Lady Bears aim for 10th Big 12 Championship title against 2-seed ISU

The Lady Bears stormed to another victory over Kansas State, 88-60 on Sunday afternoon. Their opponent, Iowa State, defeated Texas 75-69 in the following game of the tournament championship bracket. This will be the third time Baylor has faced Iowa State and the Lady Bears have defeated the Cyclones 84-69 in Waco and 73-60 in Ames. 

How To Watch:

Monday, March 11 at 8 p.m.

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Keys To The Game:

Keep composure

Pound the paint

Harass the Big 12 Player of the Year

Fun Facts:

Get one for the second thumb

Ames may have great water, but currently it is ice. Hooray!

LADY BEARS AIM FOR 10TH BIG 12 CHAMPIONSHIP TITLE VS. IOWA STATE MONDAY
Three strong offensive performances propelled Baylor to its 10th Big 12 Championship title game appearance in the last 11 seasons with the Lady Bears taking an 88-60 win over Kansas State Sunday. Kalani Brown needed just 21 minutes of playing time to score 24 points while grabbing nine rebounds. Lauren Cox was two assists shy of a triple double-double adding 18 points and 15 rebounds to go along with her eight assists and two blocks. Juicy Landrum scored 19 points with three triples, and other than a tight 21-18 first quarter, Baylor controlled the matchup for the majority of the contest. The Lady Bears won the paint battle 53-16 and scored eight fast-break points compared to zero for K-State. Baylor's win over the Wildcats was its 31st straight over K-State.
  
BAYLOR HISTORY IN THE CONFERENCE TOURNAMENT
Baylor has nine Big 12 Conference Tournament championships, including eight of the last 10. If the Lady Bears add another, that will mark 20 Big 12 championships combined between regular season and tournament titles. The Lady Bears are 42-13 all-time in the tournament and 41-9 under head coach Kim Mulkey. All-time vs. Iowa State in the tournament, Baylor is 3-1 with the last matchup vs. the Cyclones coming in 2013 where Baylor won 75-47 in the championship game.
 
INTERIOR DEFENSE DOMINANT
While some may look at the fact that Baylor has surrendered 233 3-point field goals this season (most by a Big 12 school) as a negative, take into account that only 668 of 1,696 points given up by Baylor this season have come on two-point field goals. That' s just 335 two-pointers in 31 games, which averages 10.8 2-point field goals per game or 21.6 points per game given up inside the 3-point arc this season.
 
DEFENSE BEGINS WITH DIDI
DiDi Richards, a sophomore guard/forward is consistently asked to guard the top perimeter player on Baylor's opposing team. For example, she held Katie Lou Samuelson of UConn to 12 points on 4-of-16 shooting Jan. 3, and she held OSU's Vivian Gray to a dozen on 5-of-16 from the floor Jan. 30. Both those players rank in the top 50 nationally in points per game. Richards' numbers aren't flashy, but respectable, she's averaging 1.2 steals per game for the year and 1.3 in Big 12 play, but she's anchoring the defensive unit that is leading the nation for the third-straight year in field goal percentage defense. For her efforts, Big 12 coaches voted her as a member of the 2019 Big 12 All-Defensive Team Wednesday.
  
50 IS THE MAGIC NUMBER: BAYLOR NEARLY UNBEATABLE WHEN HITTING HALF ITS SHOTS
In just one occurrence since Kim Mulkey's arrival at Baylor in the 2000-01 season have the Lady Bears lost a game when shooting 50 percent or better. Baylor's record under Mulkey when shooting 50 percent or better is 215-1, and the Lady Bears are 36-0 when shooting 60 percent or better. The lone loss came in the 2017 NCAA Tournament when Baylor fell to Mississippi State in the Elite 8, 94-85 on March 26 despite shooting 53.3 percent from the floor.