Wallace, No. 3 Baylor Women Rally Past West Virginia 83-72
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) — Once Kalani Brown and Baylor got busy on the boards, they were fine.
Brown put up her third straight double-double with 18 points and 12 rebounds, Kristy Wallace scored 25 points and third-ranked Baylor rallied in the second half to beat No. 20 West Virginia 83-72 on Sunday.
The Lady Bears (19-1, 9-0 Big 12) trailed 37-28 midway through the second quarter and were down 47-41 at halftime. Wallace and Brown led a 10-2 scoring run to open the second half.
Baylor finished the game shooting 35 of 65 (54 percent) from the field. WVU (17-5, 5-5) started out impressively, but made just 2 of 13 in the fourth quarter.
The Lady Bears outrebounded the Mountaineers 41-25, dominating the second half on the glass 23-8.
"We kind of separated ourselves in the second half rebounding," Baylor coach Kim Mulkey said.
Wallace came within two points short of matching the career high she had at No. 6 Texas on Thursday. Dekeiya Cohen added 13.
After three straight scoreless games, Natalie Chou came back to have 13 points, shooting six of 12 from the field. It was her best performance since the Lady Bears' 89-49 win over Iowa State on Jan. 3.
"I told Natalie on the bench, 'shooters have to keep shooting,'" Mulkey said. "If you go 0-for-10, shoot it again. Don't lose your confidence."
Naomi Davenport scored 27 points for injury-plagued West Virginia. Teana Muldrow added 21 points and Chania Ray had 12.
"I thought our girls played hard, though," WVU coach Mike Carey said. "I told them in there 'we should've won that game.'"
BIG PICTURE
Baylor: Has dominated its three-game stretch of Big 12 ranked opponents so far, crushing No. 6 Texas and coming back to beat No. 20 West Virginia.
West Virginia: After being ranked as high as ninth, West Virginia has lost four of their last eight games since New Year's Day.
TITLE GAME REMATCH
Sunday's game was the first since the Big 12 championship final, when the Mountaineers upset the Lady Bears 77-66 last March 6.
Mulkey did not use the game as motivation for the win.
"No, it didn't have any bearing," Mulkey said. "We're trying to win another Big 12 regular season championship."
ASK AND YOU SHALL RECEIVE
A month after complaining about the attendance at his team's home games, Carey had the biggest crowd of the season on hand for Sunday's game with 5,073 people, which is nearly three times higher than average.
TOUGH WEEKEND IN MORGANTOWN
West Virginia lost a day after its men's basketball team lost at home to Kentucky. Both the Kentucky men and Baylor women scored 83 points against West Virginia in their comebacks.
UP NEXT
Baylor: Returns home to host No. 19 Oklahoma State on Wednesday.
West Virginia: Has a few days off before heading to Oklahoma on Saturday.
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