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Daily Bears Report 2/5/17

Last second block sends MBB into losing streak. WBB continues 21 game win streak. No. 1 Equestrian downs another No. 4. Track & Field puts up 6 top twenty marks. Oregon falls to another Baylor team, this time Tennis.

By Ohio Baylor Fan
NCAA Basketball: Kansas State at Baylor
Scott Drew explains to basketball crowd how Matt Rhule’s team will be scoring touchdowns.
Erich Schlegel-USA TODAY Sports

Today’s Events

Women’s Tennis

  • The Baylor women's team came from behind to defeat Oregon, 4-3, in Saturday's dual match at Hawkins Indoor Tennis Center. With the win, the Lady Bears move to 3-0 on the season, while the Ducks fall to 3-3. From Baylor Bears dot com.

Oregon took an early lead, earning the doubles point when Nia Rose and Daniela Nasser and Marlou Kluiving and Julia Eshet recording wins against senior Rhiann Newborn and junior Theresa Van Zyl and freshmen Angelina Shakhraichuk and Jessica Hinojosa, respectively. Baylor's No. 15 ranked duo Blair Shankle and Elizabeth Profit, who made their spring debut, did not finish their match.

The Ducks carried their momentum into singles play, recording wins at No. 5 and No. 6 singles to extend their lead, 3-0.

Despite Oregon's quick three point lead, the Lady Bears bounced back at No. 1 singles. Shankle, who is ranked No. 7 nationally, played her way to a three-set win over Schweta Sangwan, 6-0, 2-6, 6-1. Her victory swung the momentum back to the Lady Bears, who closed the door on Oregon with three more wins head-to-head.

Hinojosa, who is rated No. 117 nationally, defeated Julia Eshet, 7-6, 6-1, at No. 4 singles and Newborn followed with a No. 2 singles win against Alyssa Tobita, 2-6, 6-3, 6-4.

With the fate of the match on the line, Van Zyl provided the clincher for the third consecutive match. After a 6-4 set one loss to Rose at No. 3 singles, she rebounded in a big way with back-to-back 6-1 wins in the second and third sets to earn the team victory for Baylor, 4-3.

"I'm incredibly proud of my team. The girls fought tooth and nail from start to finish. Wins like this; this is what it's all about. We're teaching young people how to fight and compete when things aren't going their way and today was a great example of that. I couldn't be more proud of my team." - Head coach Joey Scrivano.

Baylor continues the weekend with a dual match against Washington on Sunday, Feb. 5, inside Hawkins Indoor Tennis Center. Cub Tennis begins at noon and first serve is set for 1 p.m.

"We have to recover right now. We'll enjoy this for an hour or two, but then we'll recover and prepare. Washington is a great team, they came into this building last year and stole the win from us. We know they have a feisty group and they're competitive, so it will be a dog fight tomorrow." - Head coach Joey Scrivano.

Track & Field

  • After taking a weekend off from competition, the Baylor track and field teams returned to action by winning seven events and putting up six top-20 national marks at the Charlie Thomas Invitational Saturday.

Inside the Gilliam Indoor Track Stadium, the Bears saved their best performance for last. With four legs under 46.79, the crew of Wil London, Max Willis, Caleb Dickson and George Caddick produced a win in the 4x400-meter relay in a season-best time of 3:06.08. The Bears led throughout the race, but Dickson opened up the advantage with a 46.62 split and Caddick sealed the deal with a 45.98 anchor. The time is fourth-best in the NCAA this season.

The Bears swept the 400-meter titles on the day as newcomer Leticia De Souza captured a win with the sixth-fastest quartermile time in BU history at 52.93. The Brazilian led throughout the race and closed even better to win the event by nearly a second. Meanwhile on the men's side, Caddick stayed perfect in 2017 winning his second-straight quartermile race in College Station. The senior Bear rolled to a 46.61 time to outpace teammate Wil London, who was second in 47.08. De Souza's mark is seventh-best in the NCAA, while Caddick's is ninth.

Cion Hicks also won for the second time in two tries at Gilliam Indoor Track Stadium. The senior dominated the shot put competition, winning with a best attempt of 54-9.25 [16.69m], which is currently 12th-best in the NCAA.

Annie Rhodes won her second-straight pole vault competition, clearing 14-0 [4.27m] to lock up another title for the Bears. That mark is seventh-best in school history.

The BU women racked up big points in the middle distance events as they got wins in the 800 meters (Alison Andrews-Paul, 2:07.98) and the mile (Maggie Montoya, 4:42.06). Both time were season bests for the pair of Bears.

In the 4x400-meter relay, BU's women, Aaliyah Miller, Kiana Hawn, Victoria Powell and De Souza almost came-from-behind for the title, but finished second with the sixth-fastest time in school history at 3:33.63. In the triple jump, Brianna Richardson was also a runner-up. The senior recorded her best jump on her second attempt, 41-1.5 [12.53m] to move into first, but was passed on the final attempt by one inch.

"I thought today was a good meet for us overall. Sometimes after a week off of competition and some hard training your legs are a little tired, but we came out and got some good things done. We are set up to continue building to be a better conference and national team." - head coach Todd Harbour on the meet.

The majority of Bears will now head north to Fayetteville, Ark., to take part in the Tyson Invitational, Feb. 10-11. Meanwhile on the same days a select group of middle distance and distance runners will head to the Iowa State Classic in Ames, Iowa to run on the same track where the conference meet will be held.

Equestrian

  • The Baylor equestrian team (9-2, 3-1 Big 12), competing in its first competition since taking over the No. 1 rank in the national poll, swept every event in a dominating win over the No. 4 Oklahoma State Cowgirls (4-2, 2-1 Big 12) on Saturday afternoon at the Willis Family Equestrian Center. From Baylor Bears dot com.

With a 15-4 win, the Bears handed OSU its largest margin of defeat in program history.

Running in both the covered and the Western arenas simultaneously, the competition opened with fences and reining.

In fences, the Bears scored first and never relinquished that lead. Alicia Gasser, Savannah Jenkins, Kelsie Brittan, and Shannon Hogue all recorded points for BU, with Gasser's 78 earning the first of three Most Outstanding Performance (MOP) honors.

In reining, Maddison Smith, Elizabeth Shank, and Georgia Smith snagged points for BU, giving the Bears a 7-3 lead at the break.

After the changeover, BU built even more momentum. On the flat, Rachel Van Allen, Brittney Mirkov, Samantha Howell, and Gasser all taking their points, while Jenkins fought out to a tie. While four of the Bears scored 85+, including exhibition rider, Sam Matthews, Mirkov's 86 earned the MOP nod.

In horsemanship, the Bears pounded out a 4-1 advantage, with Aspen Crew, Charlotte Green, Kelsie Holman, and Abbi Demel all logging points, with Green's 74 picking up the MOP recognition.

The win over No. 4 Oklahoma State marks Baylor's 26th-straight regular season home win. Baylor's 11-point win over the Cowgirls marked the largest margin of defeat in OSU program history, topping the previous high mark of 10, also scored by Baylor, on March 26, 2010.

The Bears head to Fresno, Calif., to participate in the Fresno Invitational on Feb. 17-18, going head-to-head with SMU and Fresno State.

Men’s Basketball

But, for the second time in four days, the Bears couldn't pull one out in the final seconds.

Trailing by as many as 19 and still down by 16 with under nine minutes to play, Baylor staged a furious rally and had three chances in the last 10 seconds to tie or take the lead only to come up short in a 56-54 loss to Kansas State Saturday afternoon before a Ferrell Center crowd of 7,729.

"Home losses are the worst," said Baylor coach Scott Drew, whose team fell to 20-3 overall and 7-3 in the Big 12 with its first home-court loss of the year. "Give them credit, because they outplayed us for 30 minutes. Finally, the last 10 minutes, we started to get some rhythm and got back in the game and had opportunities down the stretch. . . . K-State punched us in the mouth, and we didn't respond until the last 10 minutes of the game."

Baylor's frustration was compounded by the fact that the Bears had a chance to move back into a tie for the conference lead after Kansas had its 54-game home-court winning streak snapped with a 92-89 overtime loss to Iowa State.

Continue Reading . . .

Drew said the Bears got what they wanted at the end of the game.

"No question, Mot, front of the rim, we're all taking that," he said. "That one play didn't cost us the game. We trust him, we trust Manu. People are going to miss shots, and we have to control what we can control."

Baylor goes back on the road to face a resurgent Oklahoma State team (15-8, 4-6), coming off an 82-75 on the road at No. 7 West Virginia. Wednesday's matchup in Stillwater, Okla., will tip at 6 p.m., with an ESPNU broadcast.

Women’s Basketball

After a first half in which 6-foot-7 Kalani Brown was limited to two points and three rebounds because of foul trouble, Texas Tech was hanging on within reach of No. 2 Baylor. From Baylor Bears dot com.

In the second half, Brown found perhaps her strongest form since setting career highs in points and rebounds against UCLA in November, finishing with 24 points and 11 rebounds in Baylor's 79-61 win over Texas Tech on Saturday.

"We fed her the ball and nobody could guard her," Baylor coach Kim Mulkey said of Brown against UCLA. "Now, what you're seeing in conference is people crowding her. She touches the ball, they swarm to her. Well, that's fine. She's a good passer."

Said Brown: "Just running the floor and beating my opponent down the floor, getting in position early. Because I got in foul trouble early, so I had to come out and give my team the spark that we needed."

Kristy Wallace scored 15 points and Nina Davis added 14 points and 11 rebounds for Baylor, which put away the game by outscoring Texas Tech 23-14 in the third period. Alexis Jones had 12 points and Khadijiah Cave finished with 10.

It is the third consecutive season in which Baylor (23-1, 12-0 Big 12), winners of 21 straight, has had a winning streak of at least 20 games.

"I think it's the depth that they have -- that they can wear you down," Texas Tech coach Candi Whitaker said. "We were struggling getting back in that span. We were struggling to make shots in that span. And then I think we took a lot of quick shots. Which again, put (Baylor) in transition."

Larryn Brooks had 16 points and Recee Caldwell scored 13 for Texas Tech (11-11, 3-8). Brittany Brewer and Arella Guirantes grabbed eight rebounds apiece.

Baylor led 18-14 after the first period, holding the Lady Raiders to 0-for-7 shooting from 3-point range. Texas Tech finished 4 of 19 from deep.

"I liked the mentality that I saw from them in regards to it wasn't, 'Oh, no, we're playing Baylor," Whitaker said. "It was more of: 'Let's go. Let's compete.' I just think that's why we started well. I think that's why we hung with (Baylor) in the first half."

After a Texas Tech scoring drought of nearly four minutes to open the second quarter, Baylor's lead grew to 12 points. It led 35-27 at halftime despite shooting 5 of 14 from the free-throw line to that point. The Lady Bears finished 9 of 23 on free throws.

"It wasn't just how many we missed," Mulkey said. "If you're going to be the No. 2 ranked team in the country -- and I don't care if it's Under Armour balls, or Nike balls or on the road -- you don't miss two in a row."

Baylor visits Texas on Monday in a matchup of teams with undefeated Big 12 records.

WOW!

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