By Brice Cherry

Tribune-Herald staff writer

COLLEGE STATION — Danielle Wilson managed to accomplish the near-impossible. She silenced 5,000 screaming Aggies.

Wilson caught a perfect inbounds pass and banked in a layup while drawing a foul with 4.8 seconds left to push No. 5 Baylor to a captivating 64-61 win over No. 9 Texas A&M before a raucous crowd of 5,234 here at Reed Arena Wednesday night.

It required a pretty gritty effort, but Baylor managed to remain perfect in Big 12 play, improving to 4-0 in the conference and 16-1 overall.

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Baylor's Morghan Medlock drives to the basket against Texas A&M's Adora Elonu on Wednesday night in College Station. Medlock scored a team-high 17 points in the Lady Bears' 64-61 win. (Rod Aydelotte photo)

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“We have to work for everything in the Big 12,” Baylor coach Kim Mulkey said. “I don’t think there’s a coach in this league that’ll tell you they don’t work every night they play. Any time you can go on the road and steal one, it’s a good feeling.”

Baylor couldn’t have scripted the final 10 seconds much better if they’d have hired a Hollywood screenwriter. With the game tied at 61 with 5.9 seconds remaining, the Lady Bears retained possession of the ball after the Aggies (14-3, 2-2) deflected a Kelli Griffin jump shot out of bounds under Baylor’s goal.

Mulkey said she debated on a couple of different inbounds plays — hinting that the other would have gone to Jessica Morrow on a cut to the goal, a play that resulted in a layup with 5:03 left — before settling on the feed to Wilson.

Griffin, the inbounder, waited for Wilson to set a pick, then hit the cutting junior center with an easy pass that led to Wilson’s game-winning layup. Wilson subsequently added the free throw to give Baylor a 64-61 lead.

“We just thought we could score on that play,” Mulkey said. “We scored on another inbounds right after they had scored on an inbounds on us and we thought about running that same one. Then we changed our mind and ran the other one.”

The Aggies had one final desperation fling to try to send the game to overtime, but Takia Starks’ deep 3-pointer at the buzzer dropped short.

Upon scoring her final bucket, the normally subdued Wilson screamed and pumped her fist in satisfaction.

“That was a big shot for me,” said Wilson, who scored 11 points and pulled down 10 rebounds for her seventh double-double in her last nine games. “It made us take the lead and eventually win the game, so that’s the biggest shot of my collegiate year.”

The game lived up to its top-10 billing from the outset. No team ever led by more than four points the entire way, and the lead changed hands 19 times.

Baylor’s Rachel Allison watched most of the game, picking up two quick fouls in the first 2:24. But her replacement, Morghan Medlock, rose to the occasion, scoring 15 first-half points to propel Baylor to a 37-34 halftime edge.

“Morghan is on a roll,” Mulkey said. “Morghan was a starter at (Southern Cal) and she comes to Baylor to help us win a championship. She accepts her role whatever that is. She just wants to play.”

Medlock was especially adept at taking A&M’s defenders off the dribble, scoring on a variety of spinners and runners on her way to a season-high 17 points. She even drilled her first 3-pointer of the season.

“Medlock just killled us at the 4 position,” Texas A&M coach Gary Blair said. “We didn’t have anybody that could guard her. She’d spin-reverse, spin-reverse us to death.”

Texas A&M’s defense had Baylor’s ballhandlers frazzled at times, especially in the first half, when the Lady Bears committed 14 of their 20 turnovers.

“We were as ugly a basketball team in that first part of the game as you can be,” Mulkey said. “You know coming in here what to expect, you know the kind of pressure, you know how physical it’s going to be, the slapping, hacking, whatever. We were in a fight for our lives, and we really had some boneheaded backcourt violations. But we corrected it.”

Baylor actually held a 61-58 lead with 1:39 to play after Melissa Jones buried two clutch free throws. But the Aggies rallied to tie the game, as Starks scored on a backdoor cut and Danielle Gant drew a foul and hit one of two free throws.

Tanisha Smith was deadly from the perimeter and led A&M with 19 points, while Starks scored 18 on 8-for-18 shooting. Blair credited the defense of BU’s Morrow with forcing Starks into some difficult shot attempts.

Morrow also chipped in 15 points and a pair of blocked shots, while Jhasmin Player scored 12, sinking both of her 3-point tries and all four of her free-throw attempts.

Baylor will look for its 11th straight win when it travels to Lubbock on Saturday to face Texas Tech.

“You can’t take a deep breath,” Mulkey said. “You can’t even smile when you wake up in the morning, because you’re in the film room looking at the next opponent.”

#3 Oklahoma 72, Colorado 58: In Boulder, Colo., Courtney Paris had 19 points and 14 rebounds, her 109th consecutive double-double, and Oklahoma pulled away in the second half against Colorado.

The score was 28-28 at half, but the Sooners (15-2, 4-0 Big 12) started the second half with a 17-0 run.

Whitney Hand added 13 points and seven rebounds and Ashley Paris had 10 points and nine rebounds for the Sooners. Danielle Robinson added 10 points for Oklahoma, which had at least four players score in double figures for the 10th straight game.

Brittany Spears led the Buffaloes (8-8, 0-4) with 21 points, including 4-of-7 from three-point range, and six rebounds. Bianca Smith added 15 points and Alyssa Fressle had 12 points.

#18 Kansas St. 60, Texas Tech 48: In Lubbock, Shalee Lehning had 16 points, 11 rebounds and nine assists to lead Kansas State over Texas Tech.

Marlies Gipson had 11 points, 10 rebounds, three steals and two blocked shots for Kansas State (16-1, 3-1 Big 12). Ashley Sweat added 16 points.

Kierra Mallard and Maria Moore led Tech (11-6, 2-2) with 13 points each.

Tech had a total of 11 steals, including four by Jordan Murphree and three by Mallard.

Kansas State led 22-20 at the half and stretched the lead to 16 points with 8:10 to go in the second half.

Kansas State shot 45 percent from the field to Texas Tech’s 32 percent.