Texas Tech University Athletics
Texas Tech Athletics
Baylor
Lady Raiders Drop To No. 7 Baylor, 75-60
March 06, 2002 | Women's Basketball
March 6, 2002
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) - Kim Mulkey-Robertson is happy to be a passenger.
"I'm just going let (Sheila) Lambert take me as far as she wants to," said Mulkey-Robertson, the head coach for seventh-ranked Baylor.
That proved to be a pretty good philosophy Wednesday night as Lambert scored 30 points to lead Baylor to a 75-60 victory over No. 17 Texas Tech in the quarterfinals of the Big 12 Conference women's tournament. Baylor advanced to the semifinals against the winner of Wednesday night's game between No. 11 Iowa State and No. 10 Colorado.
"She's a great player," said Jia Perkins of Texas Tech. "She's tough for anyone to guard. She's one of the best guards in the league. She gets the offense going and they feed off of her."
Lambert was taken out of the game with 1:10 remaining when she was two points shy of the record of Nicole Kubik of Nebraska, who scored 32 points against Kansas in the second round, March 8, 2000.
"I told my teammates that I wasn't ready to go home," Lambert said of her game. "I wanted to hang out some more."
The Bears led 41-33 at halftime, sparked by 18 points from Lambert and 15-of-16 shooting from the free-throw line.
The Red Raiders (18-11) chipped away at the lead early in the second half. Perkins sank a free throw with 14:23 remaining to give Texas Tech a 49-48 margin. But Baylor scored the next six points before going on a 13-2 run to take a 67-52 lead with 6:44 left to play.
Texas Tech would get no closer than 11 points the rest of the way.
"We're building a program at Baylor, we just played a tradition," Mulkey-Robertson said.
The Bears beat that tradition with defense.
"They couldn't get an open look," she said. "That's our game plan going in. We outscored them 42-20 in the paint. We have athleticism on the perimeter. You don't lead the Big 12 in defense if you don't have athletes."
Jessika Stratton added 12 points for Baylor.
Texas Tech was led by Jolee Ayers, who finished with 18 points and 10 rebounds. Perkins added 14 points and Natalie Ritchie had 13 for the Red Raiders.
"Baylor had some individual players who stepped up and made big plays," Texas Tech coach Marsha Sharp said. "They did what they had to do to advance.
"I felt like we played well at the beginning of both halves, but didn't finish well in either half. Maybe we just didn't stay disciplined enough throughout the game to make the plays we had to to win."
