By Foster Nicholas | Sports Editor
Some people play with their food, but for a team as hungry as No. 12 Baylor women’s basketball, an exhibition match was a perfect time to feast. Bolting out of the gates with the first 11 points of the game, the Bears never looked back and steamrolled Langston, 100-39, in an exhibition match on Sunday afternoon at the Foster Pavilion.
Junior forward Darianna Littlepage-Buggs sparked the Bears’ dominant performance with a game-high 25 points and 11 rebounds. Littlepage-Buggs had five double-doubles in the 2023-24 season, but her 11-of-13 shooting night was the most efficient of her Baylor tenure with more than 10 shots.
“I thought Buggs was a rockstar all night long,” head coach Nicki Collen said. “I think the craziest thing about Buggs’ game today is, she went down the what looked like a really bad ankle injury on Friday, and missed most of practice and was in an ice bucket. We weren’t sure if she would even play today, so she did okay.”
Senior center Aaronette Vonleh scored the first points of the game for the Bears with an and-1 layup just seconds into the game. Vonleh finished with 13 points on 5-of-6 shooting and led the team with eight first-quarter points en route to a 27-6 lead at the end of the first 10 minutes. Vonleh added three rebounds, a steal and an assist to the stat sheet as she played bully ball in the post.
Baylor stumbled to start the second quarter, with six turnovers in the first five minutes. Looking for a jolt of energy, Littlepage-Buggs picked up the slack. Littlepage-Buggs scored eight points in the quarter and added five rebounds.
In the first half, the green and gold managed to bring down eight offensive rebounds, which led to eight second-chance points. Baylor hit five consecutive shots, including a corner 3-pointer from graduate guard Sarah Andrews plus an and-1 put-back layup from Littlepage-Buggs, to extend its lead to 45-13.
In the final seconds before the half, senior guard Jada Walker ran from coast to coast. Walker leaped for a left-handed layup that clanked off the rim. With two seconds left on the clock, Littlepage-Buggs cleaned up the glass and dropped in a buzzer-beater layup. Behind a 10-0 run in the final two minutes of the second quarter, Baylor took a 50-13 lead into halftime.
Both in the starting lineup, Walker (10) and Andrews (8) combined for 18 points. Walker tied for the team lead with five assists, while Andrews led the Bears with two made 3-pointers.
Littlepage-Buggs didn’t let the halftime break cool her off, as she hit all four of her shots in the third quarter and led the team with eight points in the period. With 7:13 in the third, junior forward Bella Fontleroy swatted a Langston shot off the backboard and started a fast break.
Fontleroy hoisted up a 3-pointer, which came up short, but Littlepage-Buggs snagged the rebound with one hand and bodied her way into another and-1 put-back to extend Baylor’s lead to 60-15. The Bears continued the hot streak, holding the Lions without a bucket for more than three minutes and taking a 76-23 lead into the final quarter.
“Entire team, everyone who’s new and returning, we gelled extremely fast with each other, and a big part of that is just our personalities off the court,” Fontleroy said. “We all really do love each other, and you can tell that we’re best friends. We laugh, we joke, we have a good time. And then that turns into those post feeds that lead to a basket or an and-1.”
Fontleroy was one of five Baylor scorers in double digits, finishing with 16 points on 7-of-11 shooting. Although she picked up four fouls, the junior was also the most efficient defender, with a team-high of two blocks and two charges taken. Fontleroy hit her stride in the fourth quarter when she hit her first three shots, including a corner 3-pointer with 3:40 left in the game, which forced a timeout on the floor with the Bears on top 89-34.
After back-to-back Langston buckets, graduate guard Jana Van Gytenbeek, junior guard Waiata Jennings and freshman forward Kayla Nelms helped the Bears go on an 11-1 run and reach the century mark. Off a no-look pass from Van Gytenbeek, Jennings drained a corner 3-pointer. Sitting at 95-39, Nelms hit a pair of layups and was fouled with 1:18 left in the game. Nelms drilled the and-1 free throw off the feed from Van Gytenbeek and the Bears locked up the 100-39 win when the final buzzer sounded.
“[Waiata and Kayla] put in the work for this. So just to see them as new players, getting those points was exciting to see. And I’m so happy that we got to celebrate them,” Littlepage-Buggs said.
Van Gytenbeek finished with 11 points on 4-of-8 shooting and five assists. The guard added two steals, but senior guard Yaya Felder led the Bears with four steals in the afternoon.
“The lights come on, and there’s just a different energy that you get,” Collen said about the exhibition. “A lot of that is good, but you got to be able to kind of harness the jitters and the emotions and I think you get that out [during an exhibition].”
The Bears will tip off the regular season at 7 p.m. Thursday at the Foster Pavilion against Incarnate Word (0-0).
