By Ben Everett | Sports Writer
Baylor women’s basketball looks to make it 17 straight wins as they take on West Virginia at 1 p.m. Saturday at the Ferrell Center.
The Lady Bears (18-1, 7-0) are in first place in the Big 12 Conference while the Mountaineers (15-4, 3-4) sit at sixth.
Baylor won the first game 91-56 on Jan. 4 in Morgantown, W. Va., handing the Mountaineers their first home loss of the season.
West Virginia is 15-1 this season in games where they have out-rebound their opponents. Baylor won the rebounding battle 38-23 in the January win.
Despite the blowout win in the first meeting, Baylor head coach Kim Mulkey stressed how dangerous the Mountaineers can be.
“All the years that we’ve been playing [head coach Mike Carey] and West Virginia, you pretty much know what you’re going to get,” Mulkey said. “You’re going to get a team that plays man-to-man defense, that’s long on the perimeter, that’s physical and actually matches up with our personnel well.”
West Virginia had lost three of their last four games before a road win on Wednesday at Kansas.
West Virginia is led by the trio of sophomore guard Tynice Martin, junior forward Teana Muldrow and senior center Lanay Montgomery.
Martin leads the Mountaineers in scoring at 17.8 points per game while shooting 42 percent from the field and 35 percent from three-point range.
The Lady Bears held Martin to just 11 points on 2-for-14 shooting in the previous meeting, but Baylor junior forward Dekeiya Cohen remembers Martin well.
“They definitely have good guards,” Cohen said. “They have long players who are athletic. Martin is a good player, good at coming off screens and hitting that mid-range jump shot.”
Muldrow had a solid game against the Lady Bears last time they met, scoring a team-high 16 points while shooting 2-for-3 from distance and grabbing seven rebounds.
On Wednesday against Kansas, Montgomery registered her eighth double-double of the season with 15 points and 13 rebounds.
Additionally, Mountaineers junior guard Chania Ray leads the Big 12 in assists with 6.2 per game.
Meanwhile, the Lady Bears are led by the trio of senior guard Alexis Jones, senior forward Nina Davis and sophomore post Kalani Brown.
Jones leads Baylor in scoring at 14.6 points per game while shooting 44 percent from three-point range. She dropped a game-high 21 points in the previous meeting against the Mountaineers.
Davis, a mainstay in the Lady Bears’ starting lineup for three years, is third on the team, scoring on average of 11.9 points per game.
Brown is having a breakout sophomore season, putting up 13.9 points per game while pulling down a team-high 8.5 rebounds each contest. In the first meeting between these teams, Brown posted a double-double of 16 points and 11 rebounds while shooting an efficient 6-for-8 from the field.
The matchup between Baylor and West Virginia will take place at 1 p.m. Saturday at the Ferrell Center.
