Matt Hellman | Lariat Photo Editor
By Krista Pirtle
Sports Writer
It was a tarnished win but a win nonetheless as the Baylor Lady Bears’ basketball team dominated Texas Southern 91-39.
Baylor could have easily put up 100 against this Texas Southern team, but the Lady Bears did not score as easily and as often as one might expect against the less athletic Tigers.
“This game was an opportunity to get back on the floor,” Baylor head coach Kim Mulkey said. “We didn’t look at the opponent or the scoreboard. We worked on the full court presses. This was just an opportunity to come home after a big victory on the road and just play.”
On the evening the Lady Bears put up 50 points from the paint, and 10 of those points were made in transition.
“We run the floor harder this year than we did in the past,” junior Brooklyn Pope said.
Baylor had 18 turnovers with six of them as steals forced by Texas Southern.
“I didn’t think it was sloppy,” Mulkey said. “I thought Odyssey [Sims] came to play. You hope it spreads to all of them. I think it was a midweek game, and there was just a lot going on.”
After shooting 91 percent from the charity stripe Sunday against Tennessee, the freebies were hard to come by for Baylor as it shot 65.5 percent on the evening.
Junior Brittney Griner got out to yet another slow start but finished strong, recording a double double with 23 points and 14 rebounds. Sophomore Odyssey Sims followed with 19 points and nine assists.
This game was the prime setting for the bench to get an adequate amount of playing time as the five combined to score 32 led by sophomore Kimetria Hayden and freshman Sune Agbuke with seven each.
Agbuke led the Lady Bears in blocks with five while Griner and sophomore Jordan Madden each contributed two.
The Lady Bears picked the pockets of Texas Southern 18 times, led by Sims with eight.
Off those turnovers, Baylor scored 43 points.
Sims’ numbers had her just shy of a triple double.
Mulkey said she would have left her in for a couple more minutes if she would have known how close Sims was, but Sims didn’t care.
“It’s about my team,” Sims said. “Let them get their minutes.”
Baylor will hit the road to take on Minnesota at 1 p.m. Sunday.
