By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
            A little more than six minutes into Wednesday's game against Kansas State, Baylor coach Nicki Collen took out Darianna Littlepage-Buggs and sat the freshman forward on the bench for the rest of the first half because she was "hiding against the zone."
            She certainly didn't hide in the second half.
            Going 4-for-4 and scoring nine of her game-high 19 points in the first 2 ½ minutes of the third quarter, Littlepage-Buggs helped the 24th-ranked Bears snap a two-game losing streak with a dominant 69-48 win over the visiting Wildcats in a primetime matchup at the Ferrell Center.
            "She's just learning how to play against zone, and I thought she was hiding," said Collen, whose team improved to 13-5 overall and tied for second in the Big 12 at 4-2. "When she went in in the third, she was fantastic. Fantastic finishing around the rim, rim running. I think it helped that they tried to jump in their 2-1-2 to start the third quarter, and we just dialed it straight down for a layup."
            Before the Wildcats (12-7, 1-5) even knew what hit them, Baylor and Buggs had turned a 12-point halftime lead into a 39-20 rout.
            "We got into a flow," said Buggs, who recorded her seventh double-double of the season with 19 points and 11 rebounds while playing just 22 minutes. "I know we were talking about, let's get high-post touches and see back side. And I was able to get low tonight, and they fed the post."
            Complementing Buggs in an inside-out attack, senior guard Ja'Mee Asberry was 4-of-8 from 3-point range and finished with 18 points, four rebounds, two assists and a steal. Coming off a 1-for-12 shooting performance in Sunday's 74-65 loss at West Virginia, Asberry hit a 3-pointer one minute into the game to get her going right from the start.
            "That really helped me and my confidence, telling myself, 'You are a good shooter,''' Asberry said. "Once I hit one, I'm like, 'OK, you can hit more.' But when I get cold, I'm like, 'Get layups.'''
            Asberry's first bucket aside, both teams struggled in the first quarter, combining to hit just 9-of-34 shots overall and 2-of-15 from 3-point range. After falling behind 5-0 and missing their first six shots, the Wildcats went on a 6-0 run and had a 11-9 lead at the end of the period.
            "It looked like two teams that are on losing streaks, honestly, and trying to shoot themselves out of it," Collen said. "They took a ton of 3's in that first quarter and were just missing. . . . I thought our defense picked up, quite frankly, when our offense picked up."
            That happened during a six-minute stretch of the second quarter, when the Bears scored 16 unanswered points and went up 25-14 when Caitlin Bickle fed freshman Bella Fontleroy for a layup. Fontleroy drained a 3-pointer to give Baylor its largest lead of the game, 30-18, at the break.
            While scoring 11 points in the first half, Asberry also held the conference's leading scorer, Gabby Gregory, to just two points on 1-of-7 shooting.
            "We're both from Tulsa, so I know her game," Asberry said. "I think it was pretty smart for me to guard her because I've been watching her since we were in middle school. Gabby's really good, and she might get me back at K-State, so we're going to have to switch up the matchup. . . . I don't ever want that challenge again . . . ever."
            Gregory finally did get it going, hitting back-to-back 3-pointers late in the third quarter, but "Ja'Mee wasn't guarding her."
            "We got mismatched in transition, or Bella was on her," Collen said. "Ja'Mee did an incredible job. And it was good that we had backside help. She needs help when she's fronting on the low post. But I thought she was really, really good on her, in general."
            At least for a fleeting moment, K-State looked like it had a chance to mount a comeback, going on a 9-0 run and clawing back to within 56-45 on a free throw by Serena Sundell with 4:22 left. Baylor responded, though, scoring seven-straight points on a pair of Littlepage-Buggs layups sandwiched around an Asberry 3-pointer and didn't give up a field goal in the last 4 ½ minutes.
            "It wasn't a very friendly timeout," Collen said of the media timeout at the 4:40 mark., "because you can't take your foot off the accelerator. You just can't. A team that gets to the free throw line at a high rate and a team that is capable of going off from 3 is the scariest kind of team with a three- or four-possession lead."
            Baylor's only other double-digit scorer was junior guard Sarah Andrews with 12 points and six rebounds, but Bickle added six points, 10 rebounds and a career-high eight assists.
            "She sees me, she knows me," Littlepage-Buggs said of Bickle. "She tells me, 'Hey, when I get it, I'm looking for you.' When she tells me that, I'm just ready."
            Averaging right at 20 points per game, Gregory made just 4-of-19 overall and 2-of-10 from outside the arc and finished with 13 points and five boards. Jaelyn Green hit three 3-pointers and scored 11 points, while Sundell and Heavenly Greer chipped in with 10 points apiece.
            In its "We Back Pat" game, Baylor will host 25^th-ranked Texas (13-6, 4-2) at 4 p.m. Sunday at the Ferrell Center. The Longhorns had won 10 of their previous 11 games to jump back into the top 25, but fell 68-64 to Texas Tech Wednesday night in Lubbock.  

NOTABLES

• The Baylor women's basketball team jumped back in the win column on Wednesday night with a 69-48 victory over Kansas State inside the Ferrell Center. 
• The 21-point victory marked the ninth time this season the Bears have bested their opponent by at least 20 points. Additionally, it was the second-largest margin of win over a conference opponent behind the 22-point win over TCU to start Big 12 play. 
• As a team, Baylor matched a season high with 28 assists on 29 made baskets led by Caitlin Bickle's career-high eight dishes. Jaden Owens finished with seven, while Jana Van Gytenbeek added four off the bench. 
• Three Bears reached double figures, as Darianna Littlepage-Buggs recorded her team-high seventh double-double of the year with 19 points and 11 rebounds to lead the team in both categories. 
• Ja'Mee Asberry fell a point shy of matching a season high, finishing with 18 points, while Sarah Andrews reached double figures for the sixth-straight game with 12 points.
• The duo combined for six of BU's seven made 3-pointers, as Asberry and Andrews have each hit from 3-point range in seven- and eight-straight games, respectively.
• Bickle finished a pair of assists shy of a double-double, as the fifth-year grabbed 10 rebounds, marking the fourth time in the last five contests she has finished in double figures on the boards. 
• For the sixth time this season, the Bears held their opponent to 20 or fewer points in the opening half, as the Wildcats trailed 30-18 going into the locker room. 
• Baylor held Kansas State to just seven points in the second frame, marking the 10th time this season BU has held its opponent to 10 or fewer points in a quarter. 
• Kansas State's leading scorer coming into the game, Gabby Gregory, finished with a team-high 13 points, which was just the seventh time in 18 appearances that the senior was held to less than 20 points.