Vonleh, Walker Help Push Baylor Past Grand Canyon in First Round of NCAA Tournament, 73-60
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WACO, Texas – No. 4-seed Baylor women’s basketball (28-7) defeated the scrappy No. 13-seed Grand Canyon Antelopes (32-3), 73-60, in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Friday afternoon at Foster Pavilion.
Center Aaronette Vonleh (Sr.) collected her fifth double-double of the season with a team-high 25 points and 11 rebounds. Guard Jada Walker (Sr.) added 17 points on 7-of-9 shooting, five rebounds and four assists. The duo combined for 31 of BU’s 42 points in the second half.
Baylor shot 50% (24-of-48) from the floor and scored roughly half of its points (36) inside the paint in Friday’s first-round victory that snapped Grand Canyon’s 30-game winning streak. The Bears also drilled five shots from beyond the arc and were 20-of-31 from the free-throw line.
“That was a really good basketball team. There’s a reason they’ve won 30 in a row,” head coach Nicki Collen said post-game of Grand Canyon. “To start the game, we were a little off. We settled into the game and settled into the environment. Offensively, I thought we were elite in the second half. We started to take care of the ball, and we played through Netty and played inside out.”
Grand Canyon jumped out to an early 10-6 lead, and Collen called a timeout less than three and a half minutes into the contest in an attempt to stop her squad’s sluggish start.
Despite the size advantage inside, Baylor struggled to get easy looks at the rim in the first quarter. The Bears shot 33% (4-of-12) from the floor, with two of those makes coming from beyond the arc. Guard Yaya Felder (Sr.) led Baylor with five points in the first period; she finished with 12 points and six rebounds.
“I didn’t want to call that timeout, but I felt the nerves, and I felt that we needed to settle down,” Collen said. “As great as it is to be home, there’s a lot of pressure, there’s a lot of people and there’s a lot of expectations. Grand Canyon was picked as a bracket buster because they are good. They were playing faster than we were ready for them to play.”
The Bears took their first lead of the afternoon, 19-18, on a put-back layup from forward Bella Fontleroy (Jr.) minutes into the second quarter. Following Fontleroy’s bucket, Baylor went on a five-minute scoring drought and trailed 23-19 before guard Aliyah Matharu (Sr.) drained a 3-pointer, and Vonleh took over down the stretch of the second period.
Vonleh scored seven of her 25 total points in the final minutes of the second quarter, giving the Bears a 31-28 lead going into the halftime locker room. Vonleh became the first Bear since NaLyssa Smith (2021-2022) to score over 500 points in a single season.
“At the beginning of the game, it was hard to get touches because they were being so aggressive defensively,” Vonleh said. “But I made it an emphasis to keep posting hard, knowing that it was going to open eventually and my teammates would figure out how to give it to me successfully.”
Baylor (36%) and Grand Canyon (35%) had similar first-half shooting splits and turnover numbers (8-to-7), but the Bears shot 10-of-14 from the free throw line, compared to the Antelopes, who were 3-of-4 from the charity stripe.
Grand Canyon’s aggressive defense kept them in foul trouble throughout the contest, with four players in their starting lineup picking up at least two personal fouls in the first half. GCU’s star guard, Trinity San Antonio (Sr.), was limited to seven minutes in the first half but came alive in the second half, scoring 23 of her game-high 27 points across the final two periods.
Baylor limited Alyssa Durazo-Frescas (Sr.), the leading 3-point shooter in the nation, to four points on 0-for-3 shooting from beyond the arc in the contest.
“Sarah [Andrews] did an amazing job, and everybody else that got a piece of Durazo-Frescas because I think that was the difference for them,” Collen said.
Walker and Vonleh carried Baylor in the third quarter, combining for all 22 of the Bears’ points with 11 apiece on 10-of-12 shooting. Baylor led 53-47 going into the final period.
The Bears maintained a steady lead throughout the fourth quarter with a combination of Walker, Vonleh and Felder carrying the offense. Fontleroy sealed the victory with a 3-pointer to extend Baylor’s lead to 71-59 with 1:12 remaining.
The Bears (28-7) will await the winner of No. 5-seed Ole Miss (20-10) versus No. 12-seed Ball State (27-7) in the Round of 32. The game is set for Sunday, March 23, at Foster Pavilion, but the time is yet to be determined.
