By Jackson Posey | Sports Editor
DURHAM, N.C. — It looked like the game had slipped away.
Baylor led by 11 points in the first quarter, but by halftime, the Bears had stumbled into the rearview. Nebraska, a lower-seeded favorite, led by nine at the start of the fourth quarter and looked primed to breeze into the Round of 32.
Instead, Baylor (25-8, 13-5 Big 12) ripped off a 15-3 run, racing ahead of the Cornhuskers (19-13, 7-11 Big Ten) to secure its 22nd consecutive win in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
“We didn’t want it to be our last game,” graduate guard Jana Van Gytenbeek said. “We were either going to go out in the fourth quarter and give it to ‘em or take it. We took it.”
Redshirt sophomore guard Taliah Scott drained a pull-up jumper off a screen to extend an early lead to 7-0. The Bears made the first three shots, including a rim-rattling and-one from senior wing Bella Fontleroy, and held the Huskers without a 2-pointer for more than 15 minutes of game time.
Nebraska’s efficiency from deep (42.9%) kept things close until Yuting Deng opened the floodgates. The sophomore guard subbed in at the 2:02 mark in the first quarter and drained two 3-pointers in 40 seconds, stretching Baylor’s lead to 19-8. Deng said Collen told her to go out there and “score.”
“I thought we found a way,” Collen said. “Ting hit big shots early and then we clipped away.”
Nebraska shot 11-for-38 from inside the arc, including 0-for-6 in the first quarter — a step back from its First Four win over Richmond, which featured 62.1% shooting on 2-pointers.
The Cornhuskers slowly mowed down the lead in the second quarter, relying on the deep ball while stifling Baylor’s drives. The Bears shot 3-for-10 in the frame, exacerbated by a pair of missed free throws from Scott, who entered the game shooting 90% from the stripe.
The Cornhuskers jumped on the cold streak, stripping Scott at midcourt for a wide-open transition layup. Nebraska erased Baylor’s 11-point first-quarter lead to take a 28-27 advantage heading into the break.
“We thought our advantage today was our athleticism, and I don’t think we played to it enough in the first half,” head coach Nicki Collen said. “I thought we settled. We didn’t get a piece of the paint.”
Baylor kicked back into gear in the second half, revved by a pair of assists from Van Gytenbeek, but much of the damage was done on free throws. Once the foul shots dried up, Nebraska retook the lead on back-to-back layups from Nebraska’s Britt Prince (27 points, 8-for-19 shooting).
Van Gytenbeek’s second assist, which came on a pick-and-roll to senior forward Darianna Littlepage-Buggs, put the Bears up 35-33. Baylor did not make another field goal for nearly six minutes.
Hapless shooting continued to plague the Bears, who opened 2-for-16 from beyond the arc. At times, Nebraska’s interior defense repelled drives like water and oil; the issue was intensified when Baylor ran a two-post offense, which further limited spacing and tightened the interior.
All told, Baylor shot 36.8% from the field (4-for-21from three) and turned over the ball 16 times.
“We obviously didn’t shoot the basketball particularly well,” Collen said.
Nebraska won the middle quarters by 14 points, setting up a contentious final quarter which Baylor opened with a six-point deficit. No Bears had reached double digits, and the starters were a combined 12-for-37 from the field.
An early 7-0 run for the Bears, punctuated by Littlepage-Buggs taking a fastbreak the length of the floor, was erased by a pair of Cornhusker threes on the bookends. Piece by piece, though, Baylor’s full-court press began forcing mistakes.
A trap turned into a jump ball; a tipped pass, into two points. Baylor found itself trailing 53-52 with 4:04 to play, with foul shots for senior forward Kiersten Johnson on deck for the foul line after the media timeout. She made the first to tie the game.
A Jessica Petrie foul in transition was ruled a flagrant II on a coach’s challenge, giving Baylor a bonus possession and sending Scott to the free-throw line with a chance to take the lead. She sunk both, and after a shooting foul, Littlepage-Buggs stretched the lead to three.
The waning minutes of the fourth quarter turned into something of a free-throw competition; between the two teams, four players took to the charity stripe in a 43-second span. Baylor made more free throws in the fourth quarter (11) than the rest of the game combined (10). There were 20 total free throw attempts in the final four minutes alone.
Prince, who scored all but one of the Cornhuskers’ fourth-quarter field goals, held the game within reach. When Littlepage-Buggs corralled an offensive rebound with 57 seconds to play, the Bears held a 62-59 lead.
Baylor failed to inbound the ball, giving Nebraska new life. But redshirt junior forward Kyla Abraham deflected a pass to Taliah Scott, who rolled down the clock and arced in a lefty prayer under the basket with the shot clock winding down.
“I’m going to keep playing to her,” Collen said of Scott, who shot under 30% from the field for the third consecutive game. “We are here because of — a big part because of her, and we’re not going to abandon what we do in the biggest game so far of our season. So I was proud of her, the downhill drive, the free throws. She stuck with it.”
The Cornhuskers couldn’t overcome the five-point deficit, giving the Bears a 67-62 victory and a berth in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
“It was those four [seniors] and Taliah [in the huddle],” Collen said of her speech to the team before the fourth quarter. “I just said, ‘You guys got 10 minutes left — that’s it — in your career … It’s up to you guys. How do you want it to go? And you’ve got to play like it is the last 10 minutes of your career.’
“I thought they did. I really thought they did.”
Baylor will advance to play No. 3 seed Duke (24-8, 16-2 ACC) in the Round of 32 on Sunday in Durham. Tipoff time and broadcast channel have yet to be announced.
