Feb. 20, 2004
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#19/24 Baylor (19-6, 7-5) vs.#24/22 Oklahoma (17-6, 7-6)
Saturday, Feb. 21, 2004 - 7 pm (CST)
Ferrell Center (10,284) - Waco, Texas
RADIO...
KLRK - FM 92.9 and WBAP (820-AM) - Rick May (play-by-play) and Lori Scott Fogleman (color analysis). Broadcast begins 30 minutes prior to game time.
#19/24 BAYLOR VS. #24/22 OKLAHOMA...
The 19th-ranked Baylor Lady Bears (19-6, 7-5) host 24th-ranked Oklahoma (17-6, 7-5) on Saturday night in the Ferrell Center. The two teams come into the game tied for fifth place in the Big 12 Conference standings at 7-5. The Lady Bears raised their home record to 10-2 with their victory over Oklahoma State on Wednesday. Baylor is 4-2 in league home games and the Sooners are 2-4 on the road in league contests. Oklahoma enters the contest riding a four-game win streak after posting home victories over Texas A&M, Kansas and Colorado and beating Texas Tech in Lubbock.
One more victory this season would give the Lady Bears four straight 20-win seasons under head coach Kim Mulkey-Robertson. Five of Baylor's six losses in 2003-04 have come against teams ranked No. 15 or higher.
BAYLOR IN THE POLLS...
Baylor continues to be ranked in the Associated Press' Top 25 Poll, they are currently No. 19, slipping one spot from last week. The Lady Bears broke into the AP Poll on Jan 5 and have been ranked for seven 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 sits at the No. 24 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 splitting games at Missouri (W, 83-59) and Iowa State (L, 81-72) last week and defeating Oklahoma State (W, 76-61) on Wednesday, Baylor's record now stands at 19-6 overall and 7-5 in league play which places them in a tie for fifth place in the league standings with Oklahoma.
Four players are averaging in double figures for Baylor with one more just under the mark. 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 15.7 points and 8.2 rebounds an outing and has scored in double digits in every game but two (Missouri & Oklahoma State) this season. Steffanie Blackmon, a junior post, ranks second in both categories with 15.0 points and 7.4 rebounds. Freshman forward Emily Niemann is averaging 10.5 points while senior Jessika Stratton follows closely with 10.0. Senior Dionne Brown ranks third on the team in rebounding with 5.5 a game.
Baylor is outscoring its opponents by 18.4 points a game and leads the league in scoring offense at 77.6 points a game. They are shooting .466 (738-1584) on the season which ranks third in the Big 12. The Lady Bears are holding their opponents to just 59.2 points a game and a .355 (521-1467) shooting average. Baylor has shot .500 or above in 11 of the 25 games this season and has been over the .600 mark once (Sam Houston State .661).
BLACKMON AND STRATTON HOT IN BIG 12 ACTION...
Sophomore Steffanie Blackmon and senior Jessika Stratton have both elevated their play since the start of Big 12 Conference action. In non-conference games Blackmon averaged 14.4 points and 6.7 rebounds a game, in Big 12 games she's averaging 15.7 points and 8.2 rebounds an outing. Stratton has raised her scoring average from 9.0 in non-conference games to 11.0 in league contests.
THE COACHES...
Baylor head coach Kim Mulkey-Robertson, in her fourth season, has a 91-32 head coaching record which equates out to a .740 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.
Baylor seasons under Mulkey-Robertson:
2000-01 - 21-9
2001-02 - 27-6
2002-03 - 24-11
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.
Oklahoma's Sherri Coale, a 1987 graduate of Oklahoma Christian, is in her eighth season as a head coach. She has a career record of 149-92, all at Oklahoma.
SCOUTING THE OPPONENT...
The No. 24 Oklahoma Sooners come into the game with a 17-6 record overall and 7-5 mark in Big 12 play. The Sooners are riding a four-game win streak coming into the contest. The Sooners opened the 2003-04 season with eight straight wins before dropping a 71-55 decision to Tennessee. They reeled off three more wins before losing at Texas (63-58). Oklahoma followed that with an overtime win at Texas A&M (65-56) and a victory over Oklahoma State (87-37). The Sooners then lost four straight prior to their current win streak.
The Sooners are a very young team, they have two seniors, two juniors, four sophomores and six freshman on the roster. Senior guard Maria Villarroel leads the team in scoring with 14.7 points a game. Senior forward Caton HIll follows with 12.3 and junior guard Dionnah Jackson scores 11.4 a contest. Three Sooners are averaging 6.0 rebounds a game or higher. Hill and Jackson share the rebounding lead with 6.0 a game and Villarroel hauls down 5.3.
THE SERIES RECORDS...
Oklahoma leads the series 14-5 and, prior to Baylor's win in Norman earlier this season, had won 11 straight games. Baylor posted a 74-67 victory on Jan. 24, 2004 in Norman for its first victory over the Sooners since Feb. 1, 1998. The Sooners lead the series in games played in Waco, holding a 6-2 edge. The Lady Bears' most recent win in Waco came on Feb. 1, 1998, 97-67.
