OU outmatched by Baylor
Despite struggling in the first half, fifth-ranked Baylor beat Oklahoma 74-52 Sunday at Lloyd Noble Center.
NORMAN — Baylor survived an off game from star center Kalani Brown but failed to escape coach Kim Mulkey’s wrath.
Dekeiya Cohen scored 16 points and Kristy Wallace added 15 to help the fifthranked Lady Bears defeat Oklahoma 74-52 on Sunday afternoon.
Brown finished with nine points, four fewer than her previous season low. The 6-foot-7 junior, who entered averaging 21.5 points per game, played just 15 minutes because of foul trouble. Lauren Cox, a sophomore forward, stepped into Brown’s role for much of the game and had eight points and 10 rebounds.
Still, the frontcourt play wasn’t up to Mulkey’s standards. When asked if the Lady Bears won with defense, Mulkey said, “Well, we didn’t win it with Cox and Kalani.”
Mulkey liked the defensive effort. The Lady Bears held OU to 17.9 percent shooting after the break.
“Sometimes, you have to win ugly,” Mulkey said. “I thought that we tried our best to not let them get on a roll and hit a lot of threes. I thought that we rebounded in spurts, where we only gave them one look and didn’t stop the clock a whole lot. I thought our defense was pretty good.”
Mulkey said Cohen had one of the best games of her career. The senior forward finished two points short of her career high.
Natalie Chou added 12 points for the Lady Bears (15-1, 5-0 Big 12), who won their 12th straight, all by at least 22 points. It was Baylor’s fourth-straight win against OU.
Ana Llanusa scored 19 points and Vionise PierreLouis added 14 for OU (8-9, 3-3).
Baylor got off to a rough start but dominated the second half.
“I thought Baylor looked way more confident in the second half than we did and that’s something, with four seniors on your team, that you’d like to see a little bit more confidence there, for sure,” OU coach Sherri Coale said.
Baylor did not make a field goal until the 5:36 mark in the first quarter. Brown got a technical after she hit Pierre-Louis with an elbow and went to the bench with her second foul. OU took advantage and led 22-16 at the end of the first quarter. It was just the second time all year the Lady Bears trailed after the opening period.
Baylor rallied and took a 33-30 lead at halftime with Brown sitting out the entire second quarter. The Lady Bears held the Sooners to eight points in the period.
Baylor scored the first four points of the second half and remained in control the rest of the way. The Lady Bears led 51-38 at the end of the third quarter.
“In the second and third quarter we didn’t punch it inside like we usually do, and then we were getting it inside, we weren’t finishing layups, so that doesn’t open much of our driving lanes and it doesn’t open our guards to shoot,” Pierre-Louis said.