Women's Hoops Faces Second Straight Road Contest
2/13/2004 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Feb. 13, 2004
WACO, Texas -
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#18/20 Baylor (18-5, 6-4) at Iowa State (10-11, 3-7)
Saturday, Feb. 14, 2004 - 8 pm (CST)
Hilton Coliseum (14,092) - Ames, Iowa
RADIO...
KLRK - FM 92.9 - Rick May (play-by-play) and Lori Scott Fogleman (color analysis). Broadcast begins 30 minutes prior to game time. The radio broadcast of all Baylor basketball games can be heard live on-line on Baylor's official website, BaylorBears.com, or at www.broadcast.com.
#18/20 BAYLOR AT IOWA STATE...
The 18th-ranked Baylor Lady Bears (18-5, 6-4) take to the road again as they face Iowa State on Saturday night. Against Iowa State, the Lady Bears are playing their third of three games in a seven day span (Texas Tech, Sunday; Missouri, Wednesday; Iowa State, Saturday). Baylor's only losses this season have come to teams ranked No. 15 or higher. The Lady Bears are 9-3 on the road this season and are 3-2 in league road games. Iowa State enters the contest with a 10-11 season record and is 3-7 in Big 12 conference action.
Two more victories this season would give the Lady Bears four straight 20-win seasons under head coach Kim Mulkey-Robertson.
BAYLOR IN THE POLLS...
Baylor continues to be ranked in the Associated Press' Top 25 Poll, they are currently No. 18, slipping one spot from last week after a 3-point loss to No. 9 Texas Tech. The Lady Bears broke into the AP Poll on Jan 5 and have been ranked for six straight weeks now (see week-by-week listings on page 11). Baylor, after breaking into the Top 25 in the USA Today/ESPN Coaches Poll on Jan. 24, now sit at the No. 20 spot.
THE LADY BEARS...
The Lady Bears finished the non-conference portion of their schedule at 12-1. Under fourth-year head coach Kim Mulkey-Robertson's guidance the Lady Bears are 46-2 in non-conference regular season games. After posting an 83-59 road win over Missouri, Baylor's record now stands at 18-5 overall and 6-4 in league play.
Three players are averaging in double figures for Baylor. With a career-high 27 points against Washington State, sophomore post Sophia Young moved into the lead for the Lady Bears in scoring and rebounding average and has not relinquished it since. Young followed that game with the 19th double-double of her career with a 13-point, 10-rebound performance against Pacific and produced another double-double against Eastern Kentucky (21p, 11r). Young recorded back-to-back double-doubles against Colorado (14p, 11r) and Texas A&M (10p, 13r) and added another one against Kansas (20p, 11r). She is averaging a team-leading 16.3 points and 8.3 rebounds an outing and has scored in double digits in every game but one (Missouri) this season. Steffanie Blackmon, a junior post, ranks second in both categories with 14.6 points and 6.9 rebounds. Freshman forward Emily Niemann is averaging 10.7 points while senior Jessika Stratton follows closely with 9.5. Senior Dionne Brown ranks third on the team in rebounding with 5.5 a game.
Baylor is outscoring its opponents by 19.8 points a game and is shooting .471 (683-1449) on the season which ranks third in the Big 12. The Lady Bears are holding their opponents to just 58.2 points a game and a .350 (475-1356) shooting average. Baylor has shot .500 or above in 11 of the 23 games this season and has been over the .600 mark once (Sam Houston State .661).
THE COACHES...
Baylor head coach Kim Mulkey-Robertson, in her fourth season, has an 90-31 head coaching record which equates out to a .744 winning percentage. She has produced 20-win seasons in each of her years as a head coach and has taken the Lady Bears to postseason competition all three seasons, twice to the NCAA Tournament and to the finals of the WNIT last year.
Mulkey-Robertson was named Baylor's fourth head coach on April 4, 2000. She was inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame that same year. This past summer she was inducted into the Verizon/CoSIDA Academic All-America Hall of Fame.
Iowa State's Bill Fennelly, a 1979 William Penn College graduate, is in his 16th season overall as a head coach, nine of which are at Iowa State. He has a career record of 350-139 and is 184-86 at Iowa State.
LARGE MARGINS...
Over their 23 games this season, the Lady Bears are posting some pretty large margins.
Scoring - Baylor +19.8
Rebounding - Baylor +6.8
Steals - Baylor +4.6
Assists - Baylor +6.6
In addition, the Lady Bears are shooting .471 (683-1449) while limiting the opponent to a .350 (475-1356) shooting percentage. Baylor has shot 50% or over in 11 of 23 games this season. Their shooting percentage ranks No. 8 nationally while their field goal percentage defense ranks No. 9 in the most recent NCAA statistics.
SCOUTING THE OPPONENT...
The Iowa State Cyclones come into the game with a 10-11 record overall and 3-7 mark in Big 12 play. The Cyclones have suffered league losses to Nebraska, Texas, Colorado (2), Oklahoma State, Kansas State and Missouri. They have posted wins over Texas Tech, Oklahoma and Texas A&M. The Cyclones are 7-4 on the season in Hilton Coliseum and 2-3 at home in league games.
Iowa State has three upperclassmen and two freshmen in their starting lineup with Erica Junod (Sr.), Lisa Kriener (Jr.), Anne O'Neil (Jr.), Lyndsey Medders (Fr.) and Megan Ronhovde (Fr.) listed as starters. O'Neil, a 5-11 junior guard, leads the team in scoring with 13.0 points a game. Redshirt sophomore Brittany Wilkins, a 6-3 forward/center, comes off the bench to rank second at 9.1 points an outing. Kriener, a center, is the squad's top rebounder at 5.0 a game. Ronhovde follows closely with 4.7 and Wilkins manages 4.6 a contest.
THE SERIES RECORDS...
Baylor leads the series 5-4 and but Iowa State claims a 2-1 lead in games played in Ames. Baylor has won the last three games and four of the last five. As Baylor's head coach, Kim Mulkey-Robertson is 4-1 against Iowa State.
