WACO, Texas (AP) - Defending national champion Baylor is getting everyone involved in big blowouts to start its new season.
All 11 players for the No. 2 Lady Bears scored, with a school-record eight in double figures, and NaLyssa Smith and Lauren Cox both had double-doubles again in a 120-46 win over Grambling State on Friday night.
“We really just go out there and play. Focus on us, work on us,” Smith said. “Just like in practice, we work on executing little things. When you’re playing and not looking at the score, you’re just focusing on yourself.”
Baylor (2-0) has won its two games by a combined 140 points, with every player scoring and having at least one rebound in both games. The Lady Bears have won 31 games in a row overall, and 41 straight at home.
Smith had 21 points and 12 rebounds in 20 minutes against Grambling (0-2), while preseason AP All-America post Cox had 13 points and 10 rebounds in 21 minutes. Both also had double-doubles in Baylor’s season-opening 95-29 win over New Hampshire.
“I know we’re good, I don’t know how good we are yet,” coach Kim Mulkey said. “I know in practice, I have to be very careful because when we have intrasquad scrimmages we hurt each other. That’s how competitive this team is. And that’s good to a point, but I don’t want them hurting each other in November.”
DiDi Richards had 15 points, eight assists and five steals. Juicy Landrum and Queen Egbo each scored 14 points, while Erin Degrate had 13 points, Te’a Cooper 12 and Moon Ursin 10.
“A game like this is, you’re going to play against every component of a championship team, from top to bottom,” Grambling coach Freddie Murray said. “We knew that Baylor presents a challenge like none other. We just wanted to see how we reacted to some of those situations out on the basketball court.”
Markisha Body, Justice Coleman and Candice Parramore each had nine points for Grambling, which shot 24 percent from the field (15 of 62).
INSIDE PRESENCE
Baylor scored 80 points in the paint and finished with a 57-17 rebounding edge.
“If you’ve got the size that we have, and we always have tremendous post play, and if you’ve got the athletes we’ve got at the post, you’ve got to use them,” Mulkey said.
The Lady Bears also had a 27-0 advantage in fast-break points.
HALL HONOR
Mulkey’s top assistant coach, Bill Brock, missed the game for his induction into the Grayson College Athletics Hall of Fame. He joined Texas Tech baseball coach Tim Tadlock as the first inductees into the hall at the junior college in Denison, Texas. Brock is in his 17th season at Baylor and has been part of all three national titles. He was 371-50 in 13 seasons as the head women’s basketball coach at Grayson.
BIG PICTURE
Grambling St.: In their opener three nights earlier, the Lady Tigers led at Florida into the fourth quarter before losing 72-65. They led the defending national champions only 45 seconds after Coleman’s 3-pointer in the opening minute. They are 0-5 against Baylor, and the previous meeting was a 50-point loss in a first-round NCAA Tournament game at Waco in 2012.
“This is a young team. These games, regardless of the score, are building blocks for us,” Murray said.
Baylor: The Lady Bears shot 59 percent (47 of 80) from the field and scored their most points since a 121-62 win over Lamar in the 2018-19 season opener.
UP NEXT
Grambling State plays its third road game in six days against major conference teams, Sunday at ACC team Georgia Tech.
Baylor hosts Houston Baptist on Thursday night in the third of four consecutive home games to start the season.
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