Month: February 2022

Bears win their 6th straight against Texas

The Baylor Bears (25-5, 13-4) thrived on defense and relied on their lead guards to come away with the final win in the Erwin Center and their 6th straight over the Texas Longhorns (21-9, 10-7).

The final score was 68-61.

Baylor’s defense throttled Texas down the stretch of the game as Akinjo and Flagler asserted themselves on offense, and Baylor road a 9-0 run in the final five minutes to pull away from Texas as the Longhorns went nearly 5 minutes without a score and missed 8 straight shots.

Showing the balance of this ravaged roster, James Akinjo 19 pts, 8 rebs, 7 asts) and Adam Flagler (19 pts, 5-7 3PT) took over the game in the second half in a game Baylor won by nearly double-digits (a garbage three from Carr, notwithstanding) despite losing the bench point battle 13-3 and the points off turnovers 18-5. Flagler’s three-point shooting and Akinjo’s determined drives inside gave Baylor the offense it needed despite the prowess of Texas’ half court defense.

Had Carr not hit the garbage three in the final seconds, Baylor would have had back-to-back 10 point victories over top 25 teams in 3 days with a short bench. That’s a tough feat for any team but so indicative of the winning mentality that Scott Drew has instilled in this team.

Nearing the halfway point of the second half, the teams traded the lead back and forth as the offense started flowing at last. Another Thamba offensive rebound led to a Flagler three and a 40-39 Baylor lead. Carr answered with a three of his own for a 2-point lead, then Akinjo floated it high off the glass to tie it at 42. Sochan scored his first point of the game the next possession going 1-2 from the line, giving Baylor the one-point lead. Then again: Allen hit a layup and Flagler answered with his third three of the half.

Neither team could pull away until Baylor went on its run in the final five minutes, trading threes, layups, free throws, and turnovers.

The first half was a bogged down affair. Neither team could get on a real roll, and even the runs weren’t exactly inspiring. The score was 16-11 with 12 minutes played. Texas had an 8-0 run that took nearly 6 minutes to accomplish. Painful. Baylor’s 7-0 run took just 2 minutes and included Kendall Brown’s second three of the half. He had 12 points for the Bears in the half (and 13 points for the game as he struggled with foul trouble) as he and Flo Thamba (12 pts, 6 rebs, 2 blks) were the two most reliable players finishing in the paint.

The edge in the first half for Texas came in transition and off the bench. Texas led in bench scoring 13-0 at the break and had a 4-0 advantage on the fast break. Sochan was scoreless on just 2 shot attempts. Baylor was just 2-3 from the line, while Texas had 8 attempts from the line but made only 4 of them.

One nifty first half wrinkle from Drew: Flagler cut from wing into the paint to draw his help, Akinjo took his man off the dribble into the empty space for the layup. 27-26 Baylor lead. The double teams were a problem for Akinjo early, so Drew ran a play that didn’t allow the extra help to come. That sort of scheming helped keep Akinjo out of the double-teams throughout the rest of the game.

Baylor has just 7 rotation players available now, and it’s a testament to their talent and toughness that they can win games in which players trade off bad offensive nights. Mayer and Sochan, who combined on Saturday to score 26 with 18 rebounds, had a combined 5 points and 11 rebounds tonight. But both played committed defense even when their shot wasn’t falling.

Baylor has one game remaining on the regular season. The Bears will face Iowa State. The teams last played on January 1st to open conference play, the pre-game appetizer to that wonderful Sugar Bowl victory. The Cyclones haven’t faired well in Big XII play, but there are no easy games. This will be another test against an NCAA Tournament team.

At least the Bears have more than one day off before then.

NaLyssa Smith grabs a career high 20 rebounds, drops 28 and Jordan Lewis adds 23 in championship victory

Ames, IA—It was another must win game for Baylor (24-5, 14-3 Big 12). They had won 13 of 14 games since beginning 0-2 in Big 12 play; all would be for nought if they lost to Iowa State (24-5, 13-4 Big 12).

After a back and forth first quarter where the Bears led 19-18, NaLyssa Smith took over. She dropped 19 points in the first half and posted nine rebounds. Baylor lead by 12 at halftime.

The Bears exploded in the second half to win 87-62 and claim their twelfth straight Big 12 regular season championship—in the first year under Nicki Collen. Baylor became the first team to start 0-2 in league play but then win it all since Texas Tech did so in 2000.

Smith had nine points and 11 rebounds in the second half to finish with 28 and 20, but most importantly a Big 12 title. Something she so desperately wanted.

Jordan Lewis hit all five three-point shots she took in the second half to help extend the lead to as many as 30 as the Bears cruised over the Cyclones. Lewis finished with 23 points and six assists.

Caitlin Bickle played a near perfect game off the bench, going 6-of-8 for 13 points and five rebounds. That was key as Queen Egbo struggled with foul trouble, despite finishing with 10 points and eight rebounds.

In the end, the trio of seniors embraced on the sideline in pure joy. What began with a national title under Kim Mulkey ended with their toughest Big 12 title to date. The adversity that they faced—Mulkey leaving, deciding to stay at Baylor after prayer, struggling through Covid, losing the first two Big 12 games, fans wanting to fire Collen and then having to play basically must win games every night out with very little rest in between (two vs Texas in the same weekend or getting snowed in in Stillwater) with only seven players—was absurd.

And yet Smith and her fellow five star seniors provided the leadership at every turn to not let the season get lost. Lewis brought in record breaking experience and coach Collen modernized Baylor’s offense with professional and new era statistic philosophies.

It is time to seriously consider Smith as the best payer in Baylor program history. Sophia Young, Brittney Griner, Odyssey Sims, Nina Davis, Smith, Lauren Cox, Kalani Brown are the top seven. It is probably Kristy Wallace, Chloe Jackson and Didi Richards that round out the top 10.

If Smith can help lead the Bears to a national title to bookend her career, she would leave as unquestioned number one.

And Baylor does not believe that their job is done anyway. They want to win the Big 12 outright, win the Big 12 tournament and win a national championship.

Why would anybody doubt them now?