Sunday, March 01, 2009
By Brice Cherry
Tribune-Herald staff writer
AUSTIN — For at least one day, the Texas Longhorns should have altered their fight song to “Baylor Fight.” Because, boy, did the Lady Bears ever give Texas a tussle.
The only problem is, the fight didn’t come without a few scars.
Showing equal parts guts and gumption, sixth-ranked Baylor outfought the No. 16 Longhorns, 66-57, before a crowd of 8,159 at the Frank Erwin Center on Saturday. Yet the Lady Bears still suffered a costly loss, as their best player, junior center Danielle Wilson, injured her left knee on a drive to the basket late in the first half.
The scene seemed like a recurring nightmare to Baylor coach Kim Mulkey and the Lady Bears, who lost starting guard Jhasmin Player to a tear of the anterior cruciate ligament in her left knee in February of last season.
Asked to describe her emotions following the game, Mulkey sat silently for several seconds before speaking, her eyes moist.
“I am emotional,” she said. “Two years in a row now, we’ve lost a key cog of our team to knee injuries. I haven’t seen the replay, I don’t know if she got undercut, I don’t know what happened. It doesn’t matter. For that bunch to go out there and win today, under those circumstances, that’s just a gutsy, gutsy, tough performance today.”
Wilson, Baylor’s leading scorer (15.4 ppg), rebounder (9.7 rpg) and shot-blocker (3.2 bpg), must await further medical evaluation for a final diagnosis on her knee, but Mulkey said the initial assessment from BU’s training staff was that the injury appeared to be to the ACL.
“You know how it is with ACLs,” Mulkey said. “You think what you think, and then you’ve got to get all those tests done. But I’ve been around long enough to know, if a kid’s not hurt, they’ll usually get up.”
Wilson didn’t rise from the floor after landing awkwardly following a drive to the basket with 2:30 remaining in the first half. Wilson appeared to absorb a hefty bump from a Texas defender on the play, but no foul was whistled.
Instead, the Longhorns retrieved the ball and raced to their offensive end, where Kristen Nash scored inside and drew a foul to stop play.
Wilson writhed in agony under BU’s basket for several minutes as Baylor’s trainers attended to her. On the other side of the court, four Lady Bears huddled around Player, who kept her back to Wilson, unable to watch for fear of reliving her own injury, which came in a road game against Kansas State on Feb. 2, 2008.
“In all honesty, Danielle Wilson will be fine, but we’re not stupid,” Player said. “We know the yell, we know the scream. My one-year mark of surgery was yesterday. My teammates did a good job of keeping me focused. Jessica Morrow did a great job of staying in my head and saying, ‘We’re not losing this game today.’ ”
The loss of Wilson was enough for the Lady Bears (23-4, 11-3). They refused to let the game slip away, too.
Following Nash’s three-point play, Texas cut BU’s lead — which had been as high as 16 points — to six at 31-25. But Morrow quickly drilled a baseline jumper on the other end, sparking the seemingly enraged Baylor team to a 7-0 run to close the half.
Without Wilson manning the paint, Texas forward Ashley Lindsey was able to occasionally exploit Baylor’s interior defense in the second half. Lindsey scored 12 of her 16 points and hauled in 11 of her 16 boards after halftime.
Texas (20-8, 8-6) siphoned BU’s lead to 53-50 on an Ashleigh Fontenette trey with 4:53 to play. But again Morrow delivered, penetrating the lane for a one-handed scoop shot on the ensuing possession. Morrow closed out the game with a ruthless fervor, scoring nine of her 13 points in the final 4:46.
“She did (hit some big shots),” Mulkey said. “Morrow hadn’t been in the game, she’d been in foul trouble. She just wants the ball. Jhas wanted the ball. That’s just seniors, look, this is their last time coming to Austin, and they personally didn’t like the headline in the (Daily Texan, the Texas student newspaper) where we’ve lost three in a row (to Texas). So now they want the headline to be, ‘Well, we just beat you on your home floor without our 6-4 post player who’s having an all-conference year.’ That kind of stuff motivates people.”
Baylor’s guards loomed large in the absence of Wilson. In addition to Morrow’s clutch shooting, Player scored a game-high 21 points and plucked 10 rebounds, while Kelli Griffin scored 12 points and Melissa Jones came off the bench to supply seven points and a career-high 15 rebounds.
Texas coach Gail Goestenkors said she planned to show her players video of the scrappy board work of the 5-foot-10 Jones, in hopes of inspiring that same kind of effort.
While appreciative of the compliment, Jones shrugged it off.
“It’s really not my doing,” Jones said. “It’s our bigs taking out their bigs, making it fair game for the guards. It just kind of works out.”
Jones said she was partially inspired by Wilson, who hobbled out on crutches for the second half and cheered her team from the bench.
“Out of anyone, Danielle is the most positive, most encouraging player,” Jones said. “It was just really nice to see her out there encouraging us.”
Wilson finished with seven points and six rebounds in her 15 minutes of first-half action.
In the final moments of the game, with the score out of reach for Texas, a sizable contingent of Lady Bear fans saluted the team with cheers and chants of “Let’s go, Baylor!”
The bad news for Baylor is it appears to the team will have to go forward without its emerging star.
For the Lady Bears, such a prospect would be like entering a fight with one arm tied behind their backs. But if the Texas game is any indication, one can expect Baylor to keep punching.
“I think it’s just a testament to our program,” Mulkey said. “I think if anybody describes the Baylor program to you, some of the words they’ll use is, ‘Fighters, intensity, defense, aggressiveness.’ They were presented with a challenge, an unexpected challenge. . . . They responded like champions.”
bcherry@wacotrib.com
757-5714
Comments
By James Taylor
Mar 2, 2009 2:18 PM | Link to this
Coach writing headlines too now? ýThatýs just seniors, look, this is their last time coming to Austin, and they personally didnýt like the headline in the (Daily Texan, the Texas student newspaper) where weýve lost three in a row (to Texas). So now they want the headline to be, ýWell, we just beat you on your home floor without our 6-4 post player whoýs having an all-conference year.ý That kind of stuff motivates people.ý Sure does! Class act in Waco? Maybe in NE Louisanna.
By jim
Mar 1, 2009 6:31 PM | Link to this
What a performance by the lady bears! With a key player going down and a hostile crowd, the lady bears and Coach Mulkey showed what they are made of. Skill, determination, and just plain guts. I wish the best for them the rest of the season. Go Bears!
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