By Foster Nicholas | Sports Editor
Facing the team that knocked No. 2 Baylor women’s basketball out of the tournament in back-to-back years, the Bears earned revenge, taking down No. 7 Iowa State 69-63 in the Phillips 66 Big 12 Championship quarterfinals Friday night at the T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, Mo.
Nicki Collen picked up her 100th win as the head coach of the Bears (26-6) as her team led for 38 1/2 minutes. The green and gold turned the Cyclones (22-11) over 22 times, leading to 20 points off turnovers and countered sophomore center Audi Crooks’ 32-point outburst.
“This seems to be an annual thing, Baylor and Iowa State in Kansas City,” Collen said. “And they’ve all been nail-biters, and it just feels good to be on the ‘W’ side of it this year … When everything is in place for you to be successful, that’s what you’re supposed to do. I don’t think a lot about [100 career wins]. I’m just grateful, grateful to be at Baylor. Really want 101 [wins] tomorrow.”
Senior guard Jada Walker headlined four Baylor players in double figures with a team-high 18 points on 7-for-17 shooting. Senior center Aaronette Vonleh, junior forward Bella Fontleroy and graduate guard Aliyah Matharu each scored 12 points.
The double bye did not affect Baylor, as the green and gold came out firing as if they hadn’t missed a beat. Graduate guard Sarah Andrews knocked down a triple, and then the next two Baylor jumpers fell. Suddenly, just 2:10 into the game, the Bears held a 10-0 lead and Iowa State head coach Bill Fennelly called a timeout.
“We’re playing with a lot of fight,” Andrews said. “They got a home-court advantage when you come here, and you’ve got to weather the storm when they go on runs. We just put it behind us when they went on a run and came back at them.”
The Cyclones were shooting 1-for-6 from the floor with five turnovers in the five minutes. But momentum shifted quickly as Iowa State made its next seven shots and finished the first quarter on a 9-0 run to cut the deficit to 22-17.
Andrews knocked down her third 3-pointer of the game to open the second quarter and break the Cyclones’ run. Then, just like the first quarter, Baylor turned Andrew’s triple into a 7-0 run to extend the lead to double digits. Walker spearheaded the Bears’ run, scoring 10 of her 18 points in the first half.
But just as the second quarter played out, Iowa State closed the half on a 9-0 run again to cut Baylor’s halftime lead to 38-33. Crooks, who the Bears held to two points in the last matchup, already had 15 points on 6-for-10 shooting.
Vonleh picked up her third foul less than two minutes into the third, forcing Collen to call on junior Kyla Abraham and freshman Kayla Nelms. Crooks took advantage of the inexperience in the post, scoring five points to pull the Cyclones within four with 4:34 on the clock, 44-40.
After a dominant start to the first two quarters, Baylor’s shooting hit a rut, going 3-for-14 in the first seven minutes of the third quarter. Without Vonleh on the court, the Bears saw their lead disappear as a pair of free throws tied the game 48-48 with 1:58 on the clock.
Still, Iowa State never led. The Bears made 5-of-6 free throws in the final two minutes, and Abraham tossed in a layup to combat Crooks’ 11 third quarter points and take a 55-52 lead into the fourth. But that changed.
Iowa State knocked down a 3-pointer with 5:29 in the fourth to take its first lead of the game, 59-58. Baylor responded with a timeout and a layup before Crooks added another layup to put the Cyclones back in the driver’s seat.
“Last year they went up with two minutes or something left, and this time I just kept telling everybody when they went on their run,’ There’s still a lot of game left,’” Andrews said. “Keep our heads up. We’re going to fight till the end. The game is not over. We can’t sit up here and be upset they went on a run. Because Iowa State is a great team, and you got to expect them to go on a run.”
Then came the Walker show.
The senior guard drilled a second-chance triple 20 seconds later and made a jumper at the two-minute mark to give Baylor a 67-61 lead. The seventh-seeded Cyclones never saw the lead again, only holding it for 43 seconds. Walker scored seven of her 18 points in the final quarter to seal the 69-63 win.
Each team had a key player foul out down the stretch. Sophomore guard Addy Brown, who scored 41 points for Iowa State the night before, and Vonleh headed to the bench within a minute of each other. Brown scored six points with nine turnovers after her career-best night, while Vonleh scored 12 points in 20 minutes.
“Netty’s (Aaronette Vonleh) plus-minus in under 20 minutes, we were plus 26 because we had that match-up where we could neutralize Crooks and we could play to and through that inside game,” Collen said. “When we didn’t have her, it was up to our guards to create off the bounce to make threes. And we just didn’t see the ball go through the basket from three on a lot of the ones in the second half.”
The Bears will take on the winner of No. 14 Texas Tech versus No. 3 Oklahoma State in the Phillips 66 Big 12 Championship semifinals at 5:30 p.m. Saturday. The game will be broadcast on ESPN+.
