WACO – Central Arkansas gave No. 3 Baylor what was undoubtedly its stiffest challenge of the young season, as the Sugar Bears held the Lady Bears to 24.5 points beneath their scoring average, but Baylor pulled away late for an 86-55 win at the Ferrell Center on Tuesday.
The Sugar Bears (1-1) led for nearly 4:30 – the most for a Baylor (3-0) opponent this season – and were outscored by just five, 36-31, in the first and third quarters combined. Entering the final quarter trailing by just 16 against a Lady Bears squad that had won its first two games over Southland Conference foe Lamar and Coppin State by an average of 52.5 points, the Sugar Bears stumbled late as they were held without a field goal for nearly five minutes and Baylor went on a 15-2 run to put away any hopes of a Sugar Bear rally.
Junior guard Kamry Orr had a game-high 23 points while also leading Central Arkansas with 4 assists, and was a perfect 7 of 7 from the free throw line. Senior forward Taylor Baudoin narrowly missed a double-double, getting 13 points and 9 rebounds while knocking down a career-high three 3-pointers. Senior center Kierra Jordan had 11 points, 6 rebounds and 2 assists in 25 minutes before fouling out.
Baylor junior all-american center Kalani Brown, the preseason Big 12 Player of the Year was held to season lows of 19 points and 11 rebounds in 32 minutes, and Lauren Cox – last season's Big 12 Sixth Man of the Year – had 21 and 10.
The Sugar Bears will return to action on Monday at 6:00pm when they host Alcorn State to open a stretch with four of their next five in Conway.
NOTES
• The Sugar Bears drop to 0-8 all time against Big 12 teams and 0-9 vs Top 25 teams
• Though they forced only 7 Baylor turnovers, the Sugar Bears committed just 11 – fewer than the 13 they had in the season opener against Hendrix
• Central Arkansas was 11-of-12 (91.7 percent) at the free throw line while Baylor was 17-of-22 (77.3)
• After averaging 16 offensive rebounds in its first two games, Baylor was held to half that by Central Arkansas, as the Lady Bears got just 8 and scored a season-low 11 second-chance points
•The Sugar Bears knocked down eight 3-pointers on Tuesday while holding Baylor to a season-low five
• Five different Sugar Bears connected from long range, led by 3 from Taylor Baudoin. Kierra Jordan also went 1-for-4, knocking down the first 3-pointer of her collegiate career
• Baylor blocked just four Sugar Bear shots, a season low after averaging 9 blocks in their first two games
• Baylor improves its home winning streak against unranked opponents to 181 games, dating back to 2003; and improve to 219-4 in non-conference home games under Kim Mulkey
QUOTES
Head coach Sandra Rushing
"I'm very happy with our effort and passion. I thought we were nervous at first, but overall I'm very pleased. I'm really proud of how we came in here on the big stage and held them under their average. They've been averaging 110, and we held them to quite a bit under that."
"Hopefully this is a good confidence builder for our players. We have the opportunity down the road if we keep working – we'll be ready for conference. We want to go back to the NCAA tournament, but we are a long way from that. But I really believe this team has it, we just haven't played together enough."
"Kamry Orr is such a competitor – a fierce competitor. She plays defense, offense, and it was good to see her running the show tonight. So glad she's wearing a Sugar Bear uniform."
"We've just got to get everybody still believing and buying into our philosophy and our system. We have a lot of work to do, but I saw a lot of good things tonight. A lot of good things."
"[Baylor coach Kim Mulkey] was very complimentary of our team and how hard we played and that we run some good things. She joked about how 'y'all don't usually shoot that many 3s', but I told her "we had to, playing against y'all.' But she was very complimentary of our players and coaching staff and I really appreciate that because she's such a legendary coach. It's always great to come in and have our program represented in the way that our players did tonight. They played extremely hard."
