In many ways, the Baylor women’s basketball players are no different from any other college student.

They spend countless hours poring over the necessary subject matter, studying and reviewing it until it hopefully becomes second nature. Then, just when they feel like they’ve learned the material, they’re tested on it.

The 11th-ranked Lady Bears (17-5, 4-4) face two such major exams this week, with road contests against No. 12 Oklahoma tonight and No. 20 Iowa State on Saturday.

Morghan Medlock and Baylor defeated Oklahoma earlier this season.
Rod Aydelotte/Waco Tribune-Herald

“It’s another chance to win on the road, but it’s also another chance to grow on the road and see what it’s like in the Big 12,” Baylor coach Kim Mulkey said. “To do it twice in the same week is pretty tough.”

After shooting a dismal 39 percent from the field through their first six conference games, the Lady Bears made some critical offensive strides last week, hitting 51.4 percent of their shots in convincing wins over Kansas State and Colorado. Mulkey said much of the improvement could be traced to some subtle changes the players made in their spacing on the court, which allowed star post Brittney Griner more room to operate and wider passing lanes to use when faced with multiple defenders.

“Our spacing and positioning on the floor, when Brittney Griner gets touches, is better,” Mulkey said. “We understand that when we throw it in there, she’s going to get double- and triple-teamed. We were just out of whack. She had no place to find us, and consequently she had a lot of turnovers. She’s cut down on her turnovers because we have positioned those players on where to go to present yourself.”

The Sooners (16-6, 6-3) are the first opponent Baylor will see for a second time this season. In the teams’ first meeting in Waco Jan. 13, Baylor limited Oklahoma to a meager 30.2 percent shooting performance, including a collective 5-for-30 effort from starting forwards Nyeshia Stevenson and Amanda Thompson.

Hard to cage OU point guard

The primary defensive challenge for Baylor will center around junior Danielle Robinson, a hummingbird of a point guard who flitted and floated her way to a career-high 36 points in OU’s 77-66 win at Oklahoma State on Saturday.

Robinson also made all 16 of her free throws in that game, extending her season-high streak to 35 straight.

“She’s one of the finest players in the league,” Mulkey said of Robinson. ‘I don’t think Oklahoma is as dependent on her as Oklahoma State is on Andrea Riley. ... Danielle was phenomenal in their win at Oklahoma State. She got a lot of transition baskets, drew a lot of attention herself, then dumped it off to the bigs down low.”

Baylor is again expected to be without junior guard Melissa Jones, who has missed six of the team’s eight Big 12 games with a stress reaction in her right tibia. Fortunately for the Lady Bears, they seem to be learning how to win without her.

“We have to now try to make up some ground that we lost early in conference,” Mulkey said. “Hopefully having played for a longer period of time without Melissa will give us an opportunity, more so than it did right off the bat, when we really weren’t ready for it.”

bcherry@wacotrib.com

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