By Michael Haag | Sports Editor
It may not be Fiesta season in San Antonio, but No. 10 Baylor women’s basketball found a reason to celebrate in the Alamo City.
Fueled by five athletes with double figures, the Bears thwarted No. 24 Miami 75-57 Saturday evening in the Frost Bank Center in San Antonio.
The victory marked Baylor’s (8-0) second win over an AP Top-25 opponent this season, as it built a 16-point halftime lead and only let the Hurricanes (8-1) trim their deficit to 10 in the second half.
“I just think this team has a different poise,” head coach Nicki Collen said. “They can make some mistakes and look each other in the eye and understand like, ‘Hey, we have to be better on the glass. We have to do a better job in our rotations.’”
Senior guard Sarah Andrews led the team offensively with 18 points on 4 of 7 shots from deep. Andrews also dished out a team-high six assists. But it was junior guard Jada Walker who set the tone early with nine of her 14 points in the first quarter, helping the Bears get an early edge and break Miami out of its man defense.
“I really just came out aggressive,” Walker said. “The past couple of games I’ve been kind of passive and like overthinking, and I feel like when I just go [and] push [the] tempo, it makes everyone else better.”
Sophomore forward Bella Fontleroy (13), junior guard Yaya Felder (12) and graduate student forward Dre’Una Edwards (10) were the other Baylor players with double-digit points. The Bears have had five or more players finish in double figures in four of nine contests this season.
Collen said that shows how much depth her squad has.
“We may not have a lot of [Big 12] Player of the Week honors because every game it looks like this,” Collen said. “Every game it’s multiple players getting in double figures. When we have two games in a week, we can’t even figure out who to nominate, because it takes having back-to-back games and then someone else in the league will have 35 [points] and [make] 11 threes or something like that.
“Keeping them in tune to winning being the most important thing … like it’s frustrating to defend us, ask [Miami head coach] Katie Meier.”
Meier was on the same page.
“I’m not surprised [with] how efficient they are offensively,” Meier said. “I thought we made some great adjustments at halftime and gave ourselves a chance, but I think their assist percentage is really what makes them so special. They have a ton of talent on the court, and they’re willing to make the extra pass.”
Baylor assisted on 18 of its 28 made shots (64.2%), and it entered the game second in NCAA Division I and first in the Big 12 in assists per game, averaging 24.3. The Bears also owned a league-best 1.75 assist-to-turnover ratio — the sixth-best average in the nation — going into the game.
It wasn’t until the 5:35 mark of the first quarter that Baylor created some separation. Walker had nine points in the frame and helped the Bears go on an 11-0 run to take a 25-16 lead into the second. Felder followed with six points in just three minutes late in the quarter.
Miami cut its deficit to seven points four minutes into the second quarter, but two layups by Edwards and a 3-pointer by Andrews put Baylor back on top by 16. Another shot from distance by Andrews and a layup by Fontleroy made it a 49-33 ballgame going into the half.
The Bears held the Hurricanes scoreless for the majority of the third quarter, but it was Miami that ended up outscoring Baylor 13-10 in the period. Only three Bears scored in the third as they clung to a 13-point lead.
The fourth quarter was another slugfest, but Baylor scored 16 points to Miami’s 11 to finish with the 18-point victory. Saturday marked the Bears’ seventh 16-plus point win of the season.
Sophomore forward Darianna Littlepage-Buggs, who finished with a season-high 13 rebounds, said this team’s offensive firepower allows her to step into whatever role the team needs from her in order to continue getting wins.
“Just because I’m maybe not scoring or whatever, I just take on a different role that day,” Littlepage-Buggs, who had six points, said. “So today was rebounding, and I got my team rebounds that we need.”
Baylor has two more games before conference play, as the Bears will participate in the West Palm Beach Invitational. They’ll face Providence at 2:30 p.m. on Wednesday before taking on South Florida at 2:30 p.m. on Thursday. Both games will be played in West Palm Springs, Fla.
Collen said her group needs to avoid complacency moving forward.
“If you want to be great, if you want to be elite, which we’ve been talking a lot about lately, it’s not being satisfied,” Collen said. “This was just one more opportunity for us. But it doesn’t mean anything if you don’t go do what you need to do against Providence and South Florida.
“Then we turn the page on conference, and we don’t get an easy one to start.”
