By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
            KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Baylor had a stretch of about 30 minutes in Friday's Big 12 Championship quarterfinal against Iowa State where the Bears "played really, really good basketball," outscoring the Cyclones by 10 points.
            The problem is it's still a 40-minute game.
            After jumping out to a 15-5 lead in the first 5 ½ minutes, third-seeded Iowa State (20-9) used back-to-back 3-pointers from conference Ashley Joens for a closing 11-0 run to pull away for a 74-63 victory in the Big 12 Championship's last quarterfinal game at Municipal Auditorium.
            "I don't think we started the game very well, but we figured it out slowly and surely and chipped into the lead," said Baylor second-year head coach Nicki Collen, whose team dropped to 19-12 with its second-straight loss. "I thought for 30 minutes, after the first five, we played really, really good Baylor basketball."
            Much like the 10^th-ranked Baylor men, the women were dominated on the boards, 54-29, with both Joens (30 points, 15 rebounds) and Morgan Kane (10 points, 10 boards) recording double-doubles.
            "When you play a Big 12 game and you out-rebound someone by 25, especially our team, that has nothing to do with how high you jump or how tall you are," said Iowa State coach Bill Fennelly, whose team beat Baylor in tournament play for just the second time. "That's how big your heart is. Our kids played with a big heart tonight."
            Asked about how the Bears can turn it around and make a good NCAA Tournament run, Collen said, "I think it will start with not getting outrebounded by 25."
            "We have not been that bad this year," she said. "I think it started at the beginning. They got on the boards. The first three or four minutes, they had five or six early offensive boards. I think they had six second-chance points before the first media timeout."
            By that time, Joens had already knocked down two 3-pointers in helping the Cyclones jump on the Bears early, 15-5.
            Darianna Littlepage-Buggs, the unanimous Big 12 Freshman of the Year, gave Baylor a lift in the last 4 ½ minutes of the opening period with four points, one block and a steal that led to a layup by Sarah Andrews.
            "How good is Buggs? She never quits playing," Collen said of the 6-1 freshman, who finished with 16 points, five rebounds, three steals and two blocks in 25 minutes off the bench. "She knows what she's good at, and she goes and does it. There is a workmanlike approach."
            Lighting it up, senior guard Jaden Owens knocked down a pair of 3-pointers and scored 10 of her 15 points in the second quarter as Baylor knotted it up at 37-37 going into the break.
            "I thought she got them rhythmically, and I thought she forced some in the second half," Collen said of Owens. "When she plays downhill and makes reads, that's when Jaden is at her best."
            In a back-and-forth third quarter that saw six lead changes and three ties, Bickle and Sarah Andrews scored six points apiece. All night long, the Bears had success playing downhill and hitting cutters off screens, but the Cyclones closed the third quarter on a 6-0 run that made it a 54-49 game going into the fourth.
            Bickle, who finished with 15 points and two steals, said the give-and-go plays that worked so well are something "we practiced before we played (Iowa State) all three times."
            "You can't go under a ball screen with Sarah," Bickle said, "because of the way she can shoot and the way that she can attack. So, obviously, worked on it all week. I think we executed for the most part . . . until we started settling."
            Through the first three quarters, Joens shot 33% overall and behind the arc, knocking down 4-of-12 from distance. But saving her best for last, the sixth-year senior didn't miss a shot in the fourth, going 5-for-5 overall and 3-for-3 from distance and scoring 13 of the Cyclones' 20 points.
            "That's a tough assignment," said Littlepage-Buggs, "because she can shoot and she can also play downhill. When she does attack downhill, she plays underneath. So, being disciplined and you have to stay down, that was probably the hardest thing. But also knowing when and when not to help on her, because she does have that 3."
            Yes, she does.
            While Baylor missed its last six shots after tying it at 63-63 on a feed from Andrews to Buggs, the Cyclones took the lead for good on a bucket by Kane in traffic. Joens hit back-to-back treys against a defense that lost her, then Lexi Donarski provided the dagger with a 3-pointer from the corner that pushed the lead to double digits for the first time.
            Emily Ryan added 15 points, eight assists and six rebounds for the Cyclones, who advance to Saturday's 2:30 p.m. semifinal to face second-seeded and 14^th-ranked Oklahoma. Overcoming a double-digit first-half deficit, the Sooners defeated 10^th-seeded TCU, 77-76, on a layup by Skylar Vann.
            Andrews narrowly missed a double-double with 12 points, nine assists and six rebounds, while Bickens and Owens scored 15 apiece for the Bears.
            Baylor now awaits the NCAA Tournament selections, which will be announced at 7 p.m. Sunday on ESPN. 
 
NOTABLES

• Iowa State used an 11-0 run to grab the 74-63 win over Baylor in the quarterfinals of the Phillips 66 Big 12 Championship on Friday night. 
• Baylor fell to 48-15 all-time in the postseason tournament and dropped to 17-6 in the quarterfinal round. 
• The 63 points scored by the Bears were tied for the fourth-most scored against the Cyclones in the Phillips 66 Big 12 Championship. 
• Four Bears finished in double figures led by Darianna Littlepage-Buggs' 16-point outpouring. Caitlin Bickle and Jaden Owens added 15 points apiece, while Sarah Andrews finished with 12. 
• Andrews dished out a team-high nine assists and grabbed six rebounds, while Jana Van Gytenbeekhanded out a career-high seven assists in 20 minutes off the bench. 
• Littlepage-Buggs fell a steal shy of a career high, leading the way with three. 
• Owens, Andrews and Littlepage-Buggs all blocked two shots, accounting for six of Baylor's seven stuffs. 

 
 

            
NOTABLES

• Iowa State used an 11-0 run to grab the 74-63 win over Baylor in the quarterfinals of the Phillips 66 Big 12 Championship on Friday night. 
• Baylor fell to 48-15 all-time in the postseason tournament and dropped to 17-6 in the quarterfinal round. 
• The 63 points scored by the Bears were tied for the fourth-most scored against the Cyclones in the Phillips 66 Big 12 Championship. 
• Four Bears finished in double figures led by Darianna Littlepage-Buggs' 16-point outpouring. Caitlin Bickle and Jaden Owens added 15 points apiece, while Sarah Andrews finished with 12. 
• Andrews dished out a team-high nine assists and grabbed six rebounds, while Jana Van Gytenbeekhanded out a career-high seven assists in 20 minutes off the bench. 
• Littlepage-Buggs fell a steal shy of a career high, leading the way with three. 
• Owens, Andrews and Littlepage-Buggs all blocked two shots, accounting for six of Baylor's seven stuffs.