Feb. 24, 2004
WACO, Texas -
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#16/21 Baylor (20-6, 8-5) vs.#5/5 Texas (23-3, 11-2)
Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2004 - 7 p.m. (CST)
Frank Erwin Center (16,837)- Austin, Texas
TV - FOX Sports Southwest
Bill Land - play-by-play
Brenda VanLengen - color analysis
RADIO...
KLRK - FM 92.9 - Rick May (play-by-play) and Lori Scott Fogleman (color analysis). Broadcast begins 30 minutes prior to game time.
#16/21 BAYLOR VS. #5/5 TEXAS...
The 16th-ranked Baylor Lady Bears (20-6, 8-5) travel to fifth-ranked Texas (23-3, 11-2) on Wednesday night for a midweek game in the Frank Erwin Center. The Lady Bears come into the game in fifth place in the Big 12 Conference standings at 8-5 while Texas is in second after losing at Texas Tech on Sunday afternoon. The Longhorns' other league loss came against Baylor in Waco when the Lady Bears posted a 78-64 win. Texas carries the nation's longest Division I homecourt win streak (of 32 games) into the week. The Longhorns are 12-0 at the Erwin Center this year.
For the fourth straight season, head coach Kim Mulkey-Robertson has guided her Baylor squad to a 20-win season. The Lady Bears raised their record to 20-6 this year by completing a sweep on No. 24 Oklahoma on Saturday. 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. 16, tying their season-high and moving up three spots from last week. The Lady Bears broke into the AP Poll on Jan 5 and have been ranked for eight straight weeks (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. 21 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 winning two home games last week which included triumphs over Oklahoma State ( 76-61) and No. 24 Oklahoma (77-62), Baylor's record now stands at 20-6 overall and 8-5 in league play which places them in fifth place in the league standings behind: 1. Kansas State, 2. Texas, 3. Texas Tech and 3. Colorado.
Three 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 15.6 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 15.5 points and 7.3 rebounds. Freshman forward Emily Niemann is averaging 10.2 points while senior Jessika Stratton follows closely with 9.8. Senior Dionne Brown is third on the team in rebounding with 5.5 a game.
Baylor is outscoring its opponents by 18.3 points a game and leads the league in scoring offense at 77.6 points a game. They are shooting .467 (769-1648) on the season which ranks second in the Big 12. The Lady Bears are holding their opponents to just 59.3 points a game and a .357 (542-1520) shooting average. Baylor has shot .500 or above in 11 of the 26 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 a 92-32 head coaching record which equates out to a .748 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
2003-04 - 20-6
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 CoSIDA Academic All-America Hall of Fame.
Texas' Jody Conradt, a 1963 Baylor graduate, is in her 35th season overall as a head coach and her 28th as the Longhorns' skipper. She has a career record of 840-267 and is 723-205 with the Longhorns.
BAYLOR RANKS AMONG NATION'S BEST IN ATTENDANCE...
The Lady Bears ranks No. 19 nationally in home attendance. Through Saturday's game against Oklahoma, Baylor has had 59,795 fans attend home games in the Ferrell Center so far this season, averaging out to 4,600 fans a game. Baylor is ahead of its final attendance average of last season when the Lady Bears averaged 4,216 spectators a game. Baylor's all-time attendance mark was set in 2001-02 when the program averaged 5,524 a game.
This is an unofficial and voluntary collection of Division I home attendance statistics compiled weekly by the University of Wisconsin Sports Information Office. NCAA attendance figures are not published until the end of the season and the final NCAA statistics are released.
COMING BACK...
Three times this season, all in Big 12 play, the Lady Bears have come back from a double-digit deficit to win the game.
- at Texas A&M - Baylor trailed by 16 in the first half and came back to win by three.
- at Oklahoma - Baylor trailed by 13 in the first half and came back to win by seven.
- Oklahoma State - Baylor trailed by 14 in the first half and won by 15.
SCOUTING THE OPPONENT...
The No. 5 Texas Longhorns come into the game with a 23-3 record overall and 11-2 mark in Big 12 play. The Longhorns had a nine-game win streak snapped on Sunday when they dropped a 62-49 road decision to Texas Tech. Texas' other two losses this season have come against Penn State (79-59) and Baylor (78-64). All three of the Longhorns' defeats have come on the road. Texas carries the nation's longest Division I homecourt win streak (of 32 games) into the week. The Longhorns are 12-0 at the Erwin Center this year.
The Longhorns have four players that produce double-digit scoring averages. Junior forward Heather Schreiber leads the way with 13.3 points a game while freshman Tiffany Jackson scores 12.5 and leads the team in rebounding at 8.1. Senior Stacy Stephens averages 11.8 points and 7.4 boards a game and junior guard Jamie Carey comes off the bench to score 10.7 a contest.
THE SERIES RECORDS...
Texas leads the series 49-14 and has a 22-3 series lead in Austin. Two of Baylor's three wins in Austin have come since Kim Mulkey-Robertson became Baylor's head coach. Baylor posted a 78-64 win over the then-No. 3 Texas squad in Waco earlier this season. The Longhorns took two games from the Lady Bears last season, prior to that Baylor had won four straight. As a head coach Kim Mulkey-Robertson is 5-2 versus Texas.
