Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
 
WACO, Texas – Going into Saturday, the 19^th-ranked Baylor women were just outside the top 16 in the NCAA women's basketball NET rankings at No. 18.
 
Not sure if the Bears' 67-52 win over Iowa State will do much to shake up those rankings, but longtime Cyclones' head coach Bill Fennelly thinks Baylor "should be in the top 12, whatever, in the country."
 
"I think their team definitely deserves to be considered and should be a top-16 seed," said Fennelly, whose Iowa State team (19-10, 10-5) had a four-game winning streak snapped, "when you look at what they've done, how they're playing, the things that they do, the maturity that they have. So, credit to them."
 
What the Bears (24-5, 14-2) did on Saturday at Foster Pavilion was find a way to win without leading scorer and rebounder Darianna Littlepage-Buggs for the second game in a row and third time this season.
 
They did it with a stifling defense and balanced scoring attack that included Bella Fontleroy sliding into Littlepage-Buggs' "4" spot and finishing with 14 points, six rebounds, three assists, one block and a career-high-tying five steals.
 
"I have a ton of respect for them. . . . It wasn't personal, this is just where we're at," said Baylor coach Nicki Collen, whose team won its season-high eighth in a row while ending a four-game losing streak to the Cyclones.
 
"We're trying to win this thing, and this was the game in front of us. And they're a good basketball team. So, really proud of the way we defended, really proud of the way we shot the basketball. And our poise, I thought our poise was really good today."
 
This was Baylor's defense, arguably, at its best. The Bears forced 21 turnovers, blocked seven shots and held Iowa State to 34% shooting overall and 1-of-14 from 3-point range. Normally one of the Cyclones' best weapons, they had an NCAA-record streak of 945 consecutive games with a made 3-pointer stopped in going 0-for-7 in a 71-58 loss to Texas Tech last month.
 
"One of the things that jumps off the page is we were a minus-24 at the 3-point line," Fennelly said of the Bears shooting 9-of-19 from outside the arc. "You're not going to win many games going 1-for-14."
 
Particularly in the first half, the Bears frustrated Iowa State's "big three" of Audi Crooks, Addy Brown and Emily Ryan. They limited them to 3-of-17 shooting from the floor and eight points with seven turnovers in the first 20 minutes, with Baylor taking a 33-23 lead into the locker room.
 
"Defense was definitely an emphasis," said Jada Walker, one of Baylor's four double-digit scorers with 11 points, four assists and zero turnovers in 35 minutes. "Stopping Crooks was the main thing, because she's the head of the snake. That's the one we had to stop. And then the guards, too, just not letting them get going and being a factor."
 
Nearly matching the Cyclones, Yaya Felder scored 10 of her game-high 15 points in the second quarter, knocking down 2-of-4 from 3-point range to help the Bears create separation.
 
"I don't know, once I made that first 3, I had a lot of confidence," Felder said. "Especially because Buggs is out, we've got a chip on our shoulder. And we're just going for it all right now."
 
In Baylor's most explosive quarter, the Bears shot 69.2% overall and 3-for-5 from distance in the third period to take their biggest lead, 58-38, on a Walker 3-pointer and four-straight free throws by Felder and Walker.
 
One of the most entertaining matchups to watch was 6-3 Colorado transfer Aaronette Vonleh going against the 6-3 Crooks down on the low post. Held to four points through the first 27 ½ minutes, Crooks scored added four late points in the third period and six more in the fourth quarter, finishing with a team-high 14 points, still well below her 22-point scoring average.
 
"I thought Nettie was really good on Crooks," Collen said of Vonleh, who finished with 11 points, six rebounds and a block. "I thought Kyla (Abraham) was good, except for about a two-minute stretch. But I thought her rotations were pretty good. The defensive effort was elite, other than we've got to stop fouling."
 
Iowa State scored almost a third of its points on free throws, going 17-of-20 from the line, while the Bears were 12-of-19 at the line and had four more fouls than the Cyclones (22-18).
 
"Probably the biggest thing was they were really physical at the point of attack, both pressuring the ball coming up the court," Fennelly said, "and then when Audi got some touches inside, they would hold her off pretty well. One of the things we talked about was, when you have a chance to make a shot to stop a run, you need to do that. And we just couldn't do it."
 
Senior guard Sarah Andrews, who was recognized for breaking the Big 12 record for career games played (161), finished with nine points, four assists and three steals after overcoming some early turnover issues.
 
"She means everything, honestly," Felder said of Andrews. "She is our leader. I look up to her. She helps me out a lot, like when I'm down, and I just have a lot of confidence in her."
 
In a quick turnaround, Baylor will face 12^th-ranked Kansas State (25-4, 13-3) at 6 p.m. Monday in Manhattan before closing the regular season with a potential championship showdown with 10^th-ranked TCU (25-3, 13-2) at 5:30 p.m. next Sunday, March 2, at Foster.
 
 The Wildcats routed in-state rival Kansas, 90-60, on Saturday, while TCU will play 17^th-ranked West Virginia on Sunday and Houston on Wednesday before coming to Waco next weekend.