Jordan Smith | Sports Writer
The Baylor Lady Bears basketball team took care of business Tuesday night their exhibition game against the Emporia State Lady Hornets, 89-60.
Although making careless mistakes, the Lady Bears took a slight lead going into the half, 43-35. Baylor lead the first half with 21 rebounds as opposed to the Lady Hornets’ 12 in the game till that point. Baylor also shot a field goal percentage of 63.3 percent, as they made 21 shots on 33 attempts.
Freshman forward Lauren Cox was really glad to finally play her first game as a Lady Bear.
“It felt really good. We’ve been banging around with each other in practice, and it felt good just to get to play another team and the atmosphere was great,” Cox said. “I’ve never played in front of that many people before. So that was really fun.”
Coming back from the half Baylor struggled to get things going. Emporia State closed in to make the score, 43-40, the closest Emporia State had gotten since its lead in the first quarter.
Sophomore point guard Beatrice Mompremier said she was excited to see the coast to coast play work, especially since it is one of their specialties.
“We work on that every time we are in practice. It just came easy and naturally, just going into the post,” Mompremier said.
In the fourth quarter, the Lady Bears regrouped as they found a groove to pull away like they did in the first half. The Lady bears ended up taking a few more risks and started to shoot the ball from three point territory, as they went six for seven in the second half as opposed to one for three in the first half.
In the end the Lady Bears took a commanding lead in the fourth to take the win 89-60.
Baylor Lady Bear head coach Kim Mulkey adjusted to the defense that was given to them in the second half, allowing them to take more three point opportunities in order to get a bigger lead and eventually run away with it.
“They played a zone. They went to the 2-1-2 a lot. 2-3 in the second half, and it allowed the perimeter players to get some opening looks,” Mulkey said. “That’s why we shot more.”
The Lady Bears look to capitalize on their second and final exhibition game 7 p.m. Monday as they take on Langston University at the Ferrell Center.
