:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/52975283/usa_today_9079991.0.jpg)
Late this afternoon at 5:30 p.m. CT inside Baylor University’s Ferrell Center, the No. 2 ranked Baylor Lady Bears take on the No. 20 ranked Oklahoma Sooners in top 25 NCAA women’s basketball.
Today's game features two of the nation's best shot-blocking teams, yet the shot blocking desparity between the two is as great as Baylor’s NCAA leading scoring margin of 39.9 points per game. Baylor leads the country this season in blocked shots (184) and blocks per game (8.8). The Sooners rank fourth in Division I with 128 blocks this season and are 12th in the nation with 6.1 blocks per contest.
While Baylor is 20-1 (9-0 conference play) and riding the Nation’s second longest winning streak at 18 wins, the Sooners are 16-5 on the season (7-2 conf. play) with a 2 game win streak. Lady Bears are also riding a 55 game home winning streak while the Sooners are currently 2-2 in league play on the road.
How to Watch/Listen
Today’s game will be televised on ESPN2 with Pam Ward and Gail Goestenkors on the call. The game will also be streamed live on the WatchESPN app. Live audio is also available on the Baylor Sports Network, IMG College and ESPN 1660 AM in Waco. Rick May (play-by-play) and Lori Fogelman (analyst) are on the call.
University Athletic Sites
Game Previews
- Once the Big 12 Conference’s best rivalry in the women’s game, the OU-Baylor series has become decidedly lopsided. From the Norman Transcript.
Coach Sherri Coale’s Sooners have lost three straight tilts to the Lady Bears, last beating them Feb. 25, 2015, inside Lloyd Noble Center.
That victory interrupted a string of nine straight Lady Bear victories over the Sooners, and the last time OU topped Baylor at Ferrell Center, in Waco, where the two teams meet at 5:30 p.m. today, was all the way back on Jan. 28, 2009.
It was a long time ago.
OU is no favorite today.
- From News OK game preview:
The Sooners played Baylor closely in each regular season meeting last season, dropping the game 78-70 in Norman and 78-67 in Waco. OU lost to Baylor 84-67 in the Big 12 tournament. The Sooner still lead the series with Baylor 27-21, but the Bears have won 12 of the last 13 meetings.
Baylor enters the game off a 91-49 win at Kansas State for its ninth win in Big 12 play this season. The Lady Bears built up a 30-point halftime lead, their largest ever in a Big 12 game. Alexis Prince notched a career-high 25 points while Lauren Cox hit her first career double-double by scoring 19 points and grabbing 10 rebounds, also a career-high.
- The No. 2-ranked Baylor Lady Bears take on the No. 20-ranked rival in the Oklahoma University Sooners on Sunday in Waco. From Baylor Lariat.
This game is especially meaningful for the Lady Bears, not just because of the rivalry between the two schools, but because this game is the Type 1 Diabetes Awareness game.
Freshman forward Lauren Cox has lived with Type 1 Diabetes for much of her life.
“It’s been about 11 and a half years now. It’s super hard, it’s an everyday responsibility that I have to stay on top of and Sunday is really important to me just to show kids that they can do whatever they want regardless of the disease,” Cox said.
This season, Cox has averaged 9.7 points and 4.9 rebounds per game and has the highest three-point shooting percentage on the team with four for seven shooting, which amounts to a 57.1 percentage.
Lady Bears head coach Kim Mulkey knows that these games are crucial for the freshman, but credits their development to a different source.
“Lauren and Natalie and Juicy [freshman forward Calveion Landrum], their development and their growth honestly comes from our practices,” Mulkey said. “Those kids will tell you they came here to get better and what better people to learn from than the upper classmen. So, when they get to the games they can transfer that knowledge and what they see everyday in practice to the floor.”
SBNation’s Swish Appeal on Lady Bears’ win in Manhattan
When No. 2 Baylor’s redshirt senior, Alexis Prince, stepped on the court at Bramlage Coliseum, she clicked her Baylor green basketball shoes.
No, not literally.
But by halftime, she had racked up 17 points in 17 minutes of play. And by the end of the game, it didn’t matter if they weren’t in Waco anymore. Prince still dished up a career-high 25 points, going 11/16 in field goals and 3/4 in three-pointers.
Three others joined Prince in double-digit scoring: Lauren Cox (19), Kalani Brown (13) and Alexis Jones (11). The team’s 15 steals, the highest mark this season, padded by a 4-steal game from Jones and 3-steal game from Prince.