No. 21 WBB Downs HCU on Faith and Family Day

Sunday, December 4

Waco, Texas

2 p.m.

Baylor

6-2,0-0Big 12

HCU

3-4,0-0Southland

Houston Christian

Baylor

No. 21 WBB Downs HCU on Faith and Family Day

12/4/2022 3:52:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score Box Score

By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
            After a week of toughness drills that "they'll have nightmares about," the 21^st-ranked Baylor Bears showed their toughness time and time again in a 79-35 throttling of the Houston Christian Huskies Sunday afternoon at the Ferrell Center.
            Freshman Bella Fontleroy recorded her first double-double with a game-high 17 points and career-best 11 rebounds to help the Bears (6-2) bounce back from an 84-75 loss to No. 22 Michigan a week earlier in the championship game of the Gulf Coast Showcase.
            That toughness was spotlighted four minutes into the fourth quarter, when Fontleroy and guard Jana Van Gytenbeek both dove on the floor for a loose ball with the Bears leading by 36 points.
            "When you do what we did this week in practice, they knew they were going to be on film if they didn't (dive for loose balls)," said Baylor head coach Nicki Collen. "(Assistant coach Tony Greene) felt like we weren't tough enough. And we told them, we're going to keep doing it until you guys prove game-in and game-out that we don't need a toughness drill in practice because you're going to do it when the game is on the line."
            Shorthanded without Aijha Blackwell, Sarah Andrews and Catarina Ferreira, Baylor got 14 points and six assists from Jaden Owens and 10 points from sophomore forward Kendra Gillispie. Making her first-career start, Gillispie hit three buckets in the first 4 ½ minutes as the Bears raced out to a 13-0 lead.
            "I think it just shows how deep we can go," Owens said. "When we have a few people down, I really feel like the bench stepped up. They showed that they're capable of doing whatever Coach Nicki needs."
            Baylor's bench almost outscored HCU's team, getting a combined 29 points from Fontleroy (17), fellow freshman Kyla Abraham (six), Illinois transfer Erika Porter (three) and Van Gytenbeek (three). In her most significant action as a Bear, the 6-3 Abraham added five rebounds and one block in eight minutes.
            On the defensive end, one of the key focus points in an intense week of practice, Baylor held the Huskies (3-4) to 28.6% percent shooting overall and 2-of-15 from 3-point range while forcing 25 turnovers.
            With the offense not "super-pretty at certain moments," Collen said, "most of our offense early on was created by our defense."
            Freshman forward Darianna Littlepage-Buggs had eight points, five rebounds, four steals and two blocks to lead Baylor's defensive charge.
            Leading by just seven after the first quarter, 18-11, Baylor held HCU to just 12 points combined in the second and third quarters and took a commanding 57-22 lead going into the fourth. After giving up seven second-chance points down the stretch in the loss to Michigan, the Bears dominated the Huskies on the boards, 44-29, and only allowed seven second-chance points for the game.
            "If you would have (seen) this week's worth of practice, whew, you would have expected us to rebound today," Owens said. "We definitely missed some, and we can definitely get better at it, me especially. But you could tell that we definitely tried to put a focus on that one."
            Baylor's only real scare of the day came on the last play of the half, when Owens crumpled to the floor on a collision with teammate Caitlin Bickle and couldn't catch her breath.
            "We turned and we saw the ball, and we were both trying to go for it," Owens said. "Two's better than one, two's better than none, and we saw each other and it (happened too fast) to stop. We were just like, 'Oh, ow!' and then we belly-flopped. But, I'm good, she's good. She's got to be good, I'm not that big."
            Collen got on the PA mic and let the fans know the 5-8 senior guard was okay as she was helped off the floor at the halftime break.
            "I think she was just trying to let them know that I was good," Owens said. "I was good, but I had a towel over my head, so people were probably like, 'What's going on?' That's a good coach right there."
            Owens, who took on a bigger role with Andrews sidelined by an ankle injury, has strung together four-straight double-digit outings and averaged 16.0 points per game over that stretch.
            "I like Jaden when she's making good decisions," Collen said. "She's incredibly fast in transition. I just want her to search paint touches on every possession. . . . I don't like taking step-backs in transition without a paint touch. As long as she continues to play downhill, play to the rim, make good decisions, she can really help us."
            After a relatively quiet first half, Owens scored nine of her 14 points in the third quarter to help Baylor stretch a 23-point first-half lead out to 57-22 going into the fourth. The last bucket came when she lost control of the ball, got it back off a deflection off the knee of an HCU player and finished it off with a scooping up-and-under layup.
            "I tricked myself," she said. "Even the fans on the sideline were like, 'Whoa! The circus is here.'''
Baylor's balanced attack also included Bickle and Ja'Mee Asberry with nine points apiece, while freshman Darianna Littlepage-Buggs had eight points, five rebounds, four steals and two blocks.
            Marilyn Nzoiwu led HCU (formerly Houston Baptist) with 13 points and five rebounds. Baylor is the third ranked team the Huskies have played already, losing to LSU and Nebraska.
            Baylor will turn around and host UT Arlington (5-4) at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Ferrell Center. Coming off a Sun Belt Tournament title and third NCAA Tournament appearance, the Mavericks are 5-4 in their first year in the Western Athletic Conference and riding a three-game winning streak.

NOTABLES

The No. 21 Baylor Bears topped the HCU Huskies, 79-35, on Sunday afternoon inside the Ferrell Center.
The 44-point win is the largest margin of victory for BU since besting Kansas State by 45 on Feb. 9, 2022. It's the largest victory over a non-conference opponent since beating Alcorn State by 54 last season.
The 35 points by HCU are the fewest allowed by Baylor since holding Texas to 35 in a 25-point victory over the Longhorns on Feb. 14, 2021. In a non-conference matchup, it marks the lowest given up since only allowing McNeese to score two dozen in the 117-24 win on Dec. 19, 2020.
The Bears held the Huskies to just three points in the second quarter marking the first time BU held an opponent to less than five points in a frame since holding Oklahoma State to zero in the opening quarter on March 11, 2022. Prior to that, the lowest allowed was five to Morehead State in the third quarter on Nov. 30, 2021.
Baylor forced 16 first-half turnovers by HCU, which was the most the Bears' forced an opponent to commit in the opening half since Texas turned the ball over 14 times on Feb. 4, 2022.
For the game, the Bears forced 25 Huskie turnovers – the most this season and most since New Orleans committed the same amount in the third game of the 2021-22 campaign.
In her first career start, Kendra Gillispie recorded a career-high 10 points, marking the first time the sophomore has reached double-figure scoring. She shot 5-for-6 from the floor, which was the second-best shooting percentage in the Big 12 Conference this week.
Gillispie was the first Bear to reach double digits in the scoring column. Senior Jaden Owens joined her, finishing with 14, marking the fourth-straight game the guard has reached double figures and fifth time this season.
Owens added a team-high six assists, and she has now led the team in the category in seven of BU's eight contests.
Freshman Bella Fontleroy logged her first-career double-double, finishing with a team- and game-high 17 points and 11 rebounds. The 17 points matched a career-best for the rookie, while the 11 rebounds surpassed her previous career high of nine.
The Baylor bench scored 29 points, led by Fontleroy, while freshman Kyla Abraham added a career-best six points and five boards in eight minutes on the floor.
In her eighth-straight start, freshman Darianna Littlepage-Buggs registered a career-high four of BU's eight steals.
Newcomer Jana Van Gytenbeek finished second on the team in assists (5), matching a career high she set at Stanford her freshman year.