No. 4 Baylor women rout Oklahoma State in Big 12 tourney

By DAVE SKRETTA
AP Basketball Writer

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Big 12 player of the year NaLyssa Smith scored 15 points, Baylor shut out Oklahoma State into the second quarter and the No. 4 Bears rolled the rest of the way to a 76-36 victory Friday in the quarterfinals of the conference tournament.

Ja’Mee Asberry scored 16 points for the top-seeded Bears (26-6), who appear intent on continuing their dominance of the Big 12 under first-year coach Nicki Collen. They easily advanced to play No. 21 Oklahoma, which knocked off Kansas earlier in the day, as the Bears pursue their 10th tournament title in the past 11 years.

The Cowgirls (9-20), playing their final game under longtime coach Jim Littell, missed their first 13 field-goal attempts, fell behind 41-14 by halftime and never made a run. They wound up shooting 22.8% for the game.

Oklahoma State’s leading scorer, Lauren Fields, went 0-for-11 from the field and finished without a point, while Kassidy De Lapp finished with a team-best nine points.

If the outcome wasn’t preordained, it certainly was decided within the first 10 minutes.

The Cowgirls missed all their first-quarter shots, turned the ball over seven times and even missed both of their free throws in going scoreless for the first 10-plus minutes. And to make matters worse, Baylor was cruising along with big contributions from just about everyone. The defending champs built a 23-0 lead.

The start was surprising but not entirely unexpected: The Cowgirls came in averaging 58.4 points, ranking 290th out of 348 teams in Division I women’s basketball, and had been held to fewer than 50 points five times this season.

That included a 67-49 loss to the Bears in mid-January.

It was a tough end to Littell’s tenure in Stillwater, where he began as an assistant and took over the head job when Kurt Budke and another assistant, Miranda Serna, were killed in a plane crash during a recruiting trip in November 2011.

Littell led the Cowgirls to a 22-12 record and won the WNIT that difficult season, then took them to six NCAA Tournaments over the next 10 years. Just last year, Littell was voted Big 12 coach of the year after the Cowgirls went 19-9 and advanced to the second of the NCAA tourney, losing to eventual national champion Stanford.

Littell was informed earlier this week that he would not return next season.

BIG PICTURE

Oklahoma State finished with its fewest wins since going 6-22 in 2005-06, which was the first season Budke was in charge. The Cowgirls improved to 20-11 and reached the NCAA Tournament the following year.

Baylor wasn’t just good on defense. The Bears also piled up 17 assists against eight turnovers, shot 46% from the field and got easy baskets just about whenever they wanted. They even went 13 of 15 from the foul line.

UP NEXT

The Bears play the No. 4 seed Sooners in Saturday’s semifinals.

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More AP women’s college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/womens-college-basketball and https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-womens-college-basketball-poll and https://twitter.com/AP_Top25