The sixth-ranked Baylor Lady Bears, under the direction of 14th-year head coach Kim Mulkey, are 22-3 overall and sit alone atop the Big 12 standings at 12-1. Baylor will put its 33-game home win streak vs. Big 12 opponents, and eight-game win streak overall, on the line as it plays Iowa State for the first time this season.
The contest, Wednesday, Feb. 19, at 7 p.m., will be televised by Fox College Sports. John Morris will handle play-by-play duties while Jim Haller will provide color analysis.
The Iowa State Cyclones, under 25th-year head coach Bill Fennelly, are 17-7 on the season and own a 6-7 league mark.
The game features the Big 12’s top two scorers, Baylor’s Odyssey Sims (30.3) and Iowa State’s Hallie Christofferson (19.1), and three of the league’s top freshmen in Baylor’s Nina Davis (13.5 ppg) and Iowa State’s duo of Jadda Buckley (10.8 ppg) and Seanna Johnson (10.2 ppg). In fact, Davis and Johnson share Big 12 Freshman of the Week honors this week, Davis was selected for the sixth time while Johnson earned her fourth nod. Christofferson is the reigning Big 12 Player of the Week.
Senior guard Odyssey Sims continues to lead the nation in scoring at 30.3 points per game. The Irving, Texas, native is averaging 4.5 rebounds a contest while dishing out 4.5 assists per game and shooting 46.0 percent from the floor, including .433 from beyond the arc. With 581 career assists, Sims is the program’s all-time leader and also owns BU’s career 3-point field goal record with 234 makes. In addition, with 2,237 career points, she is the fifth Lady Bear player to reach the 2,000-point milestone and stands fourth on BU’s all-time list. With 74 treys, Sims needs just two more from beyond the arc to become Baylor’s single-season 3-point leader.
Freshman Nina Davis (5-11, forward/post) is averaging 13.5 points and a team-leading 8.8 rebounds a game. The Memphis, Tenn., product ranks No. 5 nationally and leads the Big 12 in field goal percentage, hitting .595 percent of her shots. In the last seven games, she has produced four double-doubles and averaged 13.9 points and 11.7 rebounds.
On the glass, Davis leads the team with 8.8 rpg while junior post Sune Agbuke (6-4) follows with 7.7 an outing. Freshman Khadijiah Cave (6-2 post) manages 5.4 a game, Sims averages 4.5 and sophomore Kristina Higgins manages 4.4 a contest.
Sophomore guard Niya Johnson ranks No. 17 nationally and No. 2 in the Big 12, averaging 6.2 assists an outing while Sims follows with 4.5 a game. Johnson leads the nation in assist/turnover ratio at 3.80
The Cyclones are led by senior forward Hallie Christofferson’s 19.1 points per contest while Nikki Moody, a junior guard, averages 12.7 points. Freshman guard Jadda Buckley manages 10.8 a contest and freshman guard Seanna Johnson leads the team in rebounding at 8.4 a contest and scores 10.2 a game.
Quick Hits:
- Baylor has won 33-straight home games vs. Big 12 opponents.
- As researched by STATS, Baylor has the longest active home winning streak against unranked opponents at 132 games, Duke follows with 130. BU’s last home loss to an unranked opponent came on April 3, 2003, vs. Auburn (64-63) in the WNIT finals.
- Baylor’s 44-game Big 12 Conference regular season win streak, which was halted at Kansas (76-60, Jan. 19), was the nation’s longest active league win string. Baylor had won 53 straight Big 12 games overall, a league record.
- National Player of the Year Candidate Odyssey Sims, a 5-8 senior guard, is averaging 30.3 ppg, which ranks No. 1 nationally, as well as 4.5 assists, 4.5 rebounds and 1.9 steals. She is shooting .460 from the floor, .433 from 3-point range and .815 from the free throw line.
- Sims, with 581 career assists and 234 treys, ranks No. 1 in both categories on Baylor’s all-time list.
- Sims’ 74 made treys this season is one short of Emily Niemann’s BU single-season record of 75 (2003-04).
- Sims has scored 758 points as a senior which puts her No. 10 on BU’s single-season list. Her season average (30.3 ppg) is well ahead of both the BU (24.6 ppg, Suzie Snider Eppers, 1976-77) and Big 12 (26.7 ppg, OSU’s Andrea Riley, 2010) season marks.
- National Freshman of the Year candidate Nina Davis, a 5-11 freshman forward/post, is averaging 13.5 points per game and ranks No. 5 nationally and leads the Big 12 Conference in field goal shooting at 59.5 (132-222) percent. Davis has averaged 15.7 points, 15.0 rebounds and 3.0 assists this season vs. top 10 opponents (#5 Kentucky, #1 UConn, at #8 Oklahoma State).
- Niya Johnson, a 5-7 guard, ranks No. 17 nationally in assists per game (6.2) and is No. 1 in assist/turnover ratio at 3.80 per contest, dishing our 156 assists with only 41 turnovers.
- In her 14 seasons at the program’s helm, Kim Mulkey has posted an impressive 394-84 (.824) record which ranks her No. 2 nationally in winning percentage among active coaches behind UConn’s Geno Auriemma (.864).
- Kim Mulkey sports a 156-51 (.754) record vs. current Big 12 Conference teams.
- Kim Mulkey has 394 career wins in her 14 seasons at Baylor, in the 26 years before her arrival, BU had won just 394 games.
- In 466 of 478 games under Kim Mulkey, the Lady Bears have held their opponent at or below 50 percent field goal shooting with only four of those efforts coming in the last 12 years.
- In Baylor’s last 278 games, only one opponent (Stanford, .509) has shot 50 percent or above. Last season, the Cardinal broke BU’s 217-game streak of holding an opponent to 50 percent or less shooting from the floor. Since then, BU has held its last 58 foes below 50 percent from the field.
