By Marissa Essenburg | Sports Writer
With five games left in the regular season, No. 12 Baylor women’s basketball left little doubt on Sunday afternoon, dominating UCF from start to finish in a 93–63 win at Addition Financial Arena in Orlando, Fla.
Baylor (22–5, 11–3 Big 12) wasted little time responding to Thursday’s rivalry loss to No. 17 TCU, overwhelming the Knights (10–15, 2–12 Big 12) behind a balanced offensive attack that saw five Bears finish in double figures. Newly-minted 1,000-point scorer Taliah Scott (26 points), a redshirt sophomore guard, led the Bears in scoring in a return to her home state of Florida.
“At the end of the day, it’s about winning — seeing the ball go through the basket, taking care of the ball, handling business on the road and continuing to control your own destiny,” head coach Nicki Collen said. “I told them this is a place where you have to create your own energy, so I thought our execution early created that tempo.”
Pushing pace from the opening tip, Baylor set the tone early, stringing together three straight and-one opportunities before erupting on a 13–0 run midway through the first quarter to blow the game open.
“I thought we did a good job of understanding that our advantage was going to be our pace early,” Collen said. “I thought our execution and the actions we ran to get Taliah shots early were really good. And then just our flow — I thought we did a good job.”
From there, Baylor never looked back, taking a 29-point lead into halftime behind 21 first-half points from Scott. The Bears attacked the glass, connected from deep and carved through UCF’s zone with ease, as all 12 players found the scoreboard.
The backcourt tandem of Scott and graduate Jana Van Gytenbeek steered the offense, combining to tally 36 points and 14 assists while accounting for five of Baylor’s nine 3-pointers and opening the floor for the Bears’ offense.
Now 7–0 all-time against UCF, Baylor leaves Orlando with a 55-point scoring margin over the Knights this season and will look to carry that momentum into a tightening conference race as the Big 12 edges closer to season’s end.
“We want to come out [against Texas Tech] with the same intensity,” Scott said. “This is a get-back game, and we have to get this win for conference. We’ve got to come in with aggression, energy and discipline so that we can win.”
The Big 12 race rolls on as Baylor heads to Lubbock to square off with No. 16 Texas Tech. Tipoff is set for 6 p.m. Wednesday on ESPN+.
