CALLING CARD
1/20/2026 11:51:00 PM | Women's Basketball
Bears rank No. 1 in the nation in 3-point field goal percentage defense
By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
WACO, Texas – Averaging 25 points per game as a senior at Booker T. Washington High School in Tulsa, Okla., Marcayla Johnson admits that she never really had defense at the top of her priorities.
But as soon as she arrived on the Baylor campus this summer, the freshman guard found, "here, it's the standard."
"Defense is how you win tournaments, how you win games," said Johnson, who has played in all 20 games and averaged 18.5 minutes and 4.2 points per game for the 14th-ranked Bears (17-3, 6-1) going into Wednesday's 7 p.m. game at home against UCF (10-8, 2-5).
"It was brought to me early, to my surprise, how important defense is. And yeah, it was preached early. It helps that all of our practices and all of the running and all of the discipline has helped us to do what we can to show the world . . . how great our defense is."
While sophomore guard Taliah Scott is second in the Big 12 and 15th nationally with 20.5 points per game, the true calling card for this Baylor team is defense. The Bears are No. 1 in the country in 3-point field goal percentage defense, holding teams to 22.2% from outside the arc overall and just 19.9% in conference games.
"There's two things that have always been the key to our defense, it's our ability to protect the rim and take away the three," Baylor head coach Nicki Collen said. The Bears also lead the Big 12 and rank third nationally with 7.2 blocks per game.
"We play against a lot of teams that need the three-ball to win. In fact, most teams, to some balanced degree, need it to be good. We don't live and die by it, but we are certainly better when we have balance. It's protecting the rim, it's taking away the arc and it's not fouling. When you put people at the line, you put yourself in a bad predicament."
One of the things that makes Baylor's defense so good is the team's length, particularly at the wing positions, with 6-1 senior Darianna Littlepage-Buggs (10.1 ppg, 10.7 rebounds) and 6-0 senior Bella Fontleroy (9.4 ppg, 5.5 rebounds, 1.5 blocks). The Bears also have 6-4 Kiersten Johnson and 6-3 Kyla Abraham protecting the rim and the 6-1 Johnson and 6-2 Yuting Deng coming off the bench to defend the perimeter.
Fontleroy, the team's unquestioned defensive leader, said "it's been super cool . . . to be able to lead our team that way and kind of get us to the right spots."
"The reason I played my freshman year is because I was a stronger guard that could guard some of the bigs in our league," Fontleroy said. "I feel like that's something I've worked at a lot in my four years. Nicki is a big stats person, and I think Tony (Greene) is, too. So, for them to see that we're doing our job so well, it's nice to know that all the hard work is paying off."
Riding a six-game winning streak that included a successful two-game road swing last week at Utah and BYU, the Bears are facing a UCF team that has won two of its last three. Coached by former Baylor assistant coach Sytia Messer, the Knights knocked off a Colorado team (74-68) that took Baylor to the wire, 58-52.
"They want to play man more, but they're pretty good when they need to play it, and it was really effective against Colorado," Collen said. "They want to create tempo, and they want to score in the paint. That's the big thing. Whether that's through the posts or the guards attacking the rim, they want to get two feet in the paint as much as they can."
Now tied at the top of the Big 12 standings with No. 9 TCU (18-2, 6-1) and No. 19 Texas Tech (19-1, 6-1), the Bears will face Houston (6-12, 0-7) at 2 p.m. Sunday at the Foster Pavilion. The Cougars are 6-37 in league play in their first three years in the Big 12.
"I don't think you ever get to just show up in this league and win," Collen said. "You have to go out there and do what you do best to give yourself the best chance to win."
Wednesday's game will be streamed by ESPN+, with "Voice of the Bears" John Morris and former Baylor women's basketball standout Jordan Lewis calling the action.
Baylor Bear Insider
WACO, Texas – Averaging 25 points per game as a senior at Booker T. Washington High School in Tulsa, Okla., Marcayla Johnson admits that she never really had defense at the top of her priorities.
But as soon as she arrived on the Baylor campus this summer, the freshman guard found, "here, it's the standard."
"Defense is how you win tournaments, how you win games," said Johnson, who has played in all 20 games and averaged 18.5 minutes and 4.2 points per game for the 14th-ranked Bears (17-3, 6-1) going into Wednesday's 7 p.m. game at home against UCF (10-8, 2-5).
"It was brought to me early, to my surprise, how important defense is. And yeah, it was preached early. It helps that all of our practices and all of the running and all of the discipline has helped us to do what we can to show the world . . . how great our defense is."
While sophomore guard Taliah Scott is second in the Big 12 and 15th nationally with 20.5 points per game, the true calling card for this Baylor team is defense. The Bears are No. 1 in the country in 3-point field goal percentage defense, holding teams to 22.2% from outside the arc overall and just 19.9% in conference games.
"There's two things that have always been the key to our defense, it's our ability to protect the rim and take away the three," Baylor head coach Nicki Collen said. The Bears also lead the Big 12 and rank third nationally with 7.2 blocks per game.
"We play against a lot of teams that need the three-ball to win. In fact, most teams, to some balanced degree, need it to be good. We don't live and die by it, but we are certainly better when we have balance. It's protecting the rim, it's taking away the arc and it's not fouling. When you put people at the line, you put yourself in a bad predicament."
One of the things that makes Baylor's defense so good is the team's length, particularly at the wing positions, with 6-1 senior Darianna Littlepage-Buggs (10.1 ppg, 10.7 rebounds) and 6-0 senior Bella Fontleroy (9.4 ppg, 5.5 rebounds, 1.5 blocks). The Bears also have 6-4 Kiersten Johnson and 6-3 Kyla Abraham protecting the rim and the 6-1 Johnson and 6-2 Yuting Deng coming off the bench to defend the perimeter.
Fontleroy, the team's unquestioned defensive leader, said "it's been super cool . . . to be able to lead our team that way and kind of get us to the right spots."
"The reason I played my freshman year is because I was a stronger guard that could guard some of the bigs in our league," Fontleroy said. "I feel like that's something I've worked at a lot in my four years. Nicki is a big stats person, and I think Tony (Greene) is, too. So, for them to see that we're doing our job so well, it's nice to know that all the hard work is paying off."
Riding a six-game winning streak that included a successful two-game road swing last week at Utah and BYU, the Bears are facing a UCF team that has won two of its last three. Coached by former Baylor assistant coach Sytia Messer, the Knights knocked off a Colorado team (74-68) that took Baylor to the wire, 58-52.
"They want to play man more, but they're pretty good when they need to play it, and it was really effective against Colorado," Collen said. "They want to create tempo, and they want to score in the paint. That's the big thing. Whether that's through the posts or the guards attacking the rim, they want to get two feet in the paint as much as they can."
Now tied at the top of the Big 12 standings with No. 9 TCU (18-2, 6-1) and No. 19 Texas Tech (19-1, 6-1), the Bears will face Houston (6-12, 0-7) at 2 p.m. Sunday at the Foster Pavilion. The Cougars are 6-37 in league play in their first three years in the Big 12.
"I don't think you ever get to just show up in this league and win," Collen said. "You have to go out there and do what you do best to give yourself the best chance to win."
Wednesday's game will be streamed by ESPN+, with "Voice of the Bears" John Morris and former Baylor women's basketball standout Jordan Lewis calling the action.
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