Baylor Women Rout Texas State

By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Foundation

Baylor’s semester final exams don’t start until Thursday, but the third-ranked Lady Bears passed one of their last pre-conference tests with flying colors.

Even with senior guard Alexis Jones sitting out, six players scored in double figures as Baylor (10-1) coasted to a 90-24 victory over the Texas State Bobcats Tuesday night at the Ferrell Center.

“You don’t look at the score, you look at what you can do to help yourself and the team,” said Baylor coach Kim Mulkey, whose team improved to 10-1 with its eighth straight overall and 48th in a row at home. “And I thought a lot of them should leave tonight feeling better about themselves.”

That included freshman guard Natalie Chou, who was 5-of-6 from outside the arc and scored a career-high 15 points, tying Alexis Prince and Kalani Brown for game-high honors.

“Natalie showed a lot of confidence today,” said Prince, who hit five of her last six shots after missing her first four. “That’s what we’ve been wanting her to do is shoot the ball. You know it’s not going to go in if you don’t shoot it. Tonight, she was confident.”

Mulkey said there were points earlier in the season where the 6-1 freshman guard “wouldn’t even look at the basket.”

“I told her, `I can go get another player to do that,”’ she said. “I brought you here to shoot the ball. Shoot the ball.”

Baylor got out to a slow start, turning it over seven times in the first quarter and leading by just three, 13-10, when the Bobcats’ Brooke Holle nailed a 3-poointer with 4:30 left in the opening period.

Prince said there wasn’t really a reason for the slow start, but “the second group came in and got the job done.”

The Bobcats (3-4) trailed by just eight after the first quarter and 31-17 midway through the second. But after that, it was all Lady Bears. They scored the next 16 points before a Taeler Deer layup made it 47-19 at the break.

“The disappointing piece is we got to take Texas State shots, and those are shots we generally knock down,” Texas State coach Zenarae Antoine said. “To only score five points in one half was really, really tough, largely because we pride ourselves on signing kids who can put the ball in the hole. They struggled tonight.”

Baylor’s defense ratcheted it up a notch in the second half, holding the Bobcats to just 2-of-31 shooting and five points. The Lady Bears opened the second half on a 19-0 run and stretched their lead to 75-21 by outscoring Texas State, 28-2, in the third quarter.

Antoine said Baylor looks like a Final Four team to her.

“I think they’re moving in the right direction, for sure,” she said. “I think the one thing you have to do is play a little bit outside yourself, in a positive way, and sometimes you find that extra energy, that burst of speed to be able to go ahead initially – shots going up and being able to push (Baylor) back under the rim. And then our guards can snatch those rebounds versus their bigs. That’s what we’ve got to continue to work on, because that’s an Achilles’ heel, regardless, that we need to work on.”

The Lady Bears dominated points in the paint (50-10) and second-chance points (25-0) and finished with a decisive 59-23 edge on the boards.

Nina Davis and Beatrice Mompremier chipped in with 12 points apiece, while 6-4 freshman forward Lauren Cox had 15 points, 11 boards and three blocks, including one she swatted into the stands.

“Sometimes we forget that those kids are two sophomores and a freshman,” Mulkey said of Mompremier, Brown and Cox. “But, as I tell them, expectations from me may be tough sometimes and may be harder than they should be. But if I don’t expect it, I won’t get it out of you as soon as I need to.”

Mulkey said Jones, who scored 30 in Sunday’s 88-66 win at Tennessee, was not injured. She was just trying to get her fifth-year senior some extra rest.

“The less and wear and tear you can get right now that’s not necessary, the longer she will be able to stay healthy during conference and the playoffs,” Mulkey said of Jones. “But, she’s not hurt, she’s good to go.”

The Lady Bears will play just one game in the next 22 days, hosting Winthrop next Thursday, Dec. 15, before opening Big 12 play with a home game against Kansas State on Dec. 29.