By Marissa Essenburg | Sports Writer
No. 16 Baylor women’s basketball began its 2025-26 campaign with international flair, knocking off No. 7 Duke 58-52 at Adidas Arena in Paris to open the season on a high note.
With a roster that blends returners and experienced transfers, head coach Nicki Collen’s new-look Baylor squad already carries the cohesion of a team that’s been together far longer than a few months.
“I think this team’s definitely going to surprise a lot of people,” senior forward Darianna Littlepage-Buggs said at Big 12 Media Day. “We have returning players, but we also have a lot of new ones, and I think all of our different talents are going to mesh together. It’s going to be amazing.”
In her fifth year at the helm, Collen leads a Baylor team hungry to build on last season’s 28-8 finish, when losses to TCU in the Big 12 title game and Ole Miss in the second round of the NCAA tournament left unfinished business on the table.
After a demanding offseason, the Bears have already shown flashes of what they’re capable of — and this is just the beginning.
“I’m really excited to go out there and compete, to show fans what we’ve been working on all summer,” redshirt sophomore guard Taliah Scott said. “We’ve had a hard summer, so being able to showcase that, rack up wins and hopefully make a deep run in the tournament means a lot.”
That shared drive stems from a foundation that’s been building for years.
In today’s era of NIL deals and the transfer portal, keeping an entire class together is practically unheard of. Yet Baylor stands out as one of only five Power Four programs with its entire 2022 class intact, led by a core of veterans that have been together since day one: Littlepage-Buggs, Bella Fontleroy and Kyla Abraham.
“Having those three who started with us, plus Jana in her fourth year, we have four players who understand the standards and expectations — and I’m not just talking about X’s and O’s,” Collen said. “I’m talking about the culture of the locker room, how we show up and how we treat one another.”
Two of those veterans have earned national recognition. Fontleroy was named to the Cheryl Miller Small Forward of the Year Award watch list, while Littlepage-Buggs was chosen for the Naismith Trophy WBB Player of the Year watch list and the Katrina McClain Power Forward of the Year watch list for the third straight season.
It didn’t take long for Baylor to make a statement on opening night — and it came from one of the team’s newest faces. Just one game into the season, Scott has proven to be one of the Bears’ biggest offseason pickups, already making headlines for her fearless style of play and relentlessness on both ends of the floor.
In her debut for the green and gold, the Auburn transfer and Ann Meyers-Drysdale Preseason Shooting Guard of the Year watch list honoree scored six points in the first 90 seconds of the fourth quarter and single-handedly outscored No. 7 Duke 12-9 in the period, lifting the Bears past the Blue Devils for a top-10 upset to open the season.
“Down the stretch, you saw why Taliah is at Baylor,” Collen said. “It was a really good game to kick off the season, and I’m super proud of how these guys battled against a really, really good team.”
After shaking off the rust in the opening half against West Texas A&M in a preseason scrimmage, the pieces began to fall in line and give Baylor fans a little glimpse into the season ahead.
Baylor is set to appear in 10 nationally-televised games this season, highlighted by neutral-site bouts with Iowa on Nov. 20 (ESPN2) and Texas on Dec. 14 (ABC).
With the national spotlight comes expectation, but for Baylor, that pressure only fuels the mission ahead.
“Everybody has in their mind that they want to win, and they’re willing to do anything,” Scott said. “I think that’s going to be essential for us this year and what we’re trying to do: win championships.”
The Bears continue their championship chase and begin their nonconference home slate against Lindenwood Sunday. Tipoff is set for 2 p.m. at Foster Pavilion.
