#4/4 Texas (16-0; 5-0) and #6/7 Baylor (17-1; 4-1) meet in Austin on Sunday at 2:30 PM in a game televised on ESPN2. Baylor is seeking their 12th straight win in the series. Texas leads the series 57-32. The two have played every year since 1975. That’s the longest continuous playing streak against any opponent.
The Lady Bears have two players averaging double figures in conference play: Alexis Jones (# 30, 5-9 RS Jr. G) is averaging 14.4 ppg and Nina Davis (# 13, 5-11 Jr. F) pitches in 11.2 ppg. Kristy Wallace (# 4, 5-11 Soph. G) adds 9.4 ppg. Niya Johnson (# 2, 5-8 Sr. G) is the fourth leading scorer at 8.3 ppg. Jones (29-70; 41.4%) and Davis (28-69; 40.6%) lead Baylor in FGs made and attempted. Wallace is third in both categories at 17-42 (40.5%). Kalani Brown (# 21, 6-7 Fr. Post) tops the squad in FG% at 65.0% (13-20) while fellow post Beatrice Mompremier (# 32, 6-4 Fr. Post) converts at a 53.8% rate (14-26). Johnson has the second highest FG% at 60.9% (14-23). Alexis Prince (# 12, 6-2 RS Jr. G) is the only other Lady Bear to make a FG (1-3; 33.3%). In the first five Big 12 games, only four players have attempted a trey and only three have made one. Davis has the highest % from BTA at 50.0% on 3-6 shots. Jones has made and taken the most threes, 9-30, 30.0%. Wallace has hit 6-16 for a 37.5%. Prince hit on 36.4% (39-107) last season. Expect her to start taking some 3s as she continues to recover from her surgery to repair a torn meniscus and cartilage damage suffered in a practice back in Nov. Mompremier has the most FTs attempted with 21 but has only made 4 (19.0%). Hack a Beatrice anyone? Her fellow frosh post is hitting 90% from the FT line but has only stepped to the FT line ten times. Wallace is 7-7. Khadijiah Cave (# 55, 6-3 Jr. Post) has the third best FT% at 78.6% (11-14). Davis (7-12; 58.3%), Jones (5-9; 55.6%) and Johnson (5-9; 55.6%) have been having trouble making their FTs.
Five players grab at least 5.3 rpg: Cave (7.8 rpg), Jones (6.8 rpg), Davis (5.8 rpg), Mompremier (5.4 rpg) and Johnson (5.3 rpg). Johnson leads the Big 12 with her team leading 40 assists. Her average of 10.0 apg in the Big 12 is 3.8 apg better than the player in second place (OSU’s Patton) at 6.2 apg. Jones is second with 19 assists while Wallace has made 13. The Lady Bears have no one that has reached double figures in blocks. Cave leads with 9 blocks while Brown is second with 7. Three players top the team in steals with ten each: Jones, Wallace and Johnson. They have still given up 48 steals to the 46 they have nabbed.
Baylor has 13 players that have gotten into a Big 12 game. Alexandria Gulley (# 10, 5-7 Fr. G) has yet to play this season as she recovers from a Achilles tendon injury early in her high school senior year. Seven players have started for Baylor this season. Constants in the lineup for all five Big 12 games so far: Jones, Davis and Wallace. Johnson missed the first Big 12 game but has started all four since. Three others that have rotated at the fifth spot are Cave, Mompremier and Kristine Higgins (# 44, 6-5 Sr. Post). Jones (36.6 mpg), Davis (35.4 mpg), Wallace (32.4 mpg) and Johnson (37.2 mpg) rack up the majority of the minutes. Prince is getting back into the flow of the game, having played in the last two games and averaging 10.0 mpg. She will help provide some additional relief for Jones, Wallace and Johnson. In the post, Brown, Cave and Mompremier rotate in the post spot not occupied by Davis although two of the three will play together when Davis either goes out or moves to the SF spot. Higgins also provides some additional depth in the post.
Imani (15.4 ppg) and Empress (10.0 ppg) are the leading scorers for Texas. Ariel (9.8 ppg) and Kelsey (7.2 ppg) lead the bench scoring. Brooke (8.2 ppg) is the fourth leading scorer. Imani leads a group of six players with double digits FG made: Imani (30-53; 56.6%), Ariel (17-25; 68.0%), Kelsey (16-27; 59.3%), Empress (15-41; 36.6%), Brooke (15-37; 40.7%) and Brianna (11-31; 35.5%). Brooke (9-22; 40.9%), Celina (4-13; 30.8%). Empress (5-12; 41.7%), Ariel (5-11; 45.5%) and Brady (3-7; 42.9%) are the top 3pt shooters for the Horns. Imani (17-23; 73.9%) and Empress (15-20; 75.0%) are the top Horns in getting to the FT line. Celina (7-8; 87.5%), Ariel (10-12; 83.3%) and Kelsey (4-5; 80.0%) have the highest FT%. Three others hit over 75% of their FTs.
Imani is one of two Big 12 players averaging a double double in league games. She is 12.2 rpg to go with her 15.5 ppg. Celina and Brianna are second on the team with each averaging 5.0 rpg. Celina averages 5.2 assists per game with Brooke at 3.0 apg and Empress 2.2 apg. Brianna is tied for the league lead with 15 steals in five games. Ariel is second with six steals. Imani’s 24 blocks in five league games is more than twice the next player. Kelsey is second in blocks for Texas with 3.
Horns have started the same five players in every conference game: Imani, Brianna, Brooke, Celina and Empress. They average between 27.8 mpg (Celina) and 21.0 mpg (Brianna). Ariel, Kelsey, LaShann and Brady average between 18.0 and 10.5 mpg. Jordan just misses joining the second group with a 9.8 mpg average. Tasia, Sara and Olamide have played in four Big 12 games, averaging in single digits. That’s a consistent ten player rotation averaging double digit minutes and an additional three that have played in almost every league game.
Projected starting lineups based on the last game:
Texas______________Baylor
Imani (6-7)________ Mompremier (6-4)
Brianna (5-9)______ Davis (5-11)
Empress (5-9)_____ Jones (5-9)
Celina (5-8)_______ Wallace (5-11)
Brooke (5-4)______ Johnson (5-8)
Baylor is probably the only team in the Big 12 that can match the height of Texas inside. A matchup to watch will be Davis and Brianna. Davis is the more polished inside player but Brianna brings a lot of quickness and energy. Imani and Kelsey will match a pair in Mompremier and Brown that will match them in height, and in Brown, will be bigger. Experience should help Imani and Kelsey get the edge inside. Jones will present a problem with her quickness and ability to both penetrate and shoot the three. Johnson is your classic pass first PG but shoots the ball well when she takes the shot. Horns can’t really go to sleep on her. Actually, I can see Baylor putting Jones on Brooke to keep her from getting open looks from BTA. Horns will have an edge on the perimeter as they will be able to rotate several players while Baylor does not appear to be comfortable playing more than Jones, Wallace, Johnson and Prince and moving Davis to SF. That move to SF robs Davis of her innate ability to rebound and put back misses by her teammates. Foul trouble on the posts could swing the momentum to one team or the other.
Conference Team Stats___________Texas (5-0)________Baylor (4-1)
Scoring____________________________379_______________322
PPG_______________________________75.8_______________64.4
Scoring Margin___________________+24.6______________+8.6
FGs Made-Att____________________138-307____________128-290
FG Ave/Game Made-Att__________27.6-61.4___________25.6-58.0
FG%_____________________________45.0%_______________44.1%
2pt Made-Att____________________111-234_____________110-237
2pt FGs Ave/Game Made-Att____22.2-46.8____________22.0-47.4
2pt FG%_________________________47.4%_______________46.4%
3p FGs Made-Att________________27-73_______________18-53
3pt Ave/Game Made-Att________5.4-14.6_____________3.6-10.6
3pt FG%________________________37.0%_______________34.0%
FTs Made-Att___________________76-110______________48-82
FT Ave/Game Made-Att________15.2-22.0____________9.6-16.4
FT %___________________________69.1%_______________58.5%
Rebounds_____________________224__________________205
RPG___________________________44.8__________________41.0
Reb Margin____________________+10.6_______________+10.8
Assists_________________________75__________________88
APG___________________________15.0_________________17.6
Turnovers_____________________79___________________83
TOPG_________________________15.8_________________16.6
TO Margin____________________+2.80_______________+0.00
A/TO Ratio____________________0.95________________1.06
Steals_________________________43__________________46
SPG___________________________8.60________________9.20
Blocks________________________34__________________26
BPG__________________________6.80________________5.20
Winning Streak_______________5___________________4
Home Win Streak____________2___________________3
Home Attendance___________6504_______________20547
Attendance Ave/Game______2-3252______________3-6849
Score by quarters (ave)_____1st_____2nd_____3rd _____4th_____OT_____Total
Texas (5-0)___________________22.2____15.2____19.2____19.2____-0-_____75.8
Baylor (4-1)__________________18.6____13.0____18.6____14.2____-0-_____64.4
Horns top the league in scoring, scoring defense, scoring margin, FG%, FG% defense, rebounding offense, blocked shots, defensive rebounds and offensive rebounding percentage. They are second in 3pt FG%. If there is a weakness, it is in 3pt FG% defense where they rank sixth, allowing 32.3% of opponents’ treys. The big battle will be on the boards where Texas and Baylor rank 1, 2 or 3 in the rebounding categories. Both teams like to go inside the arc where they are making 47% (Texas) or 46% (Baylor) of their shots. Neither team depends heavily on the three although Texas is having a bit more success when they do shoot it than does Baylor. A huge edge goes to Texas in getting to the FT line and in making their FTs once there. Baylor is shooting 58.5% from the FT line which ranks ninth in the league going into the weekend games. Both teams come out strong in the first and third quarters with a bit of a slump in the second quarter. Texas is scoring at a pretty high level in every quarter other than the second while Baylor slumps a bit in the second and fourth. Texas rotation goes ten deep with three others getting minutes. Baylor has used seven with Prince providing a third player off the bench in the last two games. Fatigue for Texas should not be a factor. With four players for Baylor playing 32+ minutes a game, it could be for Baylor.
Game time is 2:30 PM CST this Sunday, January 17. The game will be carried on ESPN2. Radio will be The Horn, 104.9 FM.
Texassports.com: “No. 4 Women’s Basketball starts fast to win big”
http://www.texassports.com/news/2016/1/14/WBB_0114160805.aspx
texassports.com video interview with ESPN’s Mechelle Voepel breaking down the Texas-BU game: http://www.texassports.com/news/2016/1/15/WBB_0115165821.aspx
baylorbears.com game preview: http://www.baylorbears.com/sports/w-baskbl/spec-rel/011516aaa.html
espn story on BU’s Alexis Jones, with a sidebar about the Texas-BU game.
http://espn.go.com/womens-college-basketball/story/_/id/14576221/for-baylor-lady-bears-alexis-jones-playing-closer-home-was-best-all
AAS pregame story: http://www.hookem.com/story/longhorns-to-face-baylor-in-high-profile-big-12-showdown/
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Last edited: Jan 16, 2016