Brittney Griner broke the Big 12 Conference
women’s career scoring record with her first four points of the game en route
to a win over Texas Tech.
Led by her season-high 40 points, the
senior-center Griner and the Lady Bears (19-1, 9-0 in Big 12 play) blew out the
Lady Raiders 90-60 Wednesday night inside the United Spirit Arena.
“My team did a good job getting me the ball
and good looks,” Griner said. “When I didn’t have a shot they did a great job
on cutting to the basket so I could find them. We were just clicking from the
jump, hitting on all cylinders.”
Griner now has her fourth 40-point game in
her career, and also has collected 30 blocks in her last four games.
“She’s had a lot of blocks the last few
games because people have changed a little bit,” Baylor Head Coach Kim Mulkey said. “Instead of avoiding coming in the paint they
think they are going take it in there and draw fouls and we’re just like
licking our chops, like c’mon.”
A stat line from this game is not always
that unusual from Griner, and Mulkey knew this could
be the case right from the start when she was recruited to Baylor.
“When Brittany came to Baylor four years
ago I told everybody you better by tickets you’ll never see anything like her
again,” Mulkey said.
“And at the time you didn’t talk about the
records that she would break, but after you saw her play it was pretty obvious
she’s going to be a phenom and it’s not surprising
that she’s broken those records.”
Texas Tech (16-5, 6-3) had a tough time
guarding Griner who started off strong and never let up by finishing with
almost half of her team’s total points and 15 rebounds.
“She’s 6’8,” Texas Tech’s Head Coach Kristy Curry said in how difficult it was covering Griner.
Curry was not disappointed in her teams’
performance though against Griner.
“Obviously I think she’s trying to break
the NCAA scoring record, so she got a lot of looks tonight and credit her and
her team for getting her the ball.”
Baylor started off the game with an 18-4
run and the Lady Raiders mounted one substantial comeback rattling off a 13-6
run to pull within six, but that would be as close the Lady Raiders would get
to threatening Baylor’s lead, who ran away with it in the second half behind Griner’s play.
Senior guard Casey Morris, who finished
with 11 points and four rebounds, was one of the few bright spots for the Lady
Raiders.
She knew it was going to be a challenging
game for them when Baylor started off well.
“I just think for them everything was going
in, so they just had a really good game. We played defense like we should have,
and like every game we might have had some little breakdowns, but they were
making everything, so credit to them for making everything.”
But Morris knows this is only the first
meeting and her team will have a chance to improve in the second one.
“What’s good about it is that we get to
play them again in Waco, so we’re just looking forward from this.”
The Lady Raiders next game will be on
February 2 at Iowa State with the tip set for 1 p.m. In their previous game
against the Cyclones, the Lady Raiders lost at home 58-54.