By Matthew Soderberg | Sports Writer
No. 7 Baylor women’s basketball obliterated Arkansas State 111-43 Wednesday behind a record performance from senior guard Juicy Landrum.
Landrum led the Lady Bears in scoring with 42 points after an NCAA, Big 12 and school record 14 made three-pointers
The senior guard had five threes by halftime, and it was clear something special was cooking. The Baylor record had been nine, so she was on her way to at least getting close, but then shot 9-17 from behind the arc in the final two quarters to shatter all the records. Landrum said postgame that the coaches have been pushing her to take shots.
“Coach has pretty much been getting on me about shooting the ball,” Landrum said. “I’ve just got to take chances and shoot even if I’m missing. I kind of get down on myself, but she’s motivating me to keep shooting the ball.”
Landrum led the scoring matchup for most of the game and also supplied eight rebounds and seven assists. Head coach Kim Mulkey said she encouraged the team to help Landrum hit that record.
“At halftime, she had five and we were just casually talking … in the coaches’ locker room and they said Juicy can break the record today,” Mulkey said. “I went in at halftime and told [the players] if you get a chance, let Juicy break the record. Well, I was talking about the Baylor record.”
Her 42-point effort was the 16th 40-point game from an individual in Baylor history, but she wasn’t the only impressive Bear on the court. Sophomore center Queen Egbo notched a double-double off the bench with 13 points and 10 rebounds alongside four blocks, while sophomore forward NaLyssa Smith shot 6-6 from the field for 15 points and seven rebounds.
Junior guard DiDi Richards started at the four and scored eight points along with seven assists, and graduate transfer guard Te’a Cooper put up eight points and 10 assists to add to the offense. Graduate transfer center Erin DeGrate also scored 11 off the bench. Mulkey said the team as a whole had an extra pep behind them Wednesday.
“It was fun to coach them today because we’ve been off from games for what, two weeks or so, and you don’t really know sometimes how they’re going to react,” Mulkey said. “I just thought we were really, really into it and very enthusiastic in the way we played. I told them at halftime, you play like this, I don’t care what the opponent is. They just had a little extra pep in their step.”
The Lady Bears get almost two weeks off for the holidays before their next game at 7 p.m. Dec. 30 in the Ferrell Center.
