Balanced Effort Leads WBB Past Colorado on Saturday at The Foster

Saturday, January 4

Waco, Texas

2 PM

Baylor

12-3,2-1Big 12

Colorado

10-4,1-2Big 12

Colorado

Baylor

Balanced Effort Leads WBB Past Colorado on Saturday at The Foster

1/4/2025 3:56:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score Game Book (PDF)

Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider

WACO, Texas – Now, that's more like it.

The Baylor women got back to "Baylor basketball," bouncing back from a 23-point loss to roll over the visiting Colorado Buffaloes, 76-62, Saturday afternoon at Foster Pavilion.

"I don't know who the team was that played against Oklahoma State," Baylor coach Nicki Collen said of Wednesday's 84-61 loss at home to the Cowgirls. "But I think this is our team, this is what we're capable of, this is what we should expect."

Darianna Littlepage-Buggs recorded her seventh double-double of the season with 16 points, 10 rebounds and two blocks, helping the Bears improve to 12-3 overall and 2-1 in the Big 12. Colorado, led by Jade Masogayo with 13 points and six boards, fell to 10-4 and 1-2.

"Obviously, we played Baylor basketball," said Littlepage-Buggs, "but we've got to take the physicality. I'm pretty sure teams are going to pinpoint that, like we got beat up the other day and we couldn't really play through it. That was our main thing, we have to play through physicality."

All five Baylor starters scored in double figures, including Colorado transfer Aaronette Vonleh with 15 points against her former teammates. Matching her season high, Bella Fontleroy had 15 points and seven boards and broke out of a shooting slump, going 5-for-12 from the floor.

"Like I've said a million times, our defense dictates our offense, and it shouldn't ever be the other way around," Fontleroy said. "I think the other night, that did start to get to us. And then, we weren't knocking down shots and playing Baylor basketball the way that we usually do. But we've worked on finding each other, making the extra pass early and then, of course, just guarding our yard."

Overcoming an early 9-2 deficit, the Bears closed within one point by the end of the first quarter and took their first lead of the game, 18-17, on a Vonleh fastbreak layup off a feed from Jada Walker, who finished with 11 points and four assists.

Fontleroy hit a 3-pointer to give Baylor the lead for good and sparked a 7-0 second-quarter run that put the Bears up 25-19 on buckets by Vonleh and Walker. Back-to-back 3-pointers by Kindyll Wetta and Johanna Teder – the last one coming from near midcourt and just beating the shot-clock buzzer – made it a one-score lead, 35-32, at the break.

Fighting back from a double-digit deficit, the Buffaloes reeled off eight-straight points and pulled back within three, 47-44, on free throws by Ayianna Johnson and Masogayo.

Baylor did them one better with a 9-0 run of their own, starting with a rare five-point play. Walker hit a 3-pointer and Fontleroy knocked down a pair of free throws after getting fouled going to the boards. Fontleroy added a layup off a steal, and then Littlepage-Buggs had a putback off an offensive board to push the lead to 56-44.

"I think the biggest change in the game was the five-point play when we had brought it all the way back to three points," Colorado coach JR Payne said. "That's just a dagger. . . . It went from three to eight, and the game's not out of reach at that point. So, we have to be able to take something negative like that and be able to reset, refocus, make sure we're all on the same page and keep moving forward. We can't allow something like that to derail us."

A Sweet 16 team each of the previous two seasons, Colorado also got 10 points from senior guard Frida Formann, who was 0-for-7 from distance. Playing 19 minutes off the bench, freshman forward Grace Oliver had seven points, nine rebounds, two steals and a block.

Baylor senior Sarah Andrews scored seven of her 12 points in the fourth quarter, hitting a 3-pointer and four-straight free throws.

The Bears' performance Saturday doesn't mean "(another loss like OSU is) never going to happen again," Collen said, "but I hope it doesn't, because that team tonight was really coachable."

Going on the road for two games, Baylor will face Arizona (11-5, 2-1) at 7 p.m. CT in Tucson and Arizona State (8-7, 2-1) at 4:30 p.m. next Saturday, Jan. 11, in Tempe. On Saturday, Arizona rolled over UCF, 75-53, while ASU knocked off Houston, 69-60.

- BaylorBears.com -