TALL TASK
1/23/2025 3:25:00 PM | Women's Basketball
#25 WBB becoming accustomed to big post presences
Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
WACO, Texas – For the better part of a decade, Baylor women's basketball had a dominant post presence that was hard for anyone in the country to match up against, first with 6-8 Brittney Griner and then later 6-7 Kalani Brown.
Now, the shoe's on the other foot.
UCLA's 6-7 center, Lauren Betts, had 24 points, nine rebounds and a school-record nine blocked shots in the top-ranked Bruins' 72-57 win over 25th-ranked Baylor (16-4) Monday in the inaugural Coretta Scott King Classic in Newark, N.J. The Bears shot a season-low 27.5% overall and 6-of-22 from 3-point range.
"We missed some layups we usually make. We missed some open 3's we usually make," said Baylor coach Nicki Collen, whose team had a five-game winning streak snapped.
"When you have someone like Lauren Betts at the front of the rim for much of the game, you rush your shot. You mishandle the drop pass that you normally catch and lay in, because you're like, 'I've got to catch it and go up really quick.' I think a lot of our misses can still be attributed to them, because they speed you up more than you want to because of their length."
It didn't help that Baylor lost a potential equalizer in 6-3 Aaronette Vonleh, who picked up two fouls in the first four minutes of the game and fouled out early in the fourth quarter, finishing with just two points and three rebounds in 10 minutes.
"We thought we could neutralize Betts a little bit more with Vonleh, but her foul trouble never allowed that to happen," Collen said. "I thought Kyla (Abraham) and Kayla (Nelms) really battled. But ultimately, I think if we get Nettie's typical game, then that game would have been a close finish rather than a 15-point game."
Vonleh, a transfer from Colorado, helped limit Betts to just two points in 28 minutes on 1-for-4 shooting in the Buffaloes' 53-45 loss to the Bruins last February.
"I thought we tried, at times, to get Lauren away from the rim," Collen said. "Some of our actions pulled her out. Our zoom actions were pretty good, drawing her away from the rim. But we still missed, even when it was just (Texas A&M transfer Janiah) Barker in there, just because they fly to the ball."
Maybe even more so, the Bears didn't have "an answer without Nettie at the defensive end of the floor for (Betts). We just didn't have the ability to neutralize her." Betts scored a game-high 24 points, hitting 10-of-17 from the floor.
A bright spot for Baylor was the play of the 6-1 Nelms, who matched her season high with eight points, hitting 2-of-4 from outside the arc and adding five rebounds in 17 minutes. Her plus-minus of plus-3 was by far the best of the team.
"I thought Kayla coming in and making a couple 3's – one of them was probably too late relative to keeping us in the game, Collen said, "but I thought the first one she hit, we started slow, obviously, and kind of chipped away at it. And I thought she gave us a ton of good minutes for that reason."
The Bears will get a similar test in Sunday's 2 p.m. game at ninth-ranked TCU (19-2, 7-1), going up against 6-7 Sedona Prince (19.1 ppg, 9.1 rebounds). She had 20 points, 10 rebounds and four blocks in the Horned Frogs' 71-50 loss to Baylor last year in Waco but suffered a hand injury that sidelined her for the next 12 games.
"We turn around and play TCU this week. We've got multiple shots at top-15 teams coming up over the next month," Collen said. "And Sedona Prince is pretty tall, too. So, back-to-back, we're going to see a lot of length at the front of the rim. Lauren and Sedona play very, very different offensively.
"But I do think this does have a chance to truly make us a more confident, better team. Because if we make a couple of the plays, a couple of the free throws, a couple of the things that we are capable of doing, then all of a sudden, we're in a two-, three-possession game and I'm getting to use my timeouts to draw stuff up rather than just trying to play fast to make a run."
Already this season, the Bears have gone against the 6-7 Betts, 6-8 Oregon center Phillipina Kyei and 6-6 Oklahoma State center Ténin Magassa. In addition to Sunday's game against Prince and TCU, Baylor will close out the regular season with matchups against 6-6 Ayoka Lee (16.0 ppg, 6.3 rebounds) on Feb. 24 and a rematch with Prince and the Horned Frogs on March 2 at Foster Pavilion.
"It's definitely a lesson learned," said 6-1 junior forward Darianna Littlepage-Buggs (14.6 ppg, 10.5 rebounds). "Maybe we didn't do that good for this game but just take it to the next game and here on out. We have these next couple of games coming up, and we're probably going to get really detailed about what things we could have done better and how to – because they have somebody tall – to move with them, move the ball and where we can score."
Baylor Bear Insider
WACO, Texas – For the better part of a decade, Baylor women's basketball had a dominant post presence that was hard for anyone in the country to match up against, first with 6-8 Brittney Griner and then later 6-7 Kalani Brown.
Now, the shoe's on the other foot.
UCLA's 6-7 center, Lauren Betts, had 24 points, nine rebounds and a school-record nine blocked shots in the top-ranked Bruins' 72-57 win over 25th-ranked Baylor (16-4) Monday in the inaugural Coretta Scott King Classic in Newark, N.J. The Bears shot a season-low 27.5% overall and 6-of-22 from 3-point range.
"We missed some layups we usually make. We missed some open 3's we usually make," said Baylor coach Nicki Collen, whose team had a five-game winning streak snapped.
"When you have someone like Lauren Betts at the front of the rim for much of the game, you rush your shot. You mishandle the drop pass that you normally catch and lay in, because you're like, 'I've got to catch it and go up really quick.' I think a lot of our misses can still be attributed to them, because they speed you up more than you want to because of their length."
It didn't help that Baylor lost a potential equalizer in 6-3 Aaronette Vonleh, who picked up two fouls in the first four minutes of the game and fouled out early in the fourth quarter, finishing with just two points and three rebounds in 10 minutes.
"We thought we could neutralize Betts a little bit more with Vonleh, but her foul trouble never allowed that to happen," Collen said. "I thought Kyla (Abraham) and Kayla (Nelms) really battled. But ultimately, I think if we get Nettie's typical game, then that game would have been a close finish rather than a 15-point game."
Vonleh, a transfer from Colorado, helped limit Betts to just two points in 28 minutes on 1-for-4 shooting in the Buffaloes' 53-45 loss to the Bruins last February.
"I thought we tried, at times, to get Lauren away from the rim," Collen said. "Some of our actions pulled her out. Our zoom actions were pretty good, drawing her away from the rim. But we still missed, even when it was just (Texas A&M transfer Janiah) Barker in there, just because they fly to the ball."
Maybe even more so, the Bears didn't have "an answer without Nettie at the defensive end of the floor for (Betts). We just didn't have the ability to neutralize her." Betts scored a game-high 24 points, hitting 10-of-17 from the floor.
A bright spot for Baylor was the play of the 6-1 Nelms, who matched her season high with eight points, hitting 2-of-4 from outside the arc and adding five rebounds in 17 minutes. Her plus-minus of plus-3 was by far the best of the team.
"I thought Kayla coming in and making a couple 3's – one of them was probably too late relative to keeping us in the game, Collen said, "but I thought the first one she hit, we started slow, obviously, and kind of chipped away at it. And I thought she gave us a ton of good minutes for that reason."
The Bears will get a similar test in Sunday's 2 p.m. game at ninth-ranked TCU (19-2, 7-1), going up against 6-7 Sedona Prince (19.1 ppg, 9.1 rebounds). She had 20 points, 10 rebounds and four blocks in the Horned Frogs' 71-50 loss to Baylor last year in Waco but suffered a hand injury that sidelined her for the next 12 games.
"We turn around and play TCU this week. We've got multiple shots at top-15 teams coming up over the next month," Collen said. "And Sedona Prince is pretty tall, too. So, back-to-back, we're going to see a lot of length at the front of the rim. Lauren and Sedona play very, very different offensively.
"But I do think this does have a chance to truly make us a more confident, better team. Because if we make a couple of the plays, a couple of the free throws, a couple of the things that we are capable of doing, then all of a sudden, we're in a two-, three-possession game and I'm getting to use my timeouts to draw stuff up rather than just trying to play fast to make a run."
Already this season, the Bears have gone against the 6-7 Betts, 6-8 Oregon center Phillipina Kyei and 6-6 Oklahoma State center Ténin Magassa. In addition to Sunday's game against Prince and TCU, Baylor will close out the regular season with matchups against 6-6 Ayoka Lee (16.0 ppg, 6.3 rebounds) on Feb. 24 and a rematch with Prince and the Horned Frogs on March 2 at Foster Pavilion.
"It's definitely a lesson learned," said 6-1 junior forward Darianna Littlepage-Buggs (14.6 ppg, 10.5 rebounds). "Maybe we didn't do that good for this game but just take it to the next game and here on out. We have these next couple of games coming up, and we're probably going to get really detailed about what things we could have done better and how to – because they have somebody tall – to move with them, move the ball and where we can score."
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