No. 3 Baylor women beat Oklahoma State 69-52
STILLWATER, Okla. (AP) - One of the keys to Baylor's success this season has been its superior depth. With four starters scoring in double digits Wednesday night, that was apparent again.
Imani Wright scored 16 points, Nina Davis had 14 points and 12 rebounds and No. 3 Baylor beat Oklahoma State 69-52 on Wednesday night for its 20th straight victory.
Sune Agbuke added 10 points and nine rebounds, and Niya Johnson had 10 points, six rebounds and five assists for Baylor (21-1, 10-0 Big 12). The Lady Bears' only loss was Nov. 17 to No. 11 Kentucky.
"This is a team where we just don't have one superstar, we've got several that can score and we share the ball well," Baylor coach Kim Mulkey said. "I thought our defense was very good and I thought we listened to the scouting report well. We hit some shots and executed offenses early in the game, and it just kept snowballing a little bit and we spread the wealth."
But as happy as she was with her starters, Mulkey wasn't pleased with her bench players.
"That should have been a 30-point game and it was a 17-point game," Mulkey said. "We've got enough people that come off that bench that have started for us many games, and I expect more of them, and I didn't think they did very good. But we did win and wins are hard to come by and I thought we were ready to play."
Brittney Martin had 16 points and five rebounds for Oklahoma State (13-8, 3-7). The Cowgirls are 1-5 in their last six games.
"Baylor's got an outstanding basketball team," coach Jim Littell said. "I thought we came out in the first half and played pretty cautious, tentative and, even the word may be, a little intimidated of them."
Baylor led 7-0 and 10-2 and had a 37-21 advantage at halftime.
"I think in the first half, we kind of let them get too far ahead and we didn't play as well as I think we should have," said Martin, who also had three steals. "They got up and it's hard to come back, especially against a team like that."
The Lady Bears had a 10-0 run early in the second half, making it 49-23 when Niya Johnson completed a three-point play with a free throw with 15:28 remaining.
Oklahoma State responded with a 7-0 run, with Roshunda Johnson scoring all seven points, to make it 49-30 with 13:53 left.
Later in the half, the Cowgirls reeled off a 13-4 run, but that just pulled them to 67-50 when Johnson sank two free throws with 3:44 to go.
"I wasn't really that unhappy with the way we played in the second half," Littell said. "I thought we competed a lot harder in the second half, went after rebounds, went after loose balls, guarded better in the second half."
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TIP INS
Baylor: The 20-game winning streak ranks as the fifth-longest in Lady Bears history. The fourth-longest is 21 games from 2010-11, while the school record is 42 - 40 during their national championship season of 2011-12, plus the first two of 2012-13. ... Baylor is 10-0 in Big 12 play for the fourth time in five seasons.
Oklahoma State: Senior forward Liz Donohoe entered the game averaging 11.8 points, but scored just seven points. She had just five points and two rebounds through the first 12 minutes of the second half, with OSU trailing by 20-plus points. It's the third game in the last five that Donohoe scored seven or fewer.
STAT LINES
The Lady Bears are 90-3 in the Big 12 over the past five seasons - 77-3 during the regular season and 12-0 in the Big 12 postseason tournament. Baylor entered the night third in the nation with a +13.6 rebounding margin, and its wound up edging OSU 40-32. Nina Davis, third in the Big 12 with an 8.8 rebound average, grabbed a game-high 12. Despite 12 points from Kaylee Jensen, who also had four rebounds in 22 minutes, Oklahoma State lost the bench points battle 14-13.
UP NEXT
Baylor: At No. 20 Texas on Sunday.
Oklahoma State: At Kansas on Saturday.