Sunday, February 15, 2009
By Brice Cherry
Tribune-Herald staff writer
In honor of the fight against breast cancer, the Baylor women’s basketball team busted out some new threads Saturday.
They weren’t just pink — they were hot pink.
The basket held nothing but love for the fuchsia-attired Lady Bears on Valentine’s Day, as Baylor shot a sizzling, season-best 58.8 percent from the floor in a 72-43 rout of Missouri before a crowd of 6,334 Saturday afternoon at the Ferrell Center.
Much of the second half resembled a layup drill for the Lady Bears, who made 13 of their first 16 shots after the halftime break. Baylor coach Kim Mulkey said that fast-break game was a byproduct of the team getting back to “typical Baylor defense” — pressuring the ballhandler, poking away steals and rejecting shots.
“We finally got going there, and when those things happened, you saw some layups, you saw some assists, you saw some excitement,” Mulkey said. “It’s fun. It’s fun when you can do those things.”
Missouri (11-12 overall, 2-8 in conference) presented little opposition in the paint to Baylor junior Danielle Wilson, who had a field day from the tip. Attacking the basket like a middle linebacker zeroing in on an opposing ball carrier, Wilson dropped in 11 of 13 shots to match her career high in scoring with 26 points. She also corralled 13 rebounds and turned back four shots.
Wilson had several opportunites to set a new scoring milestone, but couldn’t convert. Baylor officials at the scorer’s table alerted Mulkey that Wilson was a bucket away with roughly nine minutes to go, and the Lady Bears proceeded to pound the ball inside to their post on four straight possessions. But Wilson missed a well-guarded shot down low, then followed with five straight misses from the foul line before sinking her last freebie for her 26th point.
“They knew I was getting ready to take Danielle out, and they came to me and said, ‘She’s two points away from breaking her (career high),’” Mulkey said. “And I tried, D. But after three or four trips, I said, ‘You know what? I can’t take a chance anymore. If she gets hurt, I’m going to kick myself.’”
Wilson’s foul-line struggles — she hit 4 of 14 from the stripe — proved to be a microcosm of the team’s most pressing problem area. For the third straight game, Baylor set a new season low in free-throw percentage, making just 10 of 27 tries for 37 percent.
Mulkey said she hasn’t harped on the foul shooting issue to the team, but in the wake of such a convincing, feel-good win, she opted to address it in her postgame, locker-room address.
“Sometimes it’s best not to say anything,” she said. “Today it was time. I went in there and I talked to them about all the things that were said about the Memphis men last year when they were making their playoff run — ‘Free throws are going to cost them at some point.’ I made sure I brought it up now so they’ll remember and say, ‘I’ve got to get in the gym, it’s all above my shoulders, I’ve got to make my free throws.’ Because at some point, if you shoot like this in a close game, you’re not going to win.”
The Lady Bears (21-3, 9-2) didn’t have to worry about a nailbiter on the scoreboard Saturday. Baylor built a 32-21 lead at halftime, and then widened that gap to 19 in the first four minutes of the second half with some explosive offensive play.
Jhasmin Player, who scored 14 points, darted past a defender on the baseline and scored, then drilled a pull-up jumper on the next trip down. But the senior produced her most highlight-deserving play moments later when she got loose in the open court, drawing a pair of Missouri defenders with a sprint to the right side of the lane before whipping a blind bounce pass to Wilson for an open layup.
“I don’t know how I saw D, honestly,” Player said. “But I’m glad she caught it because we’re not supposed to throw bounce passes to D. My sub was on its way.”
Missouri fought back to within 43-31 with 14:26 left when Jessra Johnson banked in a short jumper while drawing a foul. But Baylor stole the momentum away with a 21-4 run over the next five minutes, capped off by a crowd-pleasing play in which Melissa Jones scrambled for a loose ball on the sideline, saving it from going out of bounds with a punch pass up ahead to a streaking Jessica Morrow for the easy deuce.
Jones, who played sparingly against Oklahoma State on Wednesday due to a stomach virus, dished out six assists in 13 minutes against Mizzou.
Missouri coach Cindy Stein delivered the ultimate compliment to her opponent following the resounding defeat.
“This could be the best team Kim’s had,” Stein said. “I know she’s had a national championship team, but she is pretty deep inside and she’s deep at the point guard. She’s got five kids on the floor that can score, and those same five kids can play terrific defense. I think when you have that, you have a lot of things going for you . . . They’re probably one of the best defensive teams in the country.”
Mulkey was especially pleased that everyone was able to get in on the act. She played all of her available players by halftime, and utilized an all-reserve unit for the final three-plus minutes of the game.
For the Tigers, who shot 31.6 percent, Johnson was the only player to hit double figures with 10 points. Alyssa Hollins, Mizzou’s leading scorer on the year at 13.3 points per game, was limited to five points on 2-of-14 shooting while defended by BU’s Morrow.
With no Wednesday game on next week’s schedule, Baylor will have a full week to prepare for its second-round showdown at conference-leading Oklahoma Feb. 21.
Bear Facts
Wilson’s double-double was her fifth straight and 14th overall. . . . Melissa Lawson, winner of USA Network’s “Nashville Star” competition, sang the national anthem and performed at halftime. . . . Former Lady Bear Babette Metcalf Eikenberg, who scored 1,314 points from 1975-78, was honored as a Baylor basketball legend during a timeout in the first half.
bcherry@wacotrib.com
757-5714
Comments
By mikeg
Feb 16, 2009 3:51 AM | Link to this
bill....i'm sure the uniforms didnt cost more than a couple thousand so with that being said, millions upon millions are raised every year for breast cancer research & are we any closer to finding a cure, its like a bottomless money pit with no end results in sight anytime soon
By Bill
Feb 15, 2009 1:03 PM | Link to this
Okay.....let's think about this for a second. The Baylor Women's Basketball team wore new pink uniforms last night. The purpose.....to make others aware of breast cancer. How about this...1. Take the money it cost for the uniforms and donate it to be used for breast cancer research? 2. Baylor men's team should have a Men's prostate cancer awareness day also.
3.Maybe Nike or some other company donated the uniforms. Easy enough. Have that company donate the cost to breast cancer research.
Don't get me wrong, I believe all the pink was for a great cause and it does help awareness, but that money could have been used for a much better purpose.
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