AUSTIN, Texas — Just a five-point game at half, if you didn't look at the scoreboard until the end of the third quarter, you would have been stunned Friday.
No. 2 Baylor beat Texas 64-44 at the Frank Erwin Center in Austin on Friday in a pivotal Big 12 conference game between the league's top two women's teams.
The win is the Lady Bears' seventh in a row over the Longhorns and 40th consecutive regular-season conference road win, which is the third-longest such streak in NCAA history.
NaLyssa Smith started for the first time since Jan. 18th, due to a high right ankle sprain, but was limited to 11 minutes.
Baylor struggled in the early goings, shooting just 5-of-17 from the floor in the first quarter. Through 10 minutes, the game was tied at 10.
Then, in the second quarter, things started to pick up for Baylor, as it shot a much improved 50% from the floor in the frame while holding Texas to just 29.4%. Baylor led 29-24 at halftime.
"Just stay the course," Baylor coach Kim Mulkey said she told her team at halftime. "Tmain thing that I told them the entire game, before the game, scouting report, don’t give them but one shot. Keep them off the offensive boards. They’re a good rebounding team and so are we. And when you go to somebody’s home court, you can’t let the crowd get into it and you can’t let them have a second and third shot."
Texas matched Baylor's 11 offensive rebounds on the night logged just three assists in the game, which Texas coach Karen Aston said afterward wasn't good enough.
"And part of that is a credit to Baylor," Aston said.
Baylor opened the third quarter on a 9-2 run, forcing Aston to call a timeout. After the timeout, called with 7:23 left in the period, Baylor only allowed Texas to score three points and went on an 11-0 run, out-scoring the Longhorns 23-5 in the frame.
The run was Baylor's 29th double-digit run of the season and the quarter was the 24th this season in which it held its opponent to single-digit scoring.
That gave Baylor the control it needed to win, moving its lead to two games on now-second-place TCU, which plays Saturday.
The Lady Bears have five days until they return to action, when they host Kansas at 7 p.m. Wednesday.
"That gives us a chance to take some time off," Mulkey said. "It also gives us a chance to get kids like NaLyssa some more treatment."