By Brice Cherry

Tribune-Herald staff writer

As Stephen F. Austin’s Tammara Marion drilled a long jump shot for the first points of the game, a high-pitched scream of glee rang out from the Ladyjack bench.

It was the last noise from that end for a while.

Behind a suffocating defensive effort that held the Ladyjacks without a bucket for more than 14 minutes, the 10th-ranked Baylor Lady Bears denied SFA, 77-42, in nonconference action before a crowd of 5,838 Friday night at the Ferrell Center.

HOOPS IN WACO

Baylor Lady Bears

The Baylor women won again, downing SFA at the Ferrell Center.

The Lady Bears (3-0) produced four blocks, 11 steals and a bevy of deflections, making it increasingly difficult for the Ladyjacks to even get off a clean look at times.

“Everything starts off our defense,” said junior post Danielle Wilson, who blocked two shots and ripped three steals. “We get our offense off our defense. Coach (Kim Mulkey) always wants us in practice to work hard on our defense, and our offense will come to us. That’s just a reflection of the coaches.”

Following Marion’s 18-footer at the 18:56 mark, SFA didn’t score again until Whitney Cormier tossed in a short follow shot with 4:50 to play in the half.

In that time, Baylor outscored the Ladyjacks, 24-0, on their way to a commanding 41-9 halftime lead.

Coming off an intense 81-65 win over then-No. 2-ranked Stanford last Sunday, the setting was in place for a bit of an emotional letdown for the Lady Bears against the underdog Ladyjacks (2-1). But the Baylor players said they made a conscious effort to guard against that.

“What we tried to focus on was coming out ready to play,” said senior guard Jhasmin Player, who tied for high-point honors with 13. “We conquered that. Now the second half was a little tougher, but we did come out prepared to play, holding them to nine in the first half. . . . We want to do what we did in the first half for two halves.”

The second half was indeed no work of art for Baylor. The Lady Bears’ play turned sloppy and ragged, as the team occasionally struggled with SFA’s pressing defense and tried to force passes where there were no openings. Baylor finished the game with more turnovers (19) than assists (16).

“The turnovers were disappointing to me,” Mulkey said. “I just thought the turnovers were careless, and I thought we didn’t have that tough grit about us.”

At one point midway through the second half, Mulkey got so frustrated with her newcomer-laden second unit, she sent all five starters back into the game.

After the starters produced a couple of quick turnovers, she called time-out and had the backups check in again.

“I thought it was very sloppy what they were doing, and it wasn’t to embarrass them, it was to get their attention,” Mulkey said. “They’re going to get an opportunity to get back in. I thought the next group went in and they were just as sloppy, and I took them out at the time out. It’s like if I had five more, I’d put those five in. Everybody take a turn here.”

The Lady Bears shot a respectable 42.9 percent (6 of 14) from behind the 3-point arc, though Mulkey said afterwards that some of the team’s outside shots were launched too quickly for her liking.

Baylor also used its height advantage to win the rebounding battle, 48-29. The Ladyjacks didn’t start a single player over 6-feet-tall.

Melissa Jones matched Player with 13 points, while Rachel Allison added 11 points and six rebounds.

Wilson picked up eight points and pulled down a game-high nine rebounds.

For the scrappy SFA squad, Marion scored 12 points and Cormier had 11.

For the second straight week, Baylor faces a quick turnaround after a Friday game, as the Lady Bears travel to Rice Sunday at 2 p.m.

Being that it’s the first road trip of the season and the first taste of a hostile court for the team’s four freshmen, the Lady Bears are taking a lunch-pail approach.

“We’ve had meetings, and we’ve been talking about it all week,” Player said. “We need to handle business on Friday, and we need to go to Rice Sunday, and handle business. . . . It’s a road trip, not a vacation. It’s a business trip. Let’s go handle business, and try to get back to Waco with a win.”

bcherry@wacotrib.com 7575714