Lady Bears dominate Oklahoma City in first exhibition game

A crowd of almost 7,500 watched Tuesday night at the Ferrell Center in Waco, Texas, as the Lady Bears blew past Oklahoma City University in a 91-42 victory.

“The returning players were a little rusty, but you kind of expect that for the first game,” Baylor head coach Kim Mulkey said. “I felt the freshmen did fine, I just told them to go play. We weren’t looking at the scoreboard, we were just glad to be playing a game.”

The Lady Bears had no need to look at the scoreboard as they scored 66 of their 91 points inside the paint, resulting in a 57 percent field goal percentage. The defense forced 29 turnovers and held the Stars to just 26 percent shooting from the field.

Baylor started strong with an 11-0 lead and carried the score to 19-2 by the 13:06 mark. The team capitalized on 19 forced turnovers and a 51 percent shooting percentage to gain a 49-15 lead by halftime.

“We just wanted to show the freshmen that you have to keep the lead up,” junior Odyssey Sims said. “Just because you are up doesn’t mean that you can give up layups. You can’t take a play off, you have to keep playing hard.”

Senior Brittney Griner and Sims led the Baylor scoring offense with 16 points each. Other scoring leaders included seniors Brooklyn Pope and Kimetria Hayden who each scored 11 points throughout the night. All Lady Bears recorded at least one point throughout the night.

“It’s good to get the first game jitters out of the way,” Griner said. “You try and get used to playing in front of a crowd again and you get to play with the freshmen for the first time.”

Baylor’s second and last exhibition game will be Nov. 5 at 7 p.m. at the Ferrell Center when the Lady Bears host Shaw University before opening the regular season against Lamar on Nov. 9 at noon in Waco. -- Savannah Pullin