Browsing: Sports

Aaron Brooks is back with the Houston Rockets and he’s back with an all-new cast.

The 6-foot Brooks signed with Houston on Tuesday, returning to the team that drafted him with the 26th overall pick in 2007.

The Rockets traded Brooks in February 2011 and have since changed coaches and completely rebuilt the roster.

It was a bittersweet moment for Baylor fans as they watched the winningest senior class defeat Kansas State 90-68 in its last regular season game in front of a crowd of 10,600 Monday at the Ferrell Center.

It was only fitting that senior center Brittney Griner scored a career-high 50 points, which also happened to be a new Big 12 record for the most points scored in a game as the crowd cheered her name.

“I couldn’t have done it without my teammates,” Griner said. “I’m glad I got to do it right here in front of our fans.”

The Baylor Bears lost to the Texas Longhorns 79-70 in Austin on Monday. It was a loss that carried a lot of weight in determining Baylor’s hopes of earning an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament. With only one regular season game remaining on Saturday against Kansas, the Bears will likely have to have a stellar performance in the Big 12 tournament to earn an NCAA bid.

The red-hot men’s tennis team beat Laredo Community College and Abilene Christian Saturday with 7-0 victories in both matches.

The 26th-ranked Bears (9-1) have extended their win streak to seven with these two wins.

“It felt great,” head coach Matt Knoll said. “14-0, wonderful day to be a Baylor Bear.”

The No. 20 Lady Bear softball team passed its first real challenge on Sunday as it defeated No. 3 Arizona State 6-2 in the final game of the Wilson DeMarini invitational. Baylor handed the Sun Devils their first loss of the season, as Baylor faced its first ranked opponent of the season.

With one second left in the game and the score tied 61-61, Kansas State senior guard Rodney McGruder buried a three-pointer at the buzzer to sink Baylor 64-61 in regulation.

It was a heart-breaking loss for the Bears considering they played toe-to-toe with the No. 13 team in the country for 59 minutes and 59 seconds.

The No. 20 Baylor Lady Bears softball team’s 14-game winning streak was snapped on Friday after a 3-0 loss to North Carolina. However, Baylor responded by winning the second game of the double-header 20-4 against North Dakota. Baylor is now 16-3 for the season and will play in another double-header on Saturday at 9:30 a.m.

The No. 1 Lady Bears will make their first trip to Morgantown to square off against West Virginia at 6 p.m. Saturday. This will be the second meeting between these teams since West Virginia joined the Big 12. Last time the two teams met on Jan. 19, Baylor’s defense did its job holding West Virginia to 32.8 percent shooting.

West Virginia struggled offensively from the three-point line as well and only made four of its 14 attempts. Free throws were also a problem and ended up making a difference in the game. Baylor won the last meeting by 18 points; West Virginia missed 17 free throws.

The Baylor Bears are set to take on the No. 13 Kansas State Wildcats at 6 p.m. Saturday at the Ferrell Center. The Bears are fresh off of a 65-62 road win against West Virginia and are trying to gain momentum for the last three games of the Big 12 Conference schedule.

“It was a good road win for us,” senior guard A.J. Walton said. “We’ve been working hard in practice just trying to stay focused and stay together and not get down on ourselves. We’re 1-6 now in games under five points so it’s good for us to get that win. It just shows how much we’ve been working and how much we’ve grown.”

By Daniel Hill Sports Writer The Baylor Bears (3-5) will head to Houston this weekend for the Astros in Action…

The No. 20 Baylor softball team (15-2) will compete in the Wilson/Demarini Invitational from Friday to Sunday in Tempe, Ariz. Baylor will put its 14-game winning streak, which is tied for the best in program history, on the line as it faces off against North Carolina. Baylor will finish the weekend with a game against Arizona State.

On Friday, Baylor will start with a double-header against North Carolina at 10:00 a.m. and will play North Dakota at 12:30 p.m. North Carolina (11-5) is coming off of five straight wins, including the Carolina Classic. However, they have a 1-3 record against ranked teams. Lori Spingola, 2012 ACC Pitcher of the Year, is 4-3 and has 66 strikeouts in 60 innings. Spingola was also named Pitcher of the Week on Tuesday. The pitching staff collectively has an ERA of 2.24 and the Tar Heels are hitting .292 as a team.

The Baylor Bears went into Morgantown on Wednesday and earned a 65-62 win over West Virginia. It was Baylor’s first-ever trip to Morgantown, and the win snapped its three-game losing streak.

“Road wins are always great,” head coach Scott Drew told ESPN Radio after the game. “Any Big 12 win is obviously nice, especially when you are at this time of year. This time of year every game is so big and so critical. We are really proud of how our team responded.”

Freshman center Isaiah Austin led the Bears with 21 points, six rebounds and two blocks. Senior guard Pierre Jackson contributed 15 points, six rebounds and five assists. Senior guard A.J. Walton scored some clutch baskets to give the Bears much-needed momentum down the stretch. Walton finished with 10 points and two rebounds.

The No. 22 Baylor Lady Bears softball team has been getting better every tournament, improving upon the little things before competition gets harder. Everyone is expected to perform at a high level, but the freshman class has surprised many people.

The upperclassmen and returning players continue to do their job.

Senior centerfielder Kathy Shelton has a .404 batting average and has 10 runs, 23 hits and nine RBIs this season.

The men’s tennis team is coming off of a come-from-behind 4-3 win over the Florida Gators on Saturday.

“We’re pleased,” head coach Matt Knoll said. “It’s tough to play there. We’ve struggled down there for years and I thought the guys did a great job of battling from beginning to [the] end and finding a way to win.”

After clinching the doubles point, the Bears were down early with straight-set losses from sophomores Tony Lupieri and Diego Galeano.

Baylor earned a dramatic 5-4 walk-off win over Pepperdine on Tuesday at Baylor Ballpark. The win improves Baylor’s record to 3-5.

The game was scoreless through three innings with Baylor starting freshman left-handed pitcher Sterling Wynn. Then the Pepperdine offense gained momentum in the top of the fourth inning.

Pepperdine sparked the four-run inning with power hitting and speed around the bases. Baylor head coach Steve Smith was forced to go to the mound for a pitching change. Senior left-hander Max Garner walked the first batter he faced, and Pepperdine added another run to take a 4-0 lead.

Energy levels were high as the Baylor Acrobatics and Tumbling team won its first meet of the National Collegiate Acrobatics and Tumbling Association season against Azusa Pacific.

The first half of the meet featured three events, each with multiple heats.

The three events were compulsories, acro heat and pyramid heat. There were 10 total heats from all three events combined.

The Baylor men’s and women’s cross-country teams persevere not only through distance running but long hours of academic work as well.

On Monday, the United States Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association announced that both teams had received All-Academic honors.

Junior Ben Allen said he loves when cross-country gets awards because few of the team’s athletes go professional.

The Baylor Bears men’s basketball team makes its first conference road trip to Morgantown, W. Va., to take on the Mountaineers tonight. This 7 p.m. showdown will most likely help determine seeding for the Big 12 tournament in Kansas City.

The Bears (16-9, 7-7) lead West Virginia by only one game in the Big 12 standings. The Mountaineers are 13-14 overall and 6-8 in the conference. The Bears have lost six of their last eight games and are 3-6 on the road in conference games.

In Baylor’s last contest, Oklahoma defeated the Bears 90-76. With just four games remaining in the Big 12 schedule, the Bears must salvage the season and gain some momentum heading into the postseason.

Baylor has added a home game against Wofford College to its 2013 football schedule after its game at SMU was canceled last week.

The Bears will open the season Aug. 31 against Wofford, a Football Championship Subdivision school from Spartanburg, S.C. The Terriers, a member of the Southern Conference, finished 9-4 last season.

The No. 1 Baylor Lady Bears defeated Oklahoma 86-64 Monday, extending the nation’s largest winning streak to 25 games. Baylor finished the game with six players in double digits as it found its rhythm in the second half and began widening the gap.

Senior center Brittney Griner’s impact on the team was cemented in this game as Baylor struggled when Griner was on the bench due to foul trouble. She recorded another double-double with 15 points, 15 rebounds, seven blocks and five assists. Griner also moved up to the fourth highest scorer in NCAA history with 3,045 career points.

Baylor’s 90-76 loss to the Oklahoma Sooners on Saturday puts the team in a tough situation. The loss brings the Bears’ record to 16-11 overall and 7-7 in the Big 12 Conference. This places the team at No. 6 in the Big 12.

Losing to the Sooners decreased the Bears’ chances of being selected for the NCAA Tournament.

With just a .500 record in conference, Baylor has a daunting challenge ahead for the remainder of the season if they want to pull off a coveted NCAA Tournament bid.

Oscar Pistorius on Monday informed South African authorities that he wants to resume athletic training while on bail for the murder case against him, a government official said.

A spokeswoman for the Olympic runner, however, denied that he was making immediate plans to return to the track while awaiting trial for the Feb. 14 shooting death of his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp.

“Absolutely not,” spokeswoman Janine Hills said. “He is currently in mourning and his focus is not on his sports.”

The first time Brittney Griner wrapped her hands around a rim, she was a precocious ninth grader at Houston Nimitz. It was during a volleyball practice that one of the team’s assistants glanced upward to the rim, back at a then-6-foot-1 Griner and then to a loose basketball.

The No. 23 Baylor baseball team dropped the final game of its series against No. 2 UCLA 5-4. Baylor finished the series 1-2 and is now 2-5 on the season.

“I thought we played hard and I thought we competed,” head coach Steve Smith said. “We’ve got some issues on the mound and behind the plate that got exposed. I thought we were fortunate at the end of it to be in the game with all of those things. We gave them a lot of free opportunities.”

The No. 25 Baylor softball team redeemed itself by winning the Texas Shootout after losing it last year at Getterman Stadium. Baylor defeated North Texas 9-3 on Sunday for the series sweep and tied the program’s best winning streak at 14 games.

“That’s awesome,” head coach Glenn Moore said in regards to the record. “I didn’t realize that, didn’t know that we were approaching that, but that’s nice.”

Tony Stewart was horrified as he looked in the mirror while taking the checkered flag in the NASCAR Nationwide Series race on Saturday. The scene that played out behind him was unlike anything he had seen in his decades-long career in motorsports.

At least 28 fans were injured by flying debris from rookie Kyle Larson’s Chevrolet, which went hurtling airborne into the wall and broke into pieces on the front stretch of Daytona International Speedway.

Sam Grooms scored a career-high 23 points, Steven Pledger had 17 of his 19 points in the first half as Oklahoma built a big lead and the Sooners held off Baylor’s comeback attempt for a 90-76 victory on Saturday.

With the win, Oklahoma (18-8, 9-5 Big 12) remained ahead of the Bears in the conference standings and swept the season series after getting swept a season ago.

The No. 23 Baylor Bears defeated the No. 2 UCLA Bruins 5-0 in the second game of their weekend series on Saturday at Baylor Ballpark.

Junior right-handed pitcher Dillon Newman pitched five scoreless innings for the Bears. Then senior right-handed pitcher Kolt Browder started the top of the sixth and got two outs before getting into a bases-loaded jam. Sophomore right-handed pitcher Ryan Smith came to the rescue and struck out UCLA’s second basemen Trent Chatterton to end the Bruins’ threat. Smith went the remaining three and one-third innings on the mound to lead the Bears to a 5-0 shutout victory over the Bears.

The No. 1 Baylor Lady Bears’ uniforms shined gold, as did Baylor as they routing Texas 67-47. Among the crowd were full of former Lady Bears back for alumni weekend. Baylor also celebrated its third consecutive Big 12 Regular Season Championship, becoming the first team in Big 12 history to do so.

“It’s enjoyable, it’s for me again,” head coach Kim Mulkey said. “I enjoy people who experience this for the first time, and there were many fans out there today that were here for the first time. They came and said this is my first to be here and watch a game. I enjoy it for all the players, but I especially enjoy it for the freshman when it’s their first time to be in that environment.”

The No. 25 Baylor softball team defeated North Texas 8-3 on Saturday after Baylor responded with runs after being down 1-3. After leaving 18 runners stranded in the double-headers on Friday, Baylor started slow again leaving four stranded before showing up with their power offense.

Senior infielder Kelsi Kettler had a big day with three doubles on her first three at-bats of the season. She also had some key defensive plays in critical moments, making the most of her start. Junior catcher Clare Hosack also hit a three-run, go-ahead homer to give Baylor the lead. Center fielder Kathy Shelton hit a triple in the fifth inning to put Baylor in position to win.