The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
11-5, 1-3
Baylor
17-0, 4-0
Women's Basketball Falls To No. 1 Baylor, 77-59
01.15.2012 | Women's Basketball
Jan. 15, 2012
| Box Score
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) - Brittney Griner turned in another dominant performance, tying her season high with 32 points to go with 13 rebounds as No. 1 Baylor stayed unbeaten Sunday with an easy 77-59 win over Texas.
Griner made 12 of her first 14 shots and Baylor (17-0, 4-0 Big 12) led by 20 by halftime. Baylor used an early 19-0 run to blow the game open.
Destiny Williams added 21 points for the Lady Bears, who have allowed only two teams, Tennessee and Connecticut, to play them within 10 points this season.
Chassidy Fussell scored 20 points to lead Texas (11-5, 1-3) which stayed in the bottom third of the conference with the loss.
Griner could have approached her career-high 40 points, but started giving up shots with passes to teammates in the second half with the game in hand. She dominated the first half, scoring 21 - one point below her season average - as Baylor built a 49-29 lead by halftime.
Griner made 9 of 11 shots in the first half and Williams pumped in 15 points. The performance was similar to Griner's effort on Texas' homecourt last year, when she outscored the Longhorns 23-22 in a lopsided Baylor victory.
Texas had upset No. 12 Texas A&M on the road earlier in the week, but the Longhorns' best chance of containing Griner was sitting on the bench with a medical boot on her right leg. Forward Cokie Reed, who gives Texas its strongest muscle under the basket, strained the leg in practice Saturday and school officials announced about an hour before the game she would not play.
That left senior post Ashley Gayle and freshman Nneka Enemkapali to deal with Griner. But Gayle picked up three fouls in the first 13 minutes and Enemkapali looked nervous, failing to even hit the rim when a defensive switch left her with an uncontested layup in the early going.
Griner scored 10 in the 19-0 run. The Longhorns pulled back within 11 when Fussell made consecutive 3-pointers before Baylor closed the first half with a 9-1 burst.
Gayle, who scored 17 in Texas' win over Texas A&M, picked up her fourth foul just 51 seconds in to the second half. She finished with 12 points and was never a factor as Griner and Baylor never let the Longhorns rally.
Baylor scored 58 points in the paint and held Texas to just 33 percent shooting.
POSTGAME NOTES
TEAM
-Texas holds a 57-24 advantage in its all-time series with Baylor. Texas holds a 27-8 advantage in games played in Austin.
-Texas falls to 5-18 all-time against opponents ranked No. 1 nationally.
-Texas head coach Gail Goestenkors is now 105-101 all-time vs. AP Top 25 teams.
INDIVIDUAL
Yvonne Anderson
-Recorded nine assists, averaged 11 assists in her last two games
Nneka Enemkpali
-Tied her career high with nine rebounds, averaged eight rebounds in her last three games
Chassidy Fussell
-Recorded 20 or more points (20 points) for the fifth time this season and 18th time in her career
-Scored in double figures for the 14th time in 16 games this season
-Led Texas in scoring for the ninth time this season
Ashley Gayle
-Recorded double-figure scoring for the third time this season and 18th time in her career
Tiffany Moore
-Made her first appearance of the season
TEXAS POST-GAME QUOTES
HEAD COACH Gail Goestenkors
OPENING STATEMENT: Congratulations to Baylor, they played a great game. They did what they do; they got the ball inside, moved the ball well and played good defense. I am disappointed overall in our focus, energy and effort. I felt we were just not there. There is no excuse for that. If you are going to compete against a great team like Baylor, you have to have everyone show up and play. You have to be energized, be focused and be confident.
ON THE EFFECTS OF Cokie Reed'S ABSENCE: The absence of Cokie was a big loss for us. All of the bodies you can get against Brittney (Griner) are helpful. We felt really good about our game play, but it was a little different when Cokie went out. I knew we would be one post down but when AG (Ashley Gayle) got in foul trouble. I thought we were two posts down. It is going to be a long night when you are two posts down.
SOPHOMORE GUARD Chassidy Fussell
ON THE EFFORT AGAINST BAYLOR: I feel like we did not come out playing defense like we did against A&M. I feel like our defense meets our offense every game, and today we just did not do that.
FRESHMAN FORWARD NNEKA ENEMPKALI
ON THE DIFFICULTY OF DEFENDING BRITTNEY GRINER: Besides the height factor, she is able to see where she needs to post up. She is a different player.
BAYLOR POST-GAME QUOTES
HEAD COACH KIM MULKEY
OPENING STATEMENT: I looked up with 12 minutes to go, and I think [junior P Brittney Griner and junior F/P Destiny Williams] had 53 points and 24 rebounds with the two of them. You play Big 12 games and you don't score that many points and get that many rebounds. I probably took us out of the flow when we were hovering around a 30-point lead and got some subs in there. But, in this business, what goes around comes around. I've just never been a coach to run up a score. I think you play as many players as you can, when you can, and we could today. I tried to get everybody on the floor.
ON SOPHOMORE G ODYSSEY SIMS AND JUNIOR G KIMETRIA "NAE-NAE" HAYDEN: Well Nae-Nae, if you look at the field goal percentage, it's not very good. And Odyssey's wasn't great. On the road, you worry about taking care of the ball. And I thought especially in the first five minutes of each half, you figured Texas was going to come in here fired up having won at A&M. So, you wanted to match their intensity on the road and take care of the basketball. I thought there were opportunities where Odyssey and Nae-Nae were very unselfish with the ball. They made sure we got post touches. Then they penetrated a lot. They'll continue to shoot the ball. They'll shoot a better percentage. But, today they didn't really have to. When you have two really good post players, one misses four or five shots and one misses two shots, you better find them and get the ball to them every chance you get. But, it's a big win. We have an opportunity. If we can go to Lubbock and play two good road games in a row, we'll have an opportunity to possibly come back home and play Kansas State, who is undefeated in the league as well.
JUNIOR P BRITTNEY GRINER
ON HER SEASON-HIGH 32-POINT PERFORMANCE: It felt good. It was working for me. My guards got me the ball down low. I was able to maneuver and hit those shots that I like to hit.
JUNIOR F/P DESTINY WILLIAMS
ON A CAREER-HIGH POINTS, ASSISTS, AND REBOUNDS PERFORMANCE: It felt great. I didn't realize I had that many rebounds. I just told myself that every opportunity that I saw the ball to go get it. My job was to keep Texas off the boards, to get offensive put-backs, to go keep them from (getting) layups, and to get as many offensive rebounds as I could to get another chance at scoring.
