Bears lean on defense, rebounding
Mulkey especially proud of showing in 2nd round
Now in her 21st year at Baylor, coach Kim Mulkey has a strong sense of how her opponents are building the Bears’ scouting report. The first two facets she expects to see on the whiteboard are defense and rebounding.
Mulkey said each new class of players she brings into the program learns that standing out on defense is the fastest way to earn minutes, a lesson driven home by the many segments of practice that don’t involve a basketball.
Scoring will come and go, Mulkey said, but defense is consistent, becoming a primary reason the program has enjoyed steady success through the years.
Behind a suffocating defense that leads
the nation in opponent field-goal percentage for the fourth straight season, No. 2 seed Baylor posted a dominating 90-48 win against No. 7 seed Virginia Tech on Tuesday at Greehey Arena, advancing to the Sweet 16 for the 12th consecutive tournament.
“I’ve been doing this 36 years, and that was as impressive of a performance defensively from start to finish that I’ve been a part of,” Mulkey said. “I hate to say that because sometimes we forget as coaches, but good golly, our kids were ready to play defensively.”
The Bears (27-2) scored less than 10 seconds into the game and never trailed, holding the Hokies (15-10) to 30.2 shooting — a tick better than Baylor’s Ncaabest 31.7 percent defense for the year. Virginia Tech’s previous low for scoring this season was 54 points.
Baylor controlled the interior through the game, outscoring Virginia Tech 46-4 in the paint and building a 53-23 rebounding margin.
The Hokies’ offense found almost nothing inside during the first half, hitting 2 of 16 shots from 2-point range and going 1 of 2 at the free-throw line. Virginia Tech needed more than 12 minutes to hit its first shot inside the arc as Baylor posted eight blocks through the first 20 minutes, including five from Queen Egbo, to take a 44-20 lead at halftime.
Hokies sophomore Elizabeth Kitley, a 6-foot-5 center who entered averaging a team-high 18.7 points per game, was limited to six points on 2-of-12 shooting with a pair of turnovers.
“They have great players, but I think we have better players, and I think our players showed that today,” Baylor senior Dijonai Carrington said. “Queen was just a menace on defense. She didn’t let them get anything they wanted.”
Baylor built the first-half cushion even as Nalyssa Smith, an East Central alumna and Allamerica selection who leads Baylor in scoring and rebounding this season, was limited to seven minutes after picking up two early fouls.
Smith finished with 15 points and four rebounds in 23 minutes, while Carrington and Moon Ursin each netted a game-high 21 points. Egbo finished with 12 points, 13 rebounds, seven blocks and three steals.
Mulkey said activity and communication were the Bears’ biggest keys on defense, but she added that Baylor left Egbo “on an island” against Kitley in the post, wary of the Virginia Tech center’s ability to pass out of double-teams.
“Queen Egbo was a beast out there today, and she’s been doing that,” Mulkey said. “It’s so good to see the progress she has made since she’s been at Baylor, because we’re a better basketball team when Queen Egbo plays like that.”
Baylor, which has won 19 straight games, advances to face No. 6 seed Michigan at 2 p.m. Saturday.
The Wolverines (16-5) reached the Sweet 16 for the first time in program history Tuesday, knocking off No. 3 seed Tennessee 7055 — the first time a top-three seed was eliminated from this year’s field.
Baylor has looked as dominant as any team in the nation through its first two games, trouncing first-round opponent Jackson State by a 49-point margin before Tuesday’s 42-point rout.
Assessing the landscape Monday, Mulkey said the tournament has “no dominant team,” putting the Bears in the mix to defend the national championship they claimed in 2019.
“I firmly believe, probably for the first time maybe in my career of coaching, those numbers in front of a school’s name mean absolutely nothing,” Mulkey said. “And because it’s wide open, our motto is, ‘Why not us again?’ ”