Lady Bears Take on Langston Tonight in Final Exhibition Game

• After recording an 89-60 win in its first exhibition game against No. 3 Emporia State (Division II), No. 2/4 Baylor women’s basketball is back on the court for its final exhibition this evening against Langston. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m. (CT) inside the Ferrell Center. From Baylor Bears dot com.

Baylor head coach Kim Mulkey enters her 17th season with the program, which returns 10 from last year’s NCAA Championship Elite Eight squad. The Lady Bears compiled a 36-2 record and earned their sixth consecutive Big 12 regular season and tournament titles.

Langston University Lady Lions travel to Baylor for their lone exhibition game of the season. First-year head coach Elaine Powell takes over a Lady Lions program that finished runner-up at the 2016 NAIA Division I Women’s Basketball Championship and finished with a 20-8 mark.

Eleven letterwinners return for the Lady Lions this season, including returning NAIA All-American senior forward Che’Ron Lewis. Four newcomers join the team, three freshmen and third team NJCAA All-American junior point guard Akia Frett.

Langston is receiving votes in the 2016-17 NAIA Division I Women’s Basketball Coaches’ Preseason Top 25 Poll. Baylor ranks No. 2 in the Associated Press and No. 4 in the USA Today/ESPN Coaches preseason polls.

• From SportsNOLA dot com: Cara Ursin is the definition of a star.

The Destrehan High basketball standout is the two-time state girls basketball player of the year. This week, she was crowned the school’s Homecoming Queen.

Needless-to-say, she was a highly-coveted basketball recruit, and the senior has made her choice to play college ball for former Louisiana Tech star Kim Mulkey at Baylor: Ursin, a 5-foot-7 point guard and consensus top 100 prep senior nationally, chose the Big XII’s Bears over Alabama, South Carolina and Tulane.

• Baylor women’s basketball coach Kim Mulkey used almost every player she had at her disposal in last Tuesday’s exhibition opener against NCAA Division II power Emporia State. Story by WacoTrib’s Tony Adame via *Brian College Station’s the eagle dot com.

She tinkered with lineups. She used different combinations of players she was curious to see “under the lights” — in her words — and how they would react to a live game situation.

And when it was time to put the game away, she went with a veteran lineup that blew the game open in the fourth quarter of what was, up until that point, a seemingly competitive game as No. 2 Baylor rolled to an 89-60 win.

In a week where No. 6 Maryland crushed two exhibition opponents by scores that caught national attention — a 129-point win over Division II Bluefield State and a 153-27 win over Division III Mary Baldwin on Sunday — Baylor’s exhibition schedule seems more like an anomaly than anything else.

That is, two lower-level opponents that can put up a fight, at least, and serve the purpose of being an actual tune-up for the regular season. The Lady Bears play their final exhibition game against Langston, last year’s NAIA Division I runner-up, on Monday night at 7 p.m. at the Ferrell Center.

“I’m not scheduling these games so we can just run over teams,” Mulkey said after the win over Emporia State. “These teams are tough, and among the best on their levels. (Emporia State coach) Jory Collins was an assistant to Brandon Schneider, who is the Kansas coach, when Emporia State won the national title and then took over for (Schneider). That shows you the type of coach he is.

“Langston is a team that’s very well-regarded on their level. These are teams that can play.”

*Note: The last time the Lady Bears played in College Station, they set an all time attendance record over both men’s and women’s basketball games played at aTm.