Bears Drop Big 12 Tournament Championship to Texas, 67-58

KANSAS CITY, Kansas — The No 4. Baylor women’s basketball team (27-6, 15-3) lost the Big 12 tournament championship 67-58 to the No. 7 Texas Longhorns (26-6, 13-5) in a rather rough showing for Coach Nicki Collen’s squad.

The Longhorns’ defense bothered the Bears all afternoon, forcing 16 turnovers which were converted into 19 points.

With the loss, the Bears missed an opportunity to sweep Texas and will be anxiously waiting to see if the loss affects their chances at a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.

All-American forward NaLyssa Smith surpassed the 2,000 career point mark with her 21 points today. She did however tweak her knee in the second quarter, which will hopefully not be an issue moving forward.

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Jordan Lewis and Ja’Mee Asberry both scored 13 points while the rest of the team struggled to even out the attack.

From the tip, Texas looked like the more energetic and decisive team. Their game plan was to slow down and muck up the game, and they were very successful at that.

They forced eight first-half turnovers from the Bears and built an 11-point halftime lead behind 16-14 and 23-14 quarters. That halftime deficit was the largest for Baylor all year.

The end of the second quarter was a nervy time for the green and gold, with Smith leaving the game with 4:17 left and Texas growing their lead.

Lewis worked hard to keep the game somewhat close, netting all 13 of her points in the first half.

Coming out of the locker room, the Bears had Smith back in the game and were playing better on the defensive end, but they could not get the offense going.

Sarah Andrews and Jordan Lewis combined for five turnovers in the third quarter as the pressure to close the gap on Texas combined with the Longhorn’s defensive pressure to hold Baylor to just 10 points.

Without Asberry’s buzzer-beating three to make it a 13-11 quarter, it would have felt like Texas had the game locked down.

In the fourth, the Bears got it as close as seven points multiple times, but at each instance, the Longhorns hit a bucket and reset the momentum.

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Rori Harmon led Texas with 20 points while Joanne Allen-Taylor added 14 of her own to keep the Bears at arms-length.

In the end, Texas executed their gameplay better than the Bears. Baylor committed 16 turnovers and never looked comfortable in its offense. The green and gold also left a lot of points at the charity stripe, making just 11 of their 20 free throws.

Perhaps dropping a trophy game to a rival, and especially doing so in this fashion, will be a message or a lesson that the team can use going into the NCAA Tournament. Or maybe it makes that tournament run harder by knocking the team down to a No. 2 seed.

The Bears now wait for the selection show at 7 PM CT to know what is next.