Tribune-Herald staff report

ST. THOMAS, U.S. Virgin Islands — Before they sat down to their Thanksgiving meal, the Baylor Lady Bears feasted on turnovers.

The sixth-ranked Lady Bears cranked up their running game, scoring 29 points off turnovers in a 79-67 win over Central Florida in their opener at the Paradise Jam Tournament at the University of the Virgin Islands Thursday.

Baylor (4-0) was comfortably in front for much of the second half, leading by as many as 24 points, before UCF (1-3) closed with a late spurt to cut the final gap to 12. But that was somewhat deceptive, since the Knights were using their starters against Baylor’s second unit.

“They’re a tough, scrappy team, but we had them down 24 or 26 points with about seven minutes to go,” said Baylor coach Kim Mulkey in her postgame radio interview. “I gave the freshman an opportunity to play, and there at the end they had their starters in and made a run and got a little excited. But I wasn’t about to put my starters back in at that point.”

It wasn’t exactly a sizzling shooting performance for Baylor, which shot just 39.7 percent from the field, compared to UCF’s 42 percent. Senior guard Jessica Morrow struggled with her accuracy again, hitting just 1 of 13 attempts to drop to 28 percent shooting for the season.

“We’ve got to get Jessica back in the groove,” Mulkey said. “We’ve got to get her in the gym and figure out why she’s missing the shots she’s missing.”

Despite their shooting woes, the Lady Bears kept the Knights at bay throughout. Baylor maintained a slim 18-15 lead midway through the first half before extending that gap to 12 by the halftime break at 39-27.

Rachel Allison scored on a quick bucket inside to start the second half, as Baylor briskly put up seven points in the first 90 seconds after intermission.

The Lady Bears pushed the lead to 20 at 59-39 on a Morghan Medlock turnaround jumper with just over 11 minutes to play.

Medlock, a junior transfer from USC, turned in a strong effort off the bench, scoring 13 points and pulling down seven rebounds in 19 minutes.

“For the most part, I thought out our post players carried us,” Mulkey said. Allison showed no ill effects from a jellyfish sting suffered during a Wednesday snorkeling excursion in the Caribbean, scoring a game-high 18 points to go with seven rebounds.

Danielle Wilson added 12 points, seven rebounds and a team-leading four assists, while Jhasmin Player chipped in 11 points and seven boards.

Like Baylor, four Knights scored in double figures, led by forward Emma Cannon’s 17. Angelica Mealing tallied 15, and D’Nay Daniels and Marshay White added 12 apiece.

Baylor will next play Villanova at 2:30 p.m. today, before closing out the tournament with Wisconsin Saturday. The Badgers beat Villanova, 47-45, prior to BU’s game Thursday, but Mulkey didn’t expect a cakewalk against the Lady Wildcats.

“They play in the Big East, against the likes of Rutgers and Connecticut,” she said. “So they’re not going to be worried about Baylor. They’re going to be more worried about themselves and what they’re doing.”

Baylor 79, Cent. Florida 67

RICE MP FG FT RB T A F TP

Daniels 36 5-12 2-6 9 2 3 3 12

Cannon 31 5-7 7-10 7 7 1 3 17

Patrick 38 1-1 0-0 3 4 1 2 2

Wiley 20 1-7 0-1 0 0 0 3 2

Caldwell 11 3-7 0-0 2 2 1 2 7

Mealing 31 5-12 4-7 6 3 2 3 15

Kelly 5 0-1 0-0 3 2 0 4 0

White 25 3-7 5-6 4 2 1 5 12

Paige 3 0-0 0-0 0 0 1 0 0

Team 4

Totals 200 23-54 18-30 38 22 10 25 67

BAYLOR MP FG FT RB T A F TP

Wilson 26 5-11 2-4 7 2 4 2 12

Allison 24 5-11 7-9 7 1 0 1 18

Morrow 23 1-13 1-2 2 0 3 2 3

Jones 19 4-7 1-1 7 2 2 2 9

Player 26 5-8 0-1 7 1 1 1 11

Wallace 5 0-1 3-4 0 2 0 1 3

Condrey 9 0-1 0-0 5 3 0 2 0

Griffin 24 1-3 0-0 0 1 3 3 2

Field 11 3-6 1-2 4 2 1 3 8

Palmer 14 0-2 0-0 2 1 2 1 0

Medlock 19 5-10 3-6 6 4 2 1 13

Team 3

Totals 200 29-73 18-29 50 19 18 19 79

Halftime: BU 39, CF 27. Three-point FGs: BU 3-11 (Allison 1-2, Morrow 0-1, Jones 0-2, Player 1-2, Griffin 0-1, Field 1-1, Palmer 0-2); CF 3-9 (Wiley 0-2, Caldwell 1-1, Mealing 1-4, Kelly 0-1, White 1-1). Blocks: BU 1 (Wilson); CF 1 (Cannon). Steals: BU 7 (Wilson, Allison, Morrow 2, Griffin 2, Palmer); CF 9 (Daniels 3, Cannon 4, Patrick, Caldwell). Officials: Barb Smith, Kyle Bacon, Rahelle Jones. Technical fouls: none. Att.: 534.