Box Score By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Foundation
Blowing it open with a 25-0 first-half run, the fourth-ranked Baylor Lady Bears cruised to a 96-42 win over the Grambling State Tigers Sunday afternoon at the Ferrell Center.
Junior forward Khadijah Cave scored all 15 of her points in the first half and recorded her second double-double in three starts, adding 11 rebounds, two assists and a steal in just 18 minutes.
"It doesn't matter if she starts or doesn't start, KK plays the same every time," said Baylor coach Kim Mulkey, whose team improved to 9-0. "She just happens to be finishing a lot of shots right now. She brings energy every time she steps on the floor. And she's getting her hands on a lot of offensive boards, which doesn't surprise me."
For the third straight game, the much taller Lady Bears dominated the boards (49-25) and points in the paint (60-16) against a Grambling team (2-5) that had only one starter at 6-foot or above. Since coming back from the Bahamas, where they had to rally from a double-digit deficit to beat No. 20 Michigan State, they have won their last three by an average margin of 49 points.
"It's a teaching process for some of them," Mulkey said. "You look at talented teams and teams that may not be as talented, and sometimes you may coast. As a coach, I might be a little more relaxed, but I'm still intense and still looking at combinations and still coaching. Finals are next week, and Christmas is just around the corner, it's a very difficult month."
Baylor streaked out to a 9-0 lead in the first 2 ½ minutes, but Grambling answered with three quick buckets and got as close as 11-6 before forcing the Lady Bears to switch to a 2-2-1 zone and getting away from Mulkey's traditional man-to-man defense.
"I didn't think we were doing a good enough job early in the game where we were keeping them in front of us," Mulkey said. "So, I just decided to see if they could shoot it, and we stayed with the 2-2-1 zone, back to a 2-3."
Freshman post Kalani Brown scored on three point-blank layups at the end of the first quarter as the Lady Bears closed on an 11-0 run that extended the lead to 22-6. The Tigers went another five minutes before scoring in the second quarter, with freshman Beatrice Mompremier getting a layup off a dish from Dekeiya Cohen to complete the extended 25-0 run and make it 38-6.
Sophomore guard Kristy Wallace, who hit three 3-pointers and finished with 13 points, said the guards are getting better at finding the bigger players down in the post.
"We've definitely been working on that in practice over the past week," Wallace said. "Coach Mulkey has been emphasizing that lob to the post, so I think that's important that we're working on that pass because sometimes it's been short. We just need to throw it up there. We have so much height and athleticism on our team that these girls can just go and get the ball."
The 6-foot-3 Cave, who was 6-of-8 from the floor, said she's told the guards to just "throw it up as high as you can, and it's my job to go get it."
Baylor led 50-11 at the break, holding the Tigers to just 16 percent shooting from the field (5-of-31) and 1-of-13 from beyond the arc. But sophomore guard Bre'Nae Andrews drained three 3-pointers in the second half and finished with 14 points, helping Grambling to a 31-point second half.
Mompremier and junior forward Nina Davis shared team-high scoring honors with 18, while Brown chipped in with 12 points for her seventh double-figure game of the season.
The 5-11 Davis, who's played more at the wing with Alexis Prince out with a knee injury, was 7-of-11 from the field and knocked down some open baseline jumpers.
"Nina can make those shots, as you saw today," Mulkey said. "She just has to put herself in a position to be open and take them. And when she's not open, she can take you off the dribble. Because of numbers right now, we need her to do that. She played more (wing) today than she did (forward), and I think that had a lot to do with Kristina (Higgins) and (Cave) and Beatrice and Kalani playing well. Nina did some good things out there."
After playing three games in five days, the Lady Bears will take a week off for finals before playing McNeese State (5-2) at 2 p.m. Dec. 14. The Cowgirls had a five-game losing streak snapped with a 74-55 loss to Tulane on Sunday.
