By Ben Everett | Sports Writer
The No. 4-ranked Baylor Lady Bears basketball team defeated No. 19 Oklahoma 103-64 to finish the regular season.
The Lady Bears (28-2, 17-1) handed the Sooners (22-8, 13-5) their first home loss of the season.
Baylor senior guard Alexis Prince scored 24 points in the win while knocking down five 3-pointers.
On senior day, Oklahoma head coach Sherri Cole went with five seniors in the starting lineup. The Lady Bears took advantage, scoring the first seven points of the game.
Sooners junior center Vionise Pierre-Louis got Oklahoma on the board with a post up, but Baylor responded with another 7-0 run including junior guard Kristy Wallace‘s second three of the game to go up 14-2.
Oklahoma freshman center Nancy Mulkey provided strong defense for the Sooners in the first quarter, recording two blocks to help slow down the Lady Bears.
Baylor sophomore center Kalani Brown finished in the lane over Mulkey to end the first quarter as the Lady Bears led 18-4.
The Sooners found momentum in the second quarter when Baylor sophomore center Beatrice Mompremier was called for a flagrant foul after elbowing Pierre-Louis. Mompremier made up for it quickly by beating Pierre-Louis on the baseline for a layup to put Baylor up 24-9.
The two teams went back and forth knocking down threes, with Prince draining one and Wallace notching her third of the game as the Lady Bears held a 32-17 advantage with three minutes left in the half.
Prince converted on an and-one, and freshman guard Natalie Chou knocked down a 3-pointer to end the half as the Lady Bears extended their lead to 44-22.
To start the second half, Brown went off for the Lady Bears. She scored nine straight points without missing to put Baylor up 58-27.
Oklahoma senior guard Gioya Carter sparked a 9-0 run for the Sooners with an and-one followed by two threes from senior forward Shaya Kellogg, draining two from beyond the arc to cut the lead to 66-42 with two minutes remaining in the third quarter.
With 45 seconds left in the third quarter, Prince knocked down a mid-range jumper to give her 19 points in the game and 1,000 points for her career.
Wallace drained a pull-up jumper at the buzzer to give the Lady Bears a 72-47 advantage going into the final quarter.
Prince continued her hot shooting in the fourth quarter, knocking down a mid-range jumper and her fifth three of the game before heading to the bench with the Lady Bears up comfortably 79-47 with seven minutes left in the game.
The Baylor starters came out of the game with five minutes to go, and the reserves finished the game as the Lady Bears scored their most points in a Big 12 game this season.
Carter and senior guard Maddie Manning led the Sooners with 11 points each.
Baylor will be the No. 1 seed in the Big 12 tournament and will face the winner of Texas Tech and TCU at 1:30 p.m. Saturday in Oklahoma City.
