No. 5 WBB Falls to No. 13 Michigan in Overtime

Sunday, December 19

Uncasville, Conn.

12 PM

Baylor

9-2,0-0Big 12

Michigan

11-1,2-0Big Ten

OT 1

Baylor

Michigan

No. 5 WBB Falls to No. 13 Michigan in Overtime

12/19/2021 3:03:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score Box Score (PDF)

Bears down top-15 matchup at Mohegan Sun

By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
            UNCASVILLE, Conn. – Nicki Collen said the fifth-ranked Baylor Bears "looked like a team that hadn't played a game in two weeks."
            Playing its first game in 10 days and just its third in the month of December, Baylor was dominated on the boards and hit just 22 percent from outside the arc as 13^th-ranked Michigan pulled out a 74-68 win in overtime Sunday afternoon at the Mohegan Sun Arena.
            In the opening game of the Basketball Hall of Fame Women's Showcase, the Wolverines (11-1) avenged last year's loss in the Sweet 16 and picked up the first win in program history over a top-5 team.
            "It looked like we had run a marathon three minutes into the game," said Collen, whose team had a six-game winning streak snapped in falling to its second ranked Big Ten team. "It's really hard to simulate staying in game shape, especially when you're so concerned with a limited roster not overdoing it in practice, which I have to be better at."
            The glaring difference in the game was Michigan outrebounding the Bears, 50-35, and scoring 29 second-chance points on 18 offensive boards.
            "They out-toughed us . . . their physicality on the glass," Collen said. "Obviously, we're small, especially at the guard position. I thought as the game went on, we did better at that, but that was the biggest difference. You'd play good defense for 25 seconds, they'd throw up a bad shot and end up with a put-back or kick-out."
            All-American Naz Hillmon came up with maybe the biggest rebound of the game when she grabbed one in the final minute of regulation off a missed layup by Leigha Brown. Scoreless to that point, 6-3 senior forward Emily Kiser made a tough shot in traffic to tie it at 59-59 with 39 seconds left in regulation.
            Baylor had two shots at it in the final seconds to win it in regulation, but Jordan Lewis missed a driving layup and NaLyssa Smith couldn't hit a contested jumper. Smith recorded her 10^th-straight double-double with 21 points and 14 rebounds, but also missed a game-tying layup with 15 seconds left in the overtime period.
            "If you would have told me with four seconds to go, we'd get a shot for this one to win the game, I would have felt pretty good about it," said Collen, sitting beside Smith in the postgame press conference. "The problem with using her as a decoy is, it's great if the play works. But, if it doesn't, I'm an idiot. Put the ball in your best player's hands and let them make a play. We're always going to have the confidence to put it in her hands."
            Maddie Nolan, who hadn't scored until the overtime period, knocked down a 3-pointer from the corner off an inbounds play to give the Wolverines a 66-62 lead with 2:43 left, then made two of Michigan's four free throws in the final 12 seconds to seal it.
            Down by four at the break and trailing by as many as 10 in the third quarter, the Bears held Michigan scoreless over the last 2:52 of the period and pulled to within two, 45-43, on seven-straight points by Jordan Lewis.
            Lewis, who finished with 15 points, seven assists and five rebounds, had a heads-up play at the end of the third when she was fouled by Brown with 1.1 seconds left and drained all three free throws to give Baylor the momentum going into the fourth.
            Sarah Andrews hit back-to-back 3-pointers and scored 10 of her 16 points in the fourth quarter, hitting a fast-break layup with 1:40 left in regulation to give the Bears a three-point lead, 59-56.
            "I just think she's a tough kid," Collen said of Andrews, who was 4-for-5 from the floor in the fourth quarter, including 2-of-3 from outside the arc. "Hopefully, this is giving her confidence, because I'm not afraid to put my around that kid and say, 'I think you can do better. I think you can do more.'
            "I feel like we have two guards in Jordan and Sarah that can really put pressure on the defense downhill. They went away from it for a while, but those shots were there all night, the drive and kick. They were going to converge on Lys, they were going to converge in the paint. We just needed to make a few more (3-pointers)."
            Even without Hillmon, who fouled out with 22.2 seconds left, Michigan outscored Baylor, 15-9, in the OT period to pull away for the win, hitting 6-of-6 from the line.
            "They made some timely plays," Collen said. "Big shot by Maddie Nolan in the backside corner. And, obviously, Leah Brown flat-out carried them after Naz fouled out."
            Brown finished with a game-high 25 points to go with four assists and five rebounds, while Laila Phelia chipped in with 12 points, five boards, two steals and a block.
            On the same day the Washington Mystics got the first pick in the WNBA Draft Lottery, Sunday's game featured a pair of potential lottery picks in Smith and Hillmon, who recorded her fifth double-double of the year with 15 points and 10 rebounds.
            After another extended break, Baylor will host Houston Baptist (4-6) on Dec. 29 before opening Big 12 play on Jan. 2 with a road game at Kansas State (10-2).

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