Tuesday, December 09, 2008
By Brice Cherry
Tribune-Herald staff writer
The name of the game is basketball.
That’s singular — one basket — and for a while it looked like Baylor might limit Lamar to just that.
Clamping down with a stingy, ball-hawking defensive effort, the 10th-ranked Lady Bears held Lamar to a single bucket for more than 12 minutes on their way to a comfortable 83-36 win before a crowd of 5,536 at the Ferrell Center Monday night.
The Lady Bears (8-1) put up a force field around the goal for much of the first half. Lamar’s Trashanna Smith scored her team’s first points on a step-back jumper at the 16:21 mark, and then the Lady Cardinals didn’t rustle the net again until Nikki Williams buried a 3-pointer with 7:53 remaining — a span of 9:28 without any scoring.
“Our defense is much farther along than our offense,” said Baylor coach Kim Mulkey, whose team opened up a 24-2 lead in that span. “That might sound a little strange when you have six returning players and four starters (back), but you’ve got to remember at the end of the year you didn’t have Jhasmin (Player) and Kelli (Griffin) was trying to blend in. ... Our offense scores lots of points quickly, and then our offense can struggle to score points for long periods of time. I just tend to think that’s going to get better and better.”
Not that there weren’t flashes of brilliance on the scoring side of the court for Baylor. Junior post Danielle Wilson bullied Lamar’s frontcourt players for the first six points of the game, finishing with 19 points on 7-of-9 shooting in just 22 minutes to go along with 10 rebounds and five blocked shots.
Jessica Morrow also generated some applause on the offensive end, as her 3-point bomb from the corner four minutes into the game vaulted her into Baylor’s 1,000-point club. Morrow finished with nine points, giving her 1,006 for her career.
“ For Jessica Morrow, to get a 1,000 points in her career, it’s something she will always remember,” Mulkey said. “It’s something that I will always appreciate, because every one of those points she scored helped us win basketball games. You’re always happy for players who have individual statistics, but do it within the team concept.”
For Lamar coach Larry Tidwell, Monday’s outing was a homecoming game, as Tidwell coached at Baylor as an assistant under Pam Bowers and Sonja Hogg for six seasons. But he certainly wanted to put forth a better showing, as the Lady Cardinals hit just four of 28 shots in the first half (14.3 percent) in falling behind 34-10.
“Did we come in her expecting to win? No,” Tidwell said. “I know where I’m at in the food chain. But I thought we would fight harder, and so I am disappointed in mine.”
Baylor didn’t set the nets afire in the first half itself, shooting 39.4 percent. But the Lady Bears got their offense off and running in the second half, getting out in the open court and scoring in transition.
With 12 minutes to play, Baylor busted loose on a 15-0 scoring run fueled by a driving layin from Griffin, a Griffin-to-Morghan Medlock fast break hoop and another nice dish from Terran Condrey to Melissa Jones, who dropped in a basket while being fouled.
Griffin matched her career-high in assists for the second straight game with seven, plus made Mulkey smile by committing only two turnovers.
“Kelli is the typical point guard in that her job is to make everybody around her look better,” Mulkey said. “I’m going to get you the ball when all you’ve got to do is catch and finish. I’m going to reward you for running the floor. And her shot is second. ... She flicks the wrist as well as anybody.”
Griffin said those fast-break moments are right in line with the pace she wants to travel.
“I feel like I’m a better point guard in a fast-break type of game,” she said. “Half-court, I’m all right, but (on the) fast break I can deliver the ball better.”
Medlock contributed a solid effort off the bench, scoring 14 points to reach double figures for the third time this season, while also pulling down nine rebounds.
Another hero off the bench was an unlikely reserve to begin with. Jones, last year’s super sub, came off the pine for the first time this season and didn’t miss a beat, scoring 10 points, grabbing 10 rebounds, snaring four steals and blocking two shots.
Mulkey, who used Morrow off the bench for the first time this year in Saturday’s win over St. John’s, said the starting lineup will likely continue to fluctuate.
“I’ll probably do that all year. I could probably flip a coin,” she said. “It will depend on who’s doing well in practice, who we’ve played, who brings what to the table. It doesn’t matter. ... All they want to do is win.”
One player who likely will continue to start — senior forward Rachel Allison — had a rough night shooting the ball against Lamar. Several of Allison’s inside drives spun in and out of the basket, and she finished 2 of 11 for a season-low seven points. Allison did snag seven rebounds.
Ang Green was Lamar’s only player to crack double figures, coming off the bench to tally 11. Lamar’s normal top three leading scorers — Nikki Williams, Brittney Williams and Darika Hill — combined for just 15 points, 23 below their combined average.
Baylor will take two days off from practice this week as its players take their final exams, then return to the court Saturday at home against Samford.
bcherry@wacotrib.com
757-5714
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