Baylor Humbles TCU 71-50 in Conference Home Opener

Welcome to the Foster Pavillion! 

In the women’s first contest in the new Paul and Alejandra Foster Pavillion, the Bears batted down the previously undefeated No. 23 TCU. 

Baylor and TCU went blow for blow in the first half and sent the teams to the locker rooms with a score of 26-22 in favor of the Horned Frogs. After some key adjustments, the Bears outscored TCU  49-24 in the second half, leading to the BU victory 71-50. 

The Bears were led in scoring by sophomore Bella Fontleroy, who started for the fifth time this season; Fontleroy went 8-9 from the field, where 5-6 went in for three for a total of 21 points. Sarah Andrews wasn’t far behind, putting up 16 of her own, shooting 5-10 from the field with four 3-pointers and two from the charity stripe. Yaya Felder was the third and final Bear to score in double figures tonight, with 13 points to her name. 

Baylor out-rebounded TCU 39-34 tonight, led by Dre’Una Edwards with 10. Darianna Littlepage-Buggs and Aijha Blackwell were close behind; they each came down with the ball eight times. 

The Bears’ ability to share the ball played a large part in their victory tonight. BU recorded 19 assists compared to the eight from TCU. This was one of the adjustments we saw come to fruition in the second half, where the Bears put up 12 of their 19 assists to TCU’s four out of eight. The other side of this adjustment comes from BU making solid passes, only committing four turnovers in the second half compared to the nine in the first, combining for 13 in the game. TCU turned the ball over 12 times in the first half and seven in the second, for a total of 19 in the game. 21 of Baylor’s points came from turnovers. 

The Foster Pavillion welcomed 5,905 fans for the first women’s game. In a rare turn of events, I was able to play the role of a fan today instead of my normal note-taking from the media section, and I can say it was one of the best fan experiences I’ve had in my life. From walking through security to shuffling out of the pavilion with the masses, everything went smoothly as silk. A huge shoutout goes out to everyone at Baylor Athletics who brought this project to life; truly an A+ job.