No. 7 WBB Defeats Southern 86-52

Wednesday, December 16

Waco, Texas

2 p.m.

Baylor

5-1,2-0Big 12

Southern

0-4,0-0SWAC

Southern U.

Baylor

No. 7 WBB Defeats Southern 86-52

12/16/2020 4:24:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score WBB _06_SOU

BU’s 54 points in the paint outscored the Lady Jaguars

By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
            Queen Egbo is walking a fine line between not getting into early foul trouble but still playing defense up to the Baylor standard.
            One of four double-figure scorers, the 6-3 junior center recorded her 12^th career double-double with 15 points and 11 rebounds to help the seventh-ranked Lady Bears (5-1) coast to an 86-52 win over the visiting Southern Jaguars in a Wednesday afternoon matinee at the Ferrell Center.
            Strapped with early foul trouble in each of the last three games, Egbo didn't pick up her first and only foul until the 5:44 mark of the fourth quarter, but coach Kim Mulkey said she "played not to foul" at the start of the game.
            "That's not how you improve," Mulkey said. "You have to play defense like you've been taught and how we want it done. You can't just go in a game and go, 'Well, I'm not going to foul, I'm not going to guard anybody.' When the game started, the player she was guarding got eight of their first I don't know how many points. That's not good."
            Using its size to dominate inside, Baylor got a combined 44 points from its post trio of Egbo, NaLyssa Smith and freshman Hannah Gusters. The Lady Bears (5-1) won their third straight by 20 or more points, extending their homecourt streak to a national-best 59 in a row and also winning their 59^th-consecutive non-conference home game.
            Smith had a game-high 16 points for her 44^th career double-figure scoring game and fifth this season, while Gusters hit double digits for the third time in six games, making 6-of-8 from the floor.
             "We won the game, and I can't tell you that it was anything to put in a highlight film," Mulkey said, but I don't take things for granted, either. Everybody got to play and everyone scored. We've got to get ready for Northwestern State on Friday and a quick turnaround with McNeese State on Saturday and then take a break for Christmas."
            Playing the back-to-back games on Friday and Saturday, Baylor will get a boost with sophomore transfer Jaden Owens from UCLA immediately eligible after a blanket waiver issued Wednesday by the NCAA Division I Council.
            "Right out of the gates, she brings quickness, she brings speed, she brings a year of college experience in the Pac-12," Mulkey said of Owens, a highly rated recruit out of Plano West High School who averaged 2.5 points and 1.2 assists in limited minutes last year at UCLA. "And she just has a motor like Moon (Ursin), she's got a lot of energy."
            Baylor didn't come out with the same energy it showed in Monday's 91-45 blowout of Texas Tech, trailing the winless Jaguars (0-4) through most of the first three minutes and leading by just four after the first quarter, 18-14.
          "I know they're sitting they're going, 'OK, Christmas comes Saturday after the last game, we're playing three non-conference games,' and the tendency is to coast. I get it," Mulkey said. "But, I still have to address that, because after Christmas there won't be any games that are out of conference other than (No. 3) UConn. And we all know you better come out of the gates prepared and ready to play in that game."
            After a tight opening period, the Lady Bears took control in the second quarter and closed the half on an 18-2 run to take a 41-19 lead on DiDi Richards' putback with 1.7 seconds left. Southern turned it over four times in a five-minute scoreless stretch when Baylor reeled off 10 unanswered points and stretched the lead to 33-19.
            Richards took her third charge of the game during the stretch, igniting the bench.
            "Like anything DiDi does, it just spreads," Mulkey said. "When she takes a charge, I think it challenges the other players to try to take charges. I'm not sure how many she got, but I do know how excited everybody got when (freshman Sarah Andrews) took one."
            Scoreless from outside the arc in the first half, Southern knocked down five treys in the last two quarters and scored 33 second-half points on a Baylor defense that had held its first two Big 12 opponents to 45 points. The Jaguars, led by Tyneisha Metcalf with 10 points, shot 39 percent overall and 5-of-17 from 3-point range.
            Trinity Oliver gave Baylor its fourth double-figure scorer with 12 points, while Andrews hit a pair of 3-pointers late and finished with nine points and four assists.
            "I've said it, she's one of our better 3-point shooters," Mulkey said of Andrews, who is 5-of-8 from 3-point range in the last two games. "She actually turned one down. She missed one early, and then had another one on an inbounds and turned it down. So, it's teaching her to keep shooting it. Good to see her have a couple makes today."
            The Lady Bears wrap up their fall schedule with back-to-back games on Friday against Northwestern State and McNeese State on Saturday, with both games tipping at 2 p.m.

-BaylorBears.com-