Waco, TX— The No. 15 Baylor (12-4, 2-2 Big 12) women’s basketball team at long last held their Big 12 home opener at the Ferrell Center and promptly beat the Oklahoma State (6-9, 1-5 Big 12) Cowgirls 67-49.
Due to being on a 10 day Covid-19 pause, Baylor had to postpone their first two Big 12 scheduled home games against TCU and Texas. After stunning Kansas on the road with a comeback in the final 20 seconds, Baylor is back to five-hundred in conference play and owns a two-game winning streak.
It was Queen Egbo who finished with a game high 19 points on 5-of-9 shooting (9-of-9 from the charity stripe) and eight rebounds. She had 10 points in the first half and broke the 1,000-point barrier for her career.
There had been much slander around Egbo’s name after only scoring seven combined points against two ranked Big Ten foes as well as the Bears’ opening Big 12 loss vs Kansas State where the former five-star struggled with foul trouble. She has responded to the adversity by averaging 15 points and 9.33 boards in her last three starts.
With Makenzie Robertson Fuller and family in attendance, Baylor dominated like they were the Bears of old. NaLyssa Smith had her thirteenth double double of the season with 16 points and 13 rebounds and passed Baylor legend and national champion Kalani Brown on the Baylor all-time double double list with 41 (fifth in program history).
The Bears out-rebounded the Cowgirls 36-31, were active on defense with nine steals while forcing 17 total turnovers and assisted on 16 of 23 made field goals. Baylor only turned the ball over four times in the first half and held Oklahoma State to nine third quarter points.
It was not easy for Oklahoma State—who only trailed by eight at the intermission—as they were without their leading scorer Lauren Fields. The five-foot-nine junior averages 16.4 points per game on 38 percent shooting but all that was disclosed was that she would not be available with no further explanation.
In her absence, Taylen Collin’s and Lexy Keys each scored 16 points with Keys doing so off the bench. As a team, Oklahoma State shot 36 and 23.5 percent from the field and three respectively.
Baylor, despite only shooting 2-of-11 from deep a game after they sunk 14 threes, was simply too powerful. Jordan Lewis had 13 points and seven assists, Caitlin Bickle had eight points and former Cowgirl Ja’Mee Asberry had nine points against her former team.
Baylor will host No. 7 Iowa State at the Ferrell Center on Sunday at 2 p.m. CST. The game will be televised on ESPN2 and will be an opportunity for Baylor to tie the Cyclones in the league standings and make up ground on others.