WACO, Texas (AP) - Texas Tech freshman Marina Lizarazu made an impressive drive to the basket for a layup.
The problem with the Lady Raiders’ first basket against No. 9 Baylor on Wednesday night was that it came more than 9 minutes into the game and they were already too far behind to even consider pulling off an upset against the Big 12 leader.
Odyssey Sims scored 25 points and the Lady Bears went on to a 92-43 victory, after scoring the game’s first 19 points and leading by 25 points at halftime.
“I thought we played very timid, scared at the start,” first-year Lady Raiders coach Candi Whitaker said. “I thought Marina came in and gave us a spark. She doesn’t know Baylor, and you could tell. She just came in and made plays, got to the rim, found shooters.”
The Lady Raiders (6-14, 0-9 Big 12) lost their 10th game in a row while playing their fourth consecutive game against a Top 25 opponent. They were coming off an 85-76 overtime loss at home four days earlier against then-No. 20 Iowa State, but it’s been more than a decade since Whitaker was a starting point guard for two NCAA Sweet Sixteen teams at Tech.
The Lady Bears then had another big run to start the second half, with Sims making two 3-pointers as they scored 16 consecutive points over a 5-minutes span. Makenzie Robertson also had two 3s in that stretch before Nina Davis’ run-capping layup made it 63-22.
“I told them at halftime, we really haven’t put two good halves together,” Baylor coach Kim Mulkey said. “I reminded them of what we did against K-State, we were up 39 and held on to a 23-point lead. And you can’t be a good team if you’re going to do that. I thought tonight, we were focused … It was good everybody. I thought we got starters off the floor and yet got a lot of experience for other players too.”
Amber Battle led Texas Tech with 11 points, eight below her season average.
Sims led five double-figure scorers for Baylor (17-3, 7-1), and three of them were freshmen.
“I think our freshmen are playing with as much confidence as they have had all year, and it’s good to see,” Mulkey said.
Nina Davis, already one of the league’s top freshmen, had 13 points, while Khadijiah Cave had 11 and Ieshia Small 10. Makenzie Robertson, the other senior starter with Sims, had 11 with three 3-pointers for Baylor. Sune Agbuke had 10 rebounds
Texas Tech missed its first 12 shots before Lizarazu, one of four freshmen who played for the Lady Raiders, with 10:43 left in the first half.
Within 2 minutes after that, the Lady Raiders got consecutive 3-pointers from a pair of freshman - Minta Spears, another starter, and Jasmine Caston. That got them within 23-8, but the closest they got after that was 13 points before being down 47-22 at halftime.
“We knocked down shots and kind of got going in the first half,” Whitaker said. “They’re a good team, they have a good inside-out attack, and I think you have to give them a lot of credit. I think we could have been better, think we could have played a lot of harder. I think we could have executed, and hopefully next time we’re more aggressive and not quite so timid.”
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