Bears bruise the Jaguars in 85-53 beat down

The Highlights:

• Sarah Andrews joins the 1,000-point club.
• Dre’una Edwards goes 9-10 from the field and leads the Bears in scoring with 20 points.
• Four Bears score double figures.
• Dre’una Edwards - 20
• Jada Walker - 15
• Sarah Andrews - 14
• Madison Bartley - 12
• All 13 Bears saw minutes.

The No. 19 Baylor Bears took down Southern 85-53. The Bears were led by Dre’una Edwards who scored 20 points in her first game with the Bears.

Senior guard Sarah Andrews joined the 1,000-point club tonight in the fourth quarter—an exclusive club consisting of Bears such as Lauren Cox, Queen Egbo and Juicy Landrum. Andrews is the 40th member of the club at Baylor. In addition to her joining the 1,000-point club, Andrews now sits alone at fourth all-time for made 3-pointers with 167.

Andrews said, “I didn’t know [I got it] until Coach Nicki pulled me out. I was like, ‘Oh snap, that’s kinda cool.’”. Coach Nicki Collen quickly praised Andrew’s achievement, “I think she’s done it in essentially two years. I mean, she just didn’t get a ton of minutes her freshman year, and certainly, that was a really, really talented team that was maybe a play away from the final four. To really get it done in two years and one game says a lot about her offensive skill set. Whether it was alongside Nalyssa Smith or last year, really a load of the offense once Aijah went down.”

On top of the career milestone for Andrews, Edwards showed up and showed out for Baylor in her first game since having to sit out as a 4-4-4 transfer from Kentucky. Edwards went 9-10 from the field and is expected to be a key part of the scheme going forward.

Collen said, “Nine for 10 is solid every game to me; I’d be real happy with nine for 10. I love her rim running; I think that is something that is going to be consistent. She’s probably gonna play more than 19 minutes in most games. I think she’s someone that’s starting to read our actions: when to hand it off when to keep it. She does such a good job of creating angles to finish. She obviously finished some tougher shots tonight. She does a good job of using her shoulder and getting leverage and playing through and around contact and understanding that.”

Looking forward, Collen would like to see Edwards channel some of the energy Caitlin Bickle brought last year. “She kind of fills that role that Caitlin Bickle had last year to make some reads against the zone and to make some reads in our man…Caitlin was just an unbelievable passer and a high IQ. I think Dre has some of the same strengths, but she’s got more of a scoring mentality than Caitlin did, and she certainly doesn’t want to take any charges. We need Caitlin to kind of send her some messages about that because I think that’s something right now. You know Dre’s not going to block a lot of shots at the rim, so she needs to wall up against hers, but she’s gotta rotate and take some charges.”

The Bear’s next match is against No. 5 Utah in the Ferrell Center next Tuesday, November 14th.

Tonight, the Utes breezed past Mississippi Valley State 104-45.