No. 17 Bears are Peaking at Right Time, Eye Second Big 12 Championship in Collen Era
"I'm not sure if I've ever been as proud of a team," fourth-year head coach Nicki Collen told the media following No. 17 Baylor's (25-5, 15-2) hard-fought 79-62 win over No. 14 Kansas State (25-5, 13-4) on Monday night.
The Bears were already without their leading scorer and rebounder, Darianna Littlepage-Buggs (Jr.), who has missed the last three games due to a non-season-ending knee injury, but things took a turn for the worse when forward Bella Fontleroy (Jr.) exited Monday's game with an apparent shoulder injury after a collision with Kansas State's guard, Serena Sundell (Sr.), just minutes into the second half.
When Fontleroy, who has been averaging 17.3 points per game without Littlepage-Buggs in the lineup, left the game, the Wildcats seized the opportunity and trimmed Baylor's lead to just four points, 43-39, at the third-quarter media timeout.
With their backs against the wall in a hostile road environment, the short-handed Bears continued to fight and hit timely shots whenever Kansas State looked poised to make a comeback.
"I thought it was a really solid performance from us," Collen said. "In particular, when they had that run early in the third quarter when the crowd got involved. We just found a way to bounce back and make plays."
Center Aaronette Vonleh (Sr.) had her best game in a Baylor uniform and dominated down the stretch with a season-high 24 points on 10-of-15 shooting while hauling in 12 rebounds and collecting three blocks.
Guards Yaya Felder (Sr.) and Aliyah Matharu (Sr.) scored 15 points apiece, and Jada Walker (Sr.) added eight points, collected two steals and dished out a team-high 11 assists.
"Even with an injury to Buggs and the injury to Fontleroy today, we've just kept finding a way. This group is really, really confident right now, and they are playing really well together; they have a next-up mentality," Collen noted. "In general, I think the way they are playing together right now is special."
The victory on Monday night in the "Little Apple" marked the Bears' ninth straight win and capped off a brutal stretch that saw the team play three games in six days, including road trips to Boulder, Colorado, and Manhattan, Kansas.
"We've had two [conference] losses for a long time, so we've had to claw our way back," Collen said. "Obviously, when the Big 12 schedule came out, we saw three games in six days — at Colorado, Iowa State at home, Kansas State — with Kansas State picked No. 1, and Iowa State picked No. 2 [in the conference preseason poll], we knew this was going to be a really, really tough stretch for us."
Alongside a balanced scoring attack, the defense has been at the forefront of Baylor's success in recent weeks. The Bears limited Iowa State and Kansas State, two of the best shooting teams in the country, to a combined 10% (3-of-29) from beyond the arc.
"They certainly had an awareness of where we were at," Kansas State head coach Jeff Mittie said of Baylor's 3-point defense. "The [shots] were covered pretty well. I don't remember too many open ones — let's put it that way. We took 15 [3-pointers], and we probably only had a handful of open ones."
Across the last two games, Baylor has faced three of the best players in the conference and potential Big 12 Player of the Year candidates: Kansas State's Sundell, Iowa State forward Addy Brown (So.) and Iowa State center Audi Crooks (So.). In addition to limiting the top performers, Collen mentioned that taking away opponent shots beyond the arc was a priority in both games.
"That was the goal," she said. "[K-State] shoots almost 50% from 3. In their last five [games], what [Taryn] Sides, [Jaelyn] Glenn and [Temira] Poindexter have done is remarkable, statistically. Sundell is arguably the player of the year in our league with what she brings to the table for this team."
Collen added, "They are at their best when [Sundell] can mix scoring with kicking it out and getting her teammates involved. I thought today, we turned her into 'you gotta go score,' and she did. She certainly did, but I thought taking away the 3 was the most important thing we had to do today."
While Sundell scored 20 points on 10-of-19 shooting, she was limited to just three assists — four below her 7.3 per game average — and turned the ball over a season-high seven times. Overall, the Bears scored 16 points off 18 Kansas State turnovers.
Against Iowa State on Feb. 22, Baylor's defense limited Brown to eight points, a season-low in conference play, on 2-of-11 shooting. Crooks, who had scored in double figures in 60 straight games entering last Saturday, had just two points at halftime before closing the contest with 14 points on 6-of-12 shooting from the floor.
"Probably the biggest thing was they were really physical at the point of attack, both pressuring the ball and bringing the ball up the court," Iowa State head coach Bill Fennelly said after the Cyclones 67-52 loss. "When Audi [Crooks] got some touches inside, they walled her off pretty well. … That's what [good] defenses do. They speed you up and get you out of your comfort zone."
With a Big 12 regular season title on the line this weekend, Baylor will look to avenge its loss from earlier in the season to No. 10 TCU. In the first matchup, the Horned Frogs took a commanding 12-2 lead minutes into the contest and shot 56% (14-of-25) from the field and 80% (8-of-10) from 3-point range in the first half.
Despite cutting TCU's lead to as low as three points in the fourth quarter, the Bears could never overcome the early deficit and walked away with an 80-75 loss. Baylor shot 37% (28-of-76) from the field, with Vonleh, Fontleroy and Littlepage-Buggs combining for just 20 points.
While Fontleroy and Littlepage-Buggs's injury status for Sunday currently remains unknown, the Bears — who are playing their best basketball of the season right now — have several things to play for this weekend, including an outright Big 12 regular season title.
Also, a win over the rival Horned Frogs would potentially move Baylor into the top 16 nationally, allowing Collen's squad to host the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament, something that opposing coaches believe the Bears deserve.
"I've been coming to Baylor a long time, and I think this is a team that the fans need to get even more behind them — I really do," Fennelly said last Saturday. "They are really good, and they are fun to watch."
He later added, "It's a team that does it right. They have a chance to be one of those hosting teams in the tournament; I think they should be without question. They have a couple of really big games left, but it's a team where if you see them come up in your draw, you're not going to be real excited."
No. 17 Baylor (25-5, 15-2) will close the regular season against No. 10 TCU (26-3, 14-2). Tipoff from Foster Pavilion is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. CT on Sunday, March 2, and will be televised on FS1.