Jan. 29, 2006
WACO, Texas -
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Game 19:
#9/10 Baylor (15-3) vs. #4/5 LSU (17-1)
Jan. 30, 2006 • 6 p.m. (CST) - ESPN2
Maravich Center (13,472)
Baton Rouge, La.
RADIO
Baylor/ISP Sports Network
KRZI/ESPN 1660 AM
Rick May - play-by-play
Lori Fogleman - color analyst
Broadcast begins 30 minutes prior to tip.
INTERNET FEEDS
Audio - live broadcast stream at BaylorBears.com
TELEVISION
ESPN2
Mark Jones - play-by-play
Doris Burke - color analyst
Rebecca Lobo - sideline reporter
BAYLOR VS. LSU...
The Baylor Lady Bears, currently ranked No. 9 in the latest AP listing and No. 10 the Coaches poll and reigning NCAA champions, complete a busy week. The matchup between the Lady Bears and LSU will be the final game of a three-game, six-day stretch, including two on national television. Beginning with its Wednesday contest at Iowa State which produced a 79-64 win over the Cyclones, Baylor returned home and played a Saturday afternoon (3 p.m.) game with Kansas, winning 90-40, and then left Sunday for a Monday night ESPN2 contest at Baton Rouge, La., versus LSU. Baylor's game with Kansas was televised by College Sports Television (CSTV).
Baylor enters the game versus the LSU Lady Tigers with a 15-3 overall record. Baylor has won of 50 of its last 57 games. BU's three 2005-06 losses have been by a combined total of eight points. Baylor's last non-conference loss came against LSU on Nov. 14, 2004, 71-70, at Austin, Texas. Since then the Lady Bears have won 26 straight games versus non-Big 12 foes.
LSU enters the contest with a 17-1 season record including a perfect 10-0 mark at home. The Lady Tigers began the season winning 14 straight before suffering their lone loss of the season, a 51-48 decision at Connecticut.
Monday's game matches two of the nation's top players in Baylor senior forward Sophia Young and LSU senior forward Seimone Augustus. Both are preseason candidates for national player of the year honors, the Wooden Award and the Wade Trophy. The two meet for the third time in their careers on Monday. In the two previous meetings, Young has averaged 21.0 points, 8.0 rebounds, 4.5 assists and 2.0 steals. The matchup features two of the nation's top three active career scoring leaders, Augustus sits at No. 1 with 2,274 points and Young is No. 3 with 2,114. For their careers, Young has posted 53 double-doubles while Augustus has recorded seven.
Baylor's Young, national player of the year candidate and Preseason Big 12 Player of the Year, leads Baylor in both scoring and rebounding at 20.6 points and 10.1 rebounds a game. The Kodak All-American, is No. 2 in the Big 12 in scoring and ranks No. 3 in rebounding. Sophomore point guard Angela Tisdale ranks second on the squad in scoring at 13.7 an outing. Junior forward Abiola Wabara ranks second among Lady Bears in rebounding at 6.5 a game and averages 9.9 points.
LSU, whose starting lineup consists of two seniors and three sophomores, is led by Augustus' 20.4 points a game. Sophomore center Sylvia Fowles, who stands 6-6, ranks second on the squad in scoring at 16.5 points a game and leads the Lady Tigers in rebounding with 11.3 a contest.
BAYLOR QUICK HITS...
• Baylor's 30-game win streak equaled the 10th longest in NCAA Division I women's basketball history. BU is 50-7 over its last 57 games.
• Baylor's three losses have come by a combined total of eight points (at Missouri-3, at Texas Tech-2, vs. Oklahoma-3).
• Sophia Young is on track to join an elite group who have tallied 2,000 points, 1,000 rebounds, 300 assists and 300 steals in their NCAA Division I career, as she currently has 2,114 points, 1,169 rebounds, 271 assists and 279 steals.
• Young needs 220 points and 55 rebounds to become the Big 12's all-time scorer and rebounder.
• Young is now the No. 2 scorer in Baylor history with 2,114 points, the highest point total since the sport came under NCAA sponsorship in 1981-82.
• Jordan Davis has missed only six free throws throughout her career (72-78, .923). Prior to missing her first free throw of the season at Texas Tech, she had drained 23 consecutive free throws.
• Kim Mulkey-Robertson's teams are 79-11 (.878) in the Ferrell Center.
• Prior to BU's Jan. 21 loss to Oklahoma, the Lady Bears had won 25 straight home games.
• In non-conference games, Baylor sports a 17-game home win streak and is 43-2 (.956) in the Ferrell Center under Mulkey-Robertson's tutelage. Baylor has registered 42 straight wins in regular-season non-conference home games.
• Baylor is 113-11 (.911) under Mulkey-Robertson when scoring 70 or more points, including 71-3 (.960) when putting 80 or more on the scoreboard.
• Since coming to BU, Mulkey-Robertson has posted the highest win total (146) and winning percentage (.781) among Big 12 Conference programs.
• Young has produced double-digit scoring in 115 of 124 career games and 64 consecutive.
• Young has 53 career double-doubles to her credit, one shy of the Big 12 record.
• Baylor is 15-3, 18 games into the season for the third straight year and fifth time in KMR's six seasons.
• Five players, including all four lady Bear freshmen, earned grade point averages of 3.0 or above for the fall semester (Sophia Young, Tricia Abbott, Rachel Allison, Jessica Morrow, Jhasmin Player).
• Baylor's 50-point win over Kansas was its largest ever in a Big 12 game and its biggest since a 53-point win over Sam Houston State in 2003-04.
• In Baylor's last two games it has shot 50 percent (19-38) from three-point range. It was 11-of-23 (.478) at Iowa State and 8-of-15 (.533) against Kansas.
BAYLOR IN THE POLLS...
Baylor finished last season ranked No. 1 in the ESPN/USA Today Coaches poll and No. 5 in the Associated Press (AP) poll. The Lady Bears, defending NCAA champions, are currently ranked No. 10 in the most recent coaches poll after debuting at No 7 in the preseason poll. The AP poll's Jan. 23 ranking lists Baylor at No. 9 dropping one spot after its loss to Oklahoma. Baylor has now been ranked in a school-record 41 straight AP polls dating back to week nine of the 2003-04 listing when it broke in at No. 24. The Lady Bears have not been ranked lower than No. 9 in the AP poll since Nov. 30, 2004, a stretch of 28 consecutive polls.
THE COACHES...
Baylor coach Kim Mulkey-Robertson is in her sixth season and owns a 146-41 head coaching record which equates to a .781 winning percentage. She has produced 20-win seasons in each of her first five years as a head coach and has taken the Lady Bears to postseason competition every year, four times to the NCAA Tournament and to the 2003 WNIT finals. In 2005, the Lady Bears claimed Baylor's and the Big 12's first NCAA basketball championship. Mulkey-Robertson is 1-1 versus LSU and this marks the Louisiana native's first trip to Baton Rouge as a head coach.
Baylor year-by-year under Mulkey-Robertson:
2000-01 - 21-9 - NCAA, lost in first round (Arkansas)
2001-02 - 27-6 - NCAA, lost in second round (Drake)
2002-03 - 24-11 - WNIT, lost in finals (Auburn)
2003-04 - 26-9 - NCAA, lost in Sweet 16 (Tennessee)
2004-05 - 33-3 - NCAA Champions
2005-06 - 15-3
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. She was inducted into the CoSIDA Academic All-America Hall of Fame in June of 2003.
LSU head coach Pokey Chatman is in her second season at the helm of the Lady Tigers and has complied a record of 50-4 (.926).
KMR RETURNS TO ROOTS...
Kim Mulkey-Robertson returns to the state where she spent the first 39 years of her life when her team travels to Baton Rouge for the matchup with LSU. This marks the second time Baylor has played in Louisiana during Mulkey-Robertson's tenure, as it played at Southeastern Louisiana, in her hometown of Hammond, on Dec. 2, 2002. The Lady Bears posted a 70-55 victory in that contest.
Mulkey-Robertson has received many Louisiana honors during her lifetime, including:
1984 - James Corbett Award (Louisiana's College Athlete of the Year)
1986 - Inducted into Louisiana High School Hall of Fame
1990 - Inducted into Louisiana Sports Writers Hall of Fame
1992 - Inducted into Louisiana Tech Athletics Hall of Fame
1999 - Lone female named among Louisiana Sports Writers top 25 athletes of the 20th century and listed by Sports Illustrated as one of the top 50 greatest Louisiana sports figures of the 20th century
THE SERIES RECORDS...
Baylor and LSU will meet for the 10th time when the two teams square off on Monday night. LSU leads the series, 6-3, but Baylor has won two of the last three meetings. The two teams split last season, LSU posted a 71-70 victory in the season opener in Austin, Texas and Baylor prevailed 68-57 in the semifinal game of the NCAA Championships. Kim Mulkey-Robertson is 1-1 versus LSU.
COMMON OPPONENTS THIS SEASON...
Baylor and LSU have faced three common opponents this season. Both squads posted victories over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (BU, 92-64; LSU, 74-45) and Georgia (BU, 84-72; LSU, 65-64). The Lady Tigers defeated Texas Tech (76-68) in Lubbock, while the Lady Bears lost a road game to the Lady Raiders, 64-62.
VERSUS RANKED OPPONENTS...
Baylor is 2-1 versus top 25 opponents this season and 0-1 against top 10 teams. Baylor opened the season with an 84-72 win over No. 9 Georgia in the State Farm Tip-Off Classic in Lubbock, Texas. BU then followed that with a 61-48 triumph over No. 23 Texas and suffered a 73-70 loss at home to 17th-ranked Oklahoma, Jan. 21. Baylor has won 12 of its last 13 games versus ranked opponents.
Kim Mulkey-Robertson is 14-22 versus ranked (AP) teams in her first four seasons as head coach, but is 13-3 in the last two years versus rated foes to push her record in such games to 27-25 all-time.
BY THE NARROWEST OF MARGINS...
Baylor's three losses this season have come by a combined total of eight points. It dropped a three-point decision at Missouri (64-61), lost by two (64-62) at Texas Tech and lost to Oklahoma by three, 73-70, in Waco. All three losses have come on the last play of the game.
STELLAR BAYLOR DEFENSE...
Baylor has continued to play stellar defense this season as evidenced by the following:
-Lady Bears held Oklahoma State to 26 points, fewest ever in any Big 12 Conference game.
-Oklahoma State's 26 points are the fewest by a current Division I program against Baylor since TCU tallied 25 in 1975-76.
-BU held Texas to 48 points, fewest Baylor has ever allowed the Lady Longhorns in the 68-game series.
-BU has held four of its last seven opponents to 49 or fewer points, the first time Baylor has ever held foes to 49 or fewer points in conference play (Big 12).
-During a two-game stretch (Texas A&M & Oklahoma) Baylor blocked 18 shots including seven by Abiola Wabara and six by Sophia Young. They jumped from No. 4 to No. 1 in the conference statistics.
-Baylor is 8-0 on season when holding its foe to 59 or fewer points and has won 84 straight games when holding its opponent to 59 or fewer since a 58-56 loss to Oklahoma State in Waco during the 1998-99 season. Mulkey-Robertson's teams are 78-0 all-told when holding their opponent to 59 or fewer points.
-BU ranks No. 2 in Big 12 in scoring, scoring margin and field goal percentage defense.
-Opponents are hitting just .359 from field versus Baylor this season, 35.4 percent in Big 12 play.
-Over the last four seasons BU has held the opponent to under .500 from the field in 122 of 123 games. In fact, in Coach Mulkey-Robertson's 187-game tenure, Baylor has allowed a team to shoot .500 from the field in just seven games. LSU shot 51.7 (30-58) percent against Baylor in the 2004-05 season opener, since then, Baylor has held opponents to under .500 shooting in 53 straight games.
MULKEY'S TEAMS IN REGULAR SEASON NON-CONFERENCE...
Under Mulkey-Robertson, the Lady Bears are 66-3 (.957) in regular season non-conference games. Prior to losing to No. 3 LSU on Nov. 14, 2004 their last regular season non-conference loss came against Penn State in State College on Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2003. In regular season non-conference games under Mulkey, Baylor is 38-0 at home, 16-2 on the road and 12-1 at neutral sites. BU has won 20 straight regular season games versus non-conference opponents.
