Women's Basketball | 12/1/2016 8:53:00 PM
Box Score WACO, Texas - Should Abilene Christian ever qualify for the NCAA Championships, odds are the Wildcats will be facing a first-round opponent akin to this year's edition of the Baylor Lady Bears, which continued their dominance of the sport following a 79-34 win Thursday evening at the Farrell Center.
The victory has fourth-ranked Baylor off to an 8-1 start, while the Wildcats slipped to 3-4 after going 0-3 on their recently completed road trip that started last Saturday at No. 25 Texas A&M.
Three of those Baylor wins were against the Southland Conference as earlier this season they crushed Houston Baptist (118-43) and Southeastern Louisiana (109-38).
Not only were the Lady Bears the most talented team ever to take the court vs. ACU, but they also were certainly the biggest as the starting five's average height was 6-foot, while their bench came equipped with 6-foot-7 post Kalani Brown (15 points, 11 rebounds, two blocks) and pair of 6-4 forwards: Lauren Cox (7 points, 4 rebounds) and Beatrice Mompremier (three blocks).
This sizable advantage, combined with persistent speed and athleticism, allowed Baylor to register the first above 50 percent shooting performance (30-55, .545) by an opponent since Grand Canyon (Dec. 12, 2015) and create 20 turnovers that led to 24 points. And even when ACU did create an open lane to the basket, the iron proved to be unkind more often than not as the Wildcats finished with a 22.2 shooting percentage (12-54).
"Our players came in and executed our game strategy well, but we simply didn't have an answer for Baylor's size ... we gave our best effort," said head coach
Julie Goodenough. "Playing here is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, which we greatly appreciate and we all have respect for (head coach) Kim (Mulkey) and her program. The players and their staff are the best in the country."
"This is a Final Four kind of team," said added. "They have so many weapons inside and out, and when they meet Connecticut again, I think it's going to be a different story."
Baylor led this contest wire-to-wire and began to pull away in the second quarter, where they outscored the Wildcats, 19-10, after finishing the first quarter ahead 19-12. All-America Nina Davis was a perfect 5-for-5 in the first half and led the Lady Bears in scoring tonight with 18 points and Brown was their top rebounder with 11.
ACU started the second half with five defensive stops in the first 2:30 but couldn't gain much ground on the scoreboard with the Wildcats missing all but two of their first six field-goal attempts. Baylor then broke out of its short-lived scoring drought with a 3-point play from Brown that made it a 41-25 game, and two possessions later Davis ripped a defensive rebound away from
Sierra Allen for an easy put back.
Baylor went ahead by 21 points, 48-27, coming out of the media timeout with its first 3-pointer of the game by Alexis Prince with 4:23 in the third quarter, but freshman
Dominique Golightly answered immediately with a trey of her own. Unfortunately, that would be ACU's last field goal of the quarter as the Lady Bears finished on a 8-0 run to take a 58-30 lead.
Baylor continued to impress the home crowd of 5,415 well into the fourth quarter, starting on a 13-2 run that included 12 points in the paint within a five-minute span.
The Wildcats tonight were led offensively by
Sydney Shelstead with nine points and seven rebounds. Three other starters were credited with two steals, while four had two assists.
Sophomore
Sara Williamson added two blocks.
ACU finishes its hectic schedule of four games in seven days Saturday at 2 p.m. vs. Missouri-Kansas City, which was thumped by the Wildcats, 80-55, during their first meeting in November of 2014.
The Wildcats are then off for finals until their Dec. 10 game vs. Harding (2 p.m.), and enter Christmas Break with a two-day tournament at Wichita State (Dec. 16-17), where they'll face the host Shockers and Murray State.
