By Michael Haag | Sports Editor, Claire-Marie Scott | LTVN Sports Reporter
The Bears just want to share the sugar.
Four athletes notched double figures, and No. 19 Baylor women’s basketball dismantled Southern 85-53 Monday night in the Ferrell Center. The Bears have now won 14-straight season openers, and senior guard Sarah Andrews and senior forward Madison Bartley said that point distribution shows what this team is capable of.
“I feel like anyone can step out and give us double digits to help us get the lead in games,” Bartley, who finished with 12 points on 5 of 6 shooting, said.
The Bears (1-0) have opened their season at home for the 14th-straight year, and they’ve now won 19-straight home openers, dating back to the 2005-06 season. Baylor led by eight points at the half and outscored the Jaguars (0-1) 48-24 to take the 32-point victory. The Bears have eclipsed 80 points as a team in eight of the last 10 season lid-lifters.
Head coach Nicki Collen said there were a lot of adjustments that fueled the strong second half. Collen said her squad kept getting beat on the same play or struggling to force Southern to do something different.
The Jaguars’ leading scorer, junior guard Soniyah Reed, scored 14 of her 17 points in the first half, connecting on 4 of 5 shots from distance.
“I think every team in the nonconference prepares you a little bit differently,” Collen said. “This was a team that really picked on matchups, and I think we have to adjust better. There’s no question.”
Andrews made history on Monday, securing 1,000 career points thanks to a 14-point outing and a 3-pointer early in the fourth quarter. Andrews became the 40th player in program history to accomplish the feat, and she now stands alone as fourth all-time with 167 made 3-pointers.
The Irving native said she had no clue she was close to hitting the mark at any point in Monday’s game. Andrews has been a starter the last two years after playing minimal minutes her freshman season, a year in which Baylor went to the Elite Eight.
“I literally found out once I got subbed out afterward,” Andrews said. “I was like, ‘Dang.’ I’m like, ‘It came kind of quick, playing in the last two years.’”
Andrews also dished out a team-leading seven assists, which tied the number of assists the Jaguars had as a team.
Despite Bartley and Andrews’ 26 combined points, the Bears’ leading scorer was graduate student forward Dre’Una Edwards, who poured in 20 points — with 18 of those coming in the first and third quarters alone.
Monday marked Edwards’ first outing with Baylor, as eligibility issues forced her to sit out for all of the 2022-23 season. Edwards went 9 for 10 from the floor and snagged four rebounds and two steals in 19 minutes of action. She’s now up to 16 career outings with 20-plus points.
Junior guard Jada Walker was the last Bear with double digits, posting 15 points on 3 of 5 shots from beyond the arc. Walker also totaled four assists, four rebounds and three steals.
Edwards poured in 10 of her 20 points in the first quarter, lifting the Bears to a 21-14 lead through 10 minutes of play. Reed hit her third and fourth 3-pointers of the game in the second quarter to make it a 37-29 ballgame entering the half.
After cooling off in the second quarter, Edwards came out of the tunnel on fire, connecting on all four of her field goals to secure eight third-quarter points and lead Baylor to a 61-43 advantage by the quarter’s end.
Bartley carried the load in the fourth, scoring nine points on 4 of 5 from the floor — including a shot from 3-point land — which allowed the Bears to cruise to the 32-point win. Baylor outscored Southern 44-18 in the paint and converted 14 Jaguars turnovers into 24 points.
The Bears shot 52.5% from the field as a team and are now 260-2 all-time when shooting 50% or better from the floor.
Collen said the improved play in the second half came via smarter defense on Reed and the offense’s ability to get paint-touch-3s, which happens when the ball handler makes her way inside and then kicks it back out to the perimeter for an open shot behind the arc. Baylor held Reed to three points in the final 20 minutes of the game.
The Bears have over a week before they play their next game, another contest at home, except this time it comes against No. 5 Utah for an AP-ranked matchup. Baylor is 10-12 against ranked foes under Collen and 2-3 against top-5 opponents. The Bears’ last top-10 win came at No. 8 Iowa State on Feb. 28, 2022.
