Meagan Downing | Round Up Photo Editor
By Maleesa Johnson
Reporter
The Lady Bears stayed on top of the Big 12 after beating Texas Tech 89-47 last night.
Though the ultimate result was the same as when they last battled the Lady Raiders, the statistics were noticeably different.
Senior center Brittney Griner’s season-high 40 points highlighted the Bears game against Tech in January. Of the 89 points scored this game, Griner was only responsible for ten of them.
“We’ve seen it all, and a win is a win,” head coach Kim Mulkey said. “We won by more tonight than we did with Griner getting 40 because as I like to say, we shared the wealth. There’s lots of scores on that stat sheet. Probably the most impressive thing about that is you had 34 field goals on 30 assists. That’s telling you a lot of kids are sharing the ball.”
Texas Tech’s strong defense, centered against Griner, forced the team to share the ball. This time it was junior guard Odyssey Sims that scored the most with a total of 18 points. However, much like Mulkey insinuated, the points were distributed across the team, with senior forward Brooklyn Pope scoring the second most at 17 points.
Sims put the heat on Tech as she assisted senior guard Jordan Madden on a three-point jumper early in the contest.
“We were just out there having fun,” Sims said. “We came out with intensity like we did when we played them the first time and we never let up.”
After a timeout at the 11:40 mark, both teams returned to the court equally as aggressive as before. Baylor continued widen the gap with a 24-15 lead with just over nine minutes to go in the first half.
Griner gave the team many opportunities as she continually grabbed rebounds. By the end of the first half, Baylor had 21 rebounds to Tech’s 13.
Griner was aggressive with her shot defense as Tech tried and failed on multiple inside shots, despite the lack of proximity between players. Griner finished the game with seven blocks
Senior forward Destiny Williams scored after a pass from freshman guard Alexis Prince. She was fouled on the play and went on the score the free throw.
A Tech player managed to elbow Griner in the face and was given a flagrant foul. Mulkey joked about it after the game and said that Griner must have been bent over.
The first half ended with Baylor out front with a 20 point lead, 46-26.
The game continued to heat up in the second half as Baylor widened the gap.
At the 16:39 mark, Pope went on a scoring streak and took Baylor from 57 points to 63 consecutively, leaving Tech no room to score.
“I just did the same thing I do every night, I’m in the same spot,” Pope said. “And I just made the shots.”
Freshman guard Niya Johnson also put in a great performance with her accurate passes throughout the entire game.
“She has the instincts not just for passing, but the right kind of pass.” Mulkey said.
Prince stole the show as she had several fast paced break aways.
With 8:55 left in the game, Texas Tech had scored just 45 points. Baylor kept them there until the last minute of the game. They concluded the game with 47 points, 42 points shy of Baylor’s 89.
The Lady Bears will next play at 1 p.m. Saturday against TCU.
