NCAA Women's Hoops: Texas A&M Puts a Scare into Baylor's March to Perfection

Gary Blair’s Texas A&M Lady Aggies came to play Monday evening at Reed Arena and almost derailed a juggernaut.

If Kim Mulkey, head coach of top-rated and undefeated Baylor, was trying to goad the defending NCAA champions into a more competitive rematch during a 23-point whooping in Waco back on Feb.11, it would appear she succeeded.

Eleventh-ranked A&M gave the Lady Bears their second-closest contest and biggest scare of this glorious season before succumbing 69-62.

As they’d done in the Waco game, Brittney Griner and Odyssey Sims, Baylor’s Batman-and-Robin combo, handled the early scoring load as the Lady Bears got off to a quick 14-2 advantage before Coach Blair had to burn a timeout six minutes into the game.

Crisp ball movement and some nifty interior passing began to produce better looks at the goal for A&M during the next six minutes, but by the under-8:00 timeout, Griner alone had matched the Lady Aggies’ point total, putting Baylor ahead 25-12.

But Griner and Sims soon had two personal fouls apiece, and Griner went to the bench at the 6:13 mark with a 28-14 lead.

Two immediate driving layups by A&M induced Coach Mulkey to send her stud center to the scorer’s table, but she quickly reconsidered. 

Griner sat for the rest of the half as Coach Blair’s charges, led by senior wing Adaora Elonu, converted nine of their 11 “sans-Griner” possessions, closing the gap to 36-31 at the intermission.

After his team’s blowout loss in Waco, Coach Blair had joked (?) that the key to beating Griner and Co. was just that simple—i.e. hiding a key—so as to keep No. 42 off the court.  You can’t really fault his thinking, huh?

Brittney was back for the second half, but A&M maintained its swagger.  The game was on the proverbial seesaw through eight lead changes.

Within four minutes, both Sims and Griner had tacked on a third foul, but Coach Blair’s two-headed pivot machine of Kelsey Bone and Karla Gilbert was having its own ordeal with the game officials.  Bone picked up her fourth at the 11:56 mark, by which time Gilbert had already been disqualified on fouls.

Less than a minute and a half later, Griner picked up her own fourth with Baylor ahead 50-46.

This time the Lady Aggies were able to convert only four-of-eight Griner-less possessions and still trailed 58-55 when the big girl returned for the last five-and-a-half minutes of action.

Coach Blair’s plucky kids hung around and kept fighting, but the closing two minutes featured vintage Griner—back-to-back determined efforts on the offensive boards along with her lone blocked shot of the evening—as the Lady Bears moved to 30-0.

It took Coach Blair and his 2011 national champions four tries to knock off the Griner Express last year.

A glance at the stat sheet, particularly his team’s 10 missed free throws, should give ol’ Gary reason to hope for another encounter with his former point guard’s minions.