by Bears Trying To Mute Any Noise As They Travel To Lubbock - Waco Tribune-Herald
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Saturday’s Baylor-Texas Tech game should offer one of the more intriguing freshman matchups of the Big 12 season, as Bella Fontleroy (22) of the Bears helps lead her team against Bailey Maupin, Jasmine Shavers and the Lady Raiders.
If there’s a lot of murmuring or angst circulating about the Baylor women’s recent stretch of losing three out of four games, Nicki Collen doesn’t hear it.
She tries to wear a set of invisible noise-canceling headphones when it comes to that stuff.
“In all honesty I learned last year here at Baylor that I stay the heck off of social media,” Collen said. “So, I can’t tell you what’s being said or not said because I learned very, very quickly that I just had to do my job and to please my bosses and to work for my team, and what other people say, I can’t control that. Believe me, after every game I’m the hardest critic there is, so I don’t worry about what anyone else says.”
Collen and the Bears (13-6 overall, 4-3 Big 12) know they have to play better. They don’t need to be told. Truthfully, they’ve had an entire week to sit and stew and consider exactly where they must improve, as they haven’t played since last Sunday’s disappointing 68-55 home loss to Texas.
“The energy was kind of like, ‘Okay, we need to lock back in and focus,’” said freshman forward Bella Fontleroy. “On our days off, usually we’ll all go get our nails done and do stuff, and some of us still did, but it was just more of a time to reflect and think, ‘Okay, what do we need to do from here on out, for the rest of conference, to prepare and be ready?’”
When the Bears are unbalanced, they’re far easier to push down. That’s been part of the problem in some of the team’s recent games. Collen noted that her team has been at its best when it puts four or five players in double-figure scoring. In the loss to Texas, they had just two meet that mark.
Senior point guard Jaden Owens has had a particularly tough go of it lately, scoring just four, zero and zero points in her past three games. While Owens always carries more of a facilitator’s mindset, Baylor needs her to be more aggressive looking for her shot and sharper in her decision-making, Collen said.
“You’ve got to challenge her,” Collen said. “Obviously we’ve lost three of four and she hasn’t impacted us very much in any of those games offensively. One of our strengths, and when our success has come, has been balance. She doesn’t have to go get 20. But getting 8 (points) and 6 (assists) or 6 and 8, being aggressive, not playing sideways but truly playing north and south and making good decisions.”
Saturday’s opponent Texas Tech (15-5, 3-4) brings more versatility to the court than the typical Big 12 foe. The Lady Raiders start five guards and seek to spread teams out and then attack the paint off the dribble. Collen said where Tech really challenges teams is with its personnel, as a player might play the 1 or the 2 on one trip down the court and then the 4 or the 5 on the next.
A player that Baylor will look to blanket as much as possible is senior guard Bre’Amber Scott. She is averaging a team-best 16.9 points and 6.4 rebounds, and has been even better in conference action, leading all Big 12 players in scoring at 23.6 ppg in those games.
As Baylor moves toward the midway part of the Big 12 schedule, it still finds itself very much in the running for a 13th consecutive Big 12 title. Even with this recent downturn, the Bears are only one game behind the conference co-leaders Texas, Iowa State and Oklahoma, and already own a win over those Sooners.
“We need to make sure everyone knows how to guard every position, what the expectations are, both offensively and defensively,” Fontleroy said. “But I think us as players, we need to lock-in more and really focus in on those assignments, because these past few games, the difference has been us missing assignments and guarding plays correctly or us guarding things incorrectly.”
This game will feature four of the Big 12’s most productive freshmen in Baylor’s Fontleroy (9.0 ppg) and Darianna Littlepage-Buggs (9.5 ppg, 8.9 rpg) to go with Texas Tech’s duo of Bailey Maupin (10.6 ppg) and Jasmine Shavers (9.3 ppg). That foursome has combined for 10 of the Big 12’s 11 Freshman of the Week honors this season.
“I’m pretty good friends with Bailey Maupin, too, so I’m excited to get to play her,” BU’s Fontleroy said. “But they’re really talented, we’re really talented. So, it’ll be a good freshman matchup, but overall matchup for the whole team, too.”
Texas Tech averages just under 5,000 fans for its women’s games this season, and of course is known for having one of the rowdier crowds in the conference. That doesn’t really bother Baylor, though. Such atmospheres make the experience all the more enjoyable, Fontleroy said.
“I think it’s fun,” Fontleroy said. “Any sort of energy that you can get. We always have a great turnout of our fans, I’d say, too, but just the energy overall, I feel like I feed off of that. We feed off of that as a team, no matter if they’re yelling at us or whatever. Like, we take that and run with it, so I’m excited for it.”
Baylor has won the past 27 meetings in a row against Tech and 37 of the past 38. Tech dominated the series from 1984-2002, winning 37 in a row. … This is Tech’s alumni weekend event, as the program plans to welcome back 80 former players from throughout the decades. The Lady Raiders will also wear retro black uniforms inspired by the school’s 1993 NCAA championship team, which was led by Sheryl Swoopes. … BU junior guard Sarah Andrews has scored in double figures in seven straight games, including 19 points last time out against Texas. Andrews leads Baylor in scoring at 15.8 points per game.
• History was made this week in the AP women’s basketball poll, as no Texas teams were ranked in the women’s top 25 for the first time, ever. Is this just a fluke or a hiccup, or more of a trend? Has the level of Lone Star basketball slipped? We’re joined by special guest Danny Davis (@_dannydavis), longtime Austin American-Statesman sports writer and a fellow AP Top 25 voter, for some college hoops talk with the Trib’s Brice Cherry and John Werner.
Tipoff: 2 p.m. Saturday, United Supermarkets Arena in Lubbock
Records: BU 13-6 (4-3); TT 15-5 (3-4)
TV: ESPN+
Radio: 104.9 FM
Series: BU leads, 51-47
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A lifelong rider of the Houston sports bandwagon and a lifelong hater of vegetables, Brice Cherry has been named the Texas AP sportswriter of the year several times during his Trib career, which began in 1998. He has been sports editor since 2012.
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Saturday’s Baylor-Texas Tech game should offer one of the more intriguing freshman matchups of the Big 12 season, as Bella Fontleroy (22) of the Bears helps lead her team against Bailey Maupin, Jasmine Shavers and the Lady Raiders.
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Bears Trying To Mute Any Noise As They Travel To Lubbock - Waco Tribune-Herald
Bears Trying To Mute Any Noise As They Travel To Lubbock - Waco Tribune-Herald
Bears Trying To Mute Any Noise As They Travel To Lubbock - Waco Tribune-Herald
Bears Trying To Mute Any Noise As They Travel To Lubbock - Waco Tribune-Herald
Bears Trying To Mute Any Noise As They Travel To Lubbock - Waco Tribune-Herald
Bears Trying To Mute Any Noise As They Travel To Lubbock - Waco Tribune-Herald
