By Krista Pirtle
Sports writer
Sophomore Shanay Washington was on the hardwood for the No. 1 Lady Bears: in a uniform and during play as Baylor went on to defeat No. 22 Kansas State 76-41.
Washington has not played since tearing her ACL in December last season. She finished with six points.
“After her and-one I grabbed the top of her head like I always did and was like, ‘Ah! You’re back!” Griner said.
The starting five for Baylor took a few minutes to get rolling, finding themselves down by a couple at the first media timeout.
After that, the Lady Bears went on an 10-0 run and never looked back.
“I liked everything I saw tonight,” Baylor head coach Kim Mulkey said.
Every Baylor player scored, led by junior Brittney Griner with 22, followed by Nae Nae Hayden with 11.
“I’m a driver,” Hayden said. “It was wide open tonight.”
Despite the score and the depth of the team, Baylor only shot 44 percent from the floor,
“You don’t notice the poor shooting because of our defense and rebounds,” Mulkey said.
At the eight minute mark, Mulkey cleared the bench, which contributed a total of 26 points on the evening.
“They didn’t give up the lead,” Mulkey said. “And that is hard to do when the other team has their starters in. When I put them in we were up 35, and we ended the game up 35. They want to do good.”
Earlier Saturday afternoon, the Baylor men’s team fell to Missouri in front of a sell-out crowd.
That crowd seemed to have stuck around as the Lady Bears played in front of a packed house of 9,380.
“I was a little unsure about the kind of crowd we would have with the double header and the big gap between games,” Mulkey said.
The crowd won’t be cheering for Mulkey and company at their next game, which is at 7 p.m. Thurs. in Norman, Okla. against the Sooners.
