Hilltoppers fall to Big 12 favorite Baylor, 97-43
WACO, Texas - The St. Edward's women's team made the trek up I-35 to take on the #7 Baylor Bears Tuesday night in front of 6,095 fans at the Ferrell Center. The Hilltoppers played an aggressive first half, but were done in by a slow start to the second half as the Lady Bears took a 97-43 victory in the exhibition contest.
Baylor scored the opening bucket when Kelli Griffin knocked down a jumper at the 19:27 mark, but St. Edward's came right back with junior Haley Tidwell knocking down a three-pointer to give the Hilltoppers an early 3-2 lead.
After Baylor took the lead again on a fastbreak layup by Melissa Jones, St. Edward's, again would not back down as sophomore Brittany Ward nailed a jumper from the free-throw line to put the visitors ahead, 5-4.
The Lady Bears would score the next six points on a three-pointer by Jones and a three-point play by the 6-8 Brittney Griner. Senior Sophia Holguin hit a jumper from the corner to cut the lead to 10-7 with 16:38 remaining in the first half.
Baylor responded with a 10-0 run over then next two minutes with Morghan Medlock scoring six of the points. The spurt gave the Lady Bears a 20-7 lead with 14:18 remaining. A three-pointer by freshman Shaniqua Adams with 13:43 on the clock stopped the run and brought the score to 20-10.
Baylor would again go on a scoring spree as they outscored the Hilltoppers, 10-2 over the next three minutes to extend the lead to 30-12, with 10:58 remaining in the half.
The lead would get as high as 19 points, which came with 35 seconds remaining on a jumper by Mariah Chandler.
Ward would hit a three-pointer from the top of the key with six seconds remaining to send the teams to the halftime break with Baylor leading 44-28.
Jones led all scorers at the break with 12 points as the Lady Bears shot 53 percent from the floor. They also had 11 assists in the first half.
Senior Kelli Payton led St. Edward's with nine points and the Hilltoppers made 4-of-7 shots from behind the arc in the opening frame.
In the second half, Baylor came out firing on all cylinders as they used a 25-4 run in the first nine minutes to blow the game wide open, 69-32 with 11:50 remaining. Jones led the charge once again with eight points, as she was perfect from the floor at that point, going 8-of-8 from the field.
Payton led the Hilltoppers with 16 points on 5-of-12 shooting. The Wimberley, Texas native also was 2-of-3 from the three-point line and a perfect 4-of-4 from the charity stripe. Ward tallied nine points and Holguin added eight points and five rebounds. Turnovers did St. Edward's in as they committed 25 turnovers that led to 22 fastbreak points for the Lady Bears.
Jones led Baylor and all scorers with 20 points, while Griner ended with 13 points and three blocks. Medlock added 13 points and Kimetria Hayden and Ashley Field both registered 11 points each.
St. Edward's will continue its preseason schedule as they travel to San Antonio to take on UT-San Antonio on Saturday. Tip-off is set for 2 p.m. at the Convocation Center.