year award before the game, "an opportunity to redeem the two losses where they got us at home and at their place."
            Saturday's semifinal will be streamed live by Big 12 Now on ESPN+, with Brenda VanLengen and former Tennessee coach Holly Warlick calling the action.