No. 8 Baylor women win Big 12 opener to follow UConn victory

Published 12:50 am Monday, January 7, 2019

LUBBOCK (AP) — No. 8 Baylor is back in Big 12 play, and a familiar role after taking down top-ranked UConn.

“We’re the UConn in the Big 12. We know that we have a target on our back, we’ve won eight straight years,” coach Kim Mulkey said. “Any off night for us is a win for somebody else.”

Queen Egbo had 19 points and 10 rebounds, and the Lady Bears followed their victory over UConn with a 73-56 win against Texas Tech in their Big 12 opener on Sunday.

The Lady Bears (11-1, 1-0), who topped the 11-time national champion Huskies 68-57 on Thursday night, went ahead to stay against Texas Tech by scoring the last seven points of the first quarter. Egbo then hit a short jumper on her first shot of the game in the opening seconds of the second quarter, making it 24-16.

“Tremendous athlete. … She runs the floor just like a deer,” Mulkey said of the 6-foot-3 freshman. “She’s just so athletic and she was our sparkplug today.”

NaLyssa Smith, another Baylor freshman, added 14 points and seven rebounds. Graduate transfer Chloe Jackson scored 11 points. Kalani Brown, the reigning Big 12 player of the year, got in early foul trouble and finished with 10 points in 10 minutes.

“Credit to Baylor. They’re as good as I’ve seen in a while, top to bottom,” first-year Tech coach Marlene Stollings said. “They’re certainly a team that has a shot to win it all.”

Chrislyn Carr made four 3-pointers and scored 19 points for Texas Tech (9-4, 0-2), which shot 31 percent (20 for 64) from the field. Sydney Goodson had 15 points.

The Lady Bears carried a 43-28 lead into the break after Jackson’s deep 3-pointer was taken off the board when officials looked at a replay and determined she didn’t get the shot off before the buzzer sounded to end the half.

Texas Tech, which had a 1-for-11 shooting slump during the second quarter, made only two of 21 shots in the third.

“We’re still working on the part of believing and competing,” Stollings said. “There were multiple times in the third quarter we could have gotten it a 10-point game if we could have capitalized on some of our offensive possessions. … You’ve got Brown on the bench in foul trouble off-and-on all night. You’ve got to capitalize when you’re playing a high-caliber team like Baylor.”

BIG PICTURE

Baylor: Nine different players were in the game at least 10 minutes. “That was a 30-point ballgame. I subbed the bench and it went down to 17,” Mulkey said. “Needless to say, we didn’t finish it the way we played the entire day.” … Egbo, who didn’t appear in the UConn game, also had a double-double in her previous game. She had 15 points and 13 rebounds in 14 minutes against Rio Grande Valley on New Year’s Eve.

Texas Tech: Despite the 0-2 start in Big 12 play under Stollings, the Lady Raiders’ nine wins are already more than their seven last season. They hung much closer than they did when Baylor won 90-44 in Lubbock last February. Tech hasn’t defeated the Lady Bears since February 2011, and last beat a ranked team nearly six years ago.

NO. 13 TEXAS 70, WEST VIRGINIA 58

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) — Sug Sutton scored 19 points on 8-of-10 shooting and Destiny Littleton had three 3-pointers in the pivotal third quarter and No. 13 Texas defeated West Virginia 70-58 on Sunday.

The Longhorns (12-2, 2-0 Big 12), who have won five straight, were down two at halftime but Littleton helped build a 48-40 lead entering the fourth quarter. When she opened the final quarter with her fourth 3 in the midst of what turned out to be an 11-0 run, Texas had a doublefigure lead they kept until West Virginia scored eight straight late.

After the Mountaineers cut it to 64-58 on Madisen Smith’s 3-pointer with 48 seconds left the Longhorns closed the game with the final six points.

Littleton went 4 of 5 from distance and had 16 points. Texas was 8 of 14 behind the arc, 18 of 48 inside and just 10 of 17 at the line, including 5 of 9 in the fourth quarter.

Naomi Davenport was 10 of 17 and scored 26 points for the Mountaineers (9-4, 0-2) but her teammates were 9 of 32.

LSU 63, NO. 21 TEXAS A&M 52

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Khayla Pointer scored 16 of her 22 points in the fourth quarter and LSU outscored No. 21 Texas A&M 12-0 over the final three minutes for a 63-52 victory on Sunday.

Pointer, who came in shooting under 50 percent from the free-throw line, made 9 of 10, all in the fourth quarter including two with three minutes left for a 53-52 lead and the start of the 12 straight Tigers points.

Chennedy Carter’s free throw gave Texas A&M its final point before she fouled out with 2:37 to go with her first double-double this season: 20 points and 10 rebounds. Without the SEC’s leading scorer, the Aggies missed their final four shots and committed three turnovers.

Jaelyn Richard-Harris added 11 points and Ayana Mitchell 10 for LSU (10-4, 1-1 SEC).

Ciera Johnson added 13 points for the Aggies (11-4, 0-2), who lost to No. 23 South Carolina on Thursday — their first consecutive losses since February 2017. Texas A&M had 21 turnovers, eight by Carter.

NO. 1 UCONN 81, HOUSTON 61

HOUSTON (AP) — Katie Lou Samuelson had 19 points, Napheesa Collier added 18 points and the top-ranked UConn Huskies rebounded from a rare regular-season loss with an 81-61 win over Houston on Sunday.

Megan Walker had 14 points and seven rebounds, Crystal Dangerfield had 13 points and six assists and Christyn Williams had 12 points for UConn (12-1, 1-0 American), which had its streak of 126 consecutive regular-season wins snapped in a 68-57 loss to No. 8 Baylor on Thursday.

Octavia Barnes had 15 points, Serithia Hawkins added 10 points and Tatyana Hill added nine points for Houston (6-8, 0-1).

NO. 2 NOTRE DAME 76, GEORGIA TECH 55

ATLANTA (AP) — Defending national champion Notre Dame may be on the cusp of moving to the top spot in the next Top 25.

That didn’t stop coach Muffet McGraw from sharp criticism of what she considered to be a lackluster performance in a runaway win over Georgia Tech. Jessica Shepard scored 19 points, most on layups, and No. 2 Notre Dame was dominant inside in overpowering Georgia Tech 76-55 on Sunday.

The Fighting Irish had a season-high 30 assists on their 34 field goals, but that evidence of offensive efficiency wasn’t enough to impress McGraw.

Notre Dame had averaged 90 points while scoring at least 100 five times this season, so 76 points was below par.

“I didn’t think we played well,” McGraw said. “I thought we weren’t focused.”

The Fighting Irish, who led by 30 points in the final quarter, outscored the Yellow Jackets 60-20 in the paint.

“I think anytime we have a mismatch inside, the goal is to get it inside,” Shepard said. “… Just to get touches inside is really important to us. I think the guards did a great job of passing.”