Texas drops conference championship game, falls to Baylor for third time this season

By Blanche Schaefer

OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. — The highly anticipated Texas-Baylor rematch ended in familiar fashion. The No. 6/7 Longhorns let a second-quarter slip away as Texas fell to the No. 4 and top-seeded Bears Monday in the Phillips 66 Big 12 Championship, 79-63.

Just one week ago, the Longhorns ended the regular season with a blowout loss to Baylor and found themselves in a similar position tonight. Texas has lost all three meetings against Baylor this season.

“It was nearly similar to[s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level1)] the Waco game (a week ago), in the sense that we played well and competitively in the first quarter, but midway through the second quarter, it slipped away from us,” Texas head coach Karen Aston said. “Baylor has the ability to kind of force you to be uncomfortable offensively and force you to do some things that are uncharacteristic. They’ve been doing this all year long. Credit to their defense, which I think turns into offense for them.”

Just like the last time Texas played Baylor, the Longhorns kept up with the Bears for the first quarter. Baylor jumped out to a 6-0 run to start the game. Sophomore guard Brooke McCarty put the ‘Horns on the board with a three-pointer as Texas answered with a 10-2 run to close the quarter trailing by just three points. Sophomore guard Ariel Atkins hit a jumper at the beginning of the second quarter, trimming the Texas deficit to one pointat 16-15. But that was as close as UT would come all night as its offense unraveled. A 12-2 Baylor run erased the Longhorns’ work as the Bears built an 11-point cushion and headed to the lockers with a 36-25 lead.

“At the beginning of the game, we came out with a different mindset,” junior center Kelsey Lang said. “We knew it would be a tough game tonight, not only because we played three games in three days, but because we had already lost to (Baylor) twice.”

The Longhorns attempted a second-half rally, but the Bears’ lead was too much to overcome. Freshman guard Lashann Higgs scored eight of Texas’ 18 third-quarter points en route to her team-high 15 points. McCarty gave the ‘Horns some energy when she snatched a steal and took it the other way for a fast-break layup, but the Texas shooters continued to struggle as the Bears extended their lead to 17 points and never looked back. Baylor senior guard Niya Johnson nailed the Texas coffin with three-pointer lobbed from mid-court as the shot clock expired with around two minutes to play. UT’s 20-point effort in the fourth quarter wasn’t enough, despite an offensive outburst from the bench.

Aston said her team’s bench points have been valuable throughout the tournament, but said the team still has much on which to work heading into NCAA play.

“I’m glad (the bench) is improving — (the bench players) had a good tournament,” Aston said. “I’m proud of our team. But there is a standard we’re trying to get to and hopefully we’ll learn some lessons and grow from this.”

Texas has much to take away from the past four games and will take the next two weeks to prepare for NCAA tournament play. The Longhorns can’t afford to dwell on losses as they prepare for the one-and-done portion of their season.

“We’re definitely going to take advantage of these next two weeks to fix some areas that need to be fixed,” Lang said. “I know that the rest of my team is just as excited as I am to learn where we’re going and who we will play and how we will be seeded. We’re going to get to work for the next two weeks.”

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