Apparently the banks are open on New Year’s Eve.
At least the one inside the Ferrell Center was for Sarah Andrews.
Andrews made the sweetest deposit of the night by banking in a 3-pointer in the fourth quarter, and the 23rd-ranked Bears finished in a flourish to snatch a 64-42 win over TCU in the Big 12 opener for both squads Saturday afternoon before a crowd of 4,385 at the Ferrell Center.
“Definitely a positive feeling,” said senior Caitlin Bickle, who turned in a brilliant all-around game with 19 points, seven rebounds, three assists, one steal and one blocked shot. “For us normally, at least in my years here, we’re always away first. And that’s an even bigger challenge. Playing away is always harder, obviously. Home-court advantage is amazing. Our fans were absolutely phenomenal. I think for us, this is just a confidence builder.”
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In a game abundant with sloppy, silly turnovers for Baylor (10-3 overall, 1-0 Big 12), the 3-point shot proved to be the great separator. The Bears banged in 10 of 21 from 3-point land (47.6%) and actually shot better from distance than they did from the floor overall (46.2%).
They also slammed the accelerator to the floor in the final quarter. Baylor led just 37-31 going into the fourth, but opened the final quarter on a 15-0 run to crush the spirit of the Frogs (6-6, 0-1). Baylor scored more points in the fourth quarter (27) than it did the entire first half (26).
To open that final period, Bickle scored two quick buckets — one off a nice feed from freshman Bella Fontleroy and another on a runout layup in transition. Then Andrews swished in a trey to push the score to 44-31 and prompt a timeout from TCU coach Raegan Pebley.
But the huddle did nothing to slow Baylor’s momentum. With the crowd as lathered up as it was all day, Andrews made the shot of the night on the Bears’ next possession when she beat the clock with a 3-pointer off the window.
Asked if she called glass, Andrews didn’t miss a beat. “You didn’t hear me?” she said, widening her eyes, while Bickle chuckled nearby. “I looked at you and I whispered it. I said, ‘Glass,’ you know.”
Baylor coach Nicki Collen laughingly disputed that Andrews called glass, but added, “I always tell them, ‘Better to be long than short.’”
As for what changed in the fourth quarter, Baylor mostly just played crisper on offense and attacked the rim with more aggressiveness. After committing 16 turnovers in the first three quarters, the Bears had just four in the final period and only one during their 15-0 run to start the quarter.
“I think we’ve got to be locked in like that the entire game,” Andrews said. “We see them go on a run, and all of a sudden it’s time to lock back in. But I think we’ve got to play like that from start to finish. We can’t take plays off, we can’t slack. Because any given night, we can get beat. Anybody in this league can be beat, everybody’s good this year.”
Ja’Mee Asberry found the hot hand late, as the senior guard scored eight of her 16 points in the fourth. She hit all three of her shots in the final period and went 3-for-5 from 3-point range for the game.
Asberry also drew the assignment of guarding TCU’s leading scorer on the season, guard Tomi Taiwo. She chased Taiwo around and forced her into tough looks, limiting her to just six points on 2-of-8 shooting. Taiwo came in averaging 14.5 points per game.
“Ja’Mee’s defense on Tomi Taiwo, holding her to half of her season average,” Collen said. “She’s the one player on their team who can really get going and get points up in a hurry. I thought Ja’Mee was really, really good on her. And when she picked up a couple of fouls, I thought Sarah picked up the slack and did a good job.”
Maybe it was the 10-day layoff in between games, but Baylor started sloppy. The Bears hit just 2 of their 7 shots of the game and committed three turnovers in the first five minutes.
TCU wasn’t much better, though. While Baylor suffered 12 first-half turnovers, the Frogs had 14 of their own. And with Taiwo struggling to hit her shots, TCU just didn’t have many other scoring options to pick up the slack.
Again, the 3-pointer proved big for Baylor in this one. The Bears stretched to a 15-8 lead after one quarter, following corner 3s from Asberry and Andrews and a top-of-the-key swish from Bickle.
In the second quarter, Baylor built a 23-10 edge following a Fontleroy 3-pointer. But TCU managed to trim into the lead, cutting its deficit to 26-18 by the halftime break.
As the game progressed, Baylor’s guards found an extra gear. In the third quarter, Asberry, Andrews and Jaden Owens all made hard-driving layups in traffic. That forced TCU to sag its defense to defend the rim and opened up more avenues for the 3-pointer.
Andrews shot just 5-of-14, but hit some big buckets and tallied 14 points and two steals. Collen also praised the play of Fontleroy, who despite a modest stat line — three points, two rebounds — played smart and stayed within herself. Baylor outscored TCU by 28 when Fontleroy was on the court, as she finished with the best plus-minus on the team.
“That’s probably my fault for not playing her more,” Collen said. “I thought she was really, really solid.”
TCU never scored more than 13 points in any quarter and shot just 30.6 percent from the floor. If anything stayed consistent for Baylor in this one, it was the Bears’ defensive effort.
“I thought Baylor’s defense to open the game, the bookend quarters, but throughout the game was really good,” TCU’s Pebley said. “It’s going to put a lot of pressure on our defense struggling scoring like that. Bickle had a great game. She hit some open shots. That’s what good players do is find where their open shots are going to be, and she did that.”
Baylor will next play at No. 20 Oklahoma on Tuesday. The Sooners (11-1, 1-0) opened Big 12 play with a 98-77 road win over West Virginia on Saturday.
Brice Cherry
A lifelong rider of the Houston sports bandwagon and a lifelong hater of vegetables, Brice Cherry has been named the Texas AP sportswriter of the year several times during his Trib career, which began in 1998. He has been sports editor since 2012.