No. 4 Baylor blows past Georgetown for wire-to-wire victory

LAS VEGAS -- DiDi Richards sprung off her chair and performed a quick pirouette on the Baylor bench just two minutes into the third quarter Saturday night.

Teammate Juicy Landrum's long 3-pointer, which gave the Lady Bears their biggest lead of the game, had the sophomore guard feeling some type of way.

No. 4 Baylor dominated all facets of the game and got contributions from its entire roster en route to a 67-46 victory over Georgetown in the South Point Thanksgiving Shootout.

The one-sided victory allowed coach Kim Mulkey to use several rotations throughout the game. It also gave Lady Bears players an opportunity to cheer on their teammates -- a sight Mulkey loves to see.

"We don't have a selfish team," Mulkey said. "We've got a team full of superstars in there and they just want to win championships."

The Lady Bears could very well be on their way to that.

Landrum and NaLyssa Smith each scored 14 points, and Baylor received scoring contributions from 10 players in the wire-to-wire victory.

Landrum made four 3s and pulled down a team-high nine rebounds to lead the Lady Bears (6-0), who opened the game on a 9-0 run and grabbed their first double-digit lead on a 3-pointer by Landrum with 6:02 left in the first quarter.

The Bears shot 18 of 31 from the floor (58.1 percent) in the first half, including 5 of 10 from beyond the arc, and Smith scored 10 points in the first two quarters as Baylor grabbed a 47-23 halftime lead.

"NaLyssa Smith shot the ball extremely well for us," Mulkey said. "She can just score. We've got so many new (players on this team) but once we get them all comfortable and get them going, hopefully, we'll be pretty good. Right now, we're not a polished product. We're a work in progress."

Baylor led by as many as 26 points, and turned to interior size and length to run away with the game. Baylor won the rebounding margin 50-34 and outscored the Hoyas 20-6 in the paint.

With Georgetown doubling Big 12 player of the year Kalani Brown in the post, Baylor's guards went to work on the perimeter.

"We're big so we've got to understand that we're going to see a lot of double- and triple-teams down there in the post," Mulkey said. "We've got to have our perimeter game step up and make shots for us. They know that. They know what's expected of them, and they went out there and did that tonight."

Dionna White had 12 points and 13 rebounds for Georgetown (4-3). Mikayla Venson also had 12 points.

BIG PICTURE

Baylor: Brown will look to get going in the upcoming weeks after struggling in the Lady Bears' two games in Las Vegas. Brown shot 4 of 10 against South Dakota State on Friday and finished with just five points and three rebounds on Saturday. Mulkey said her star center just "needs to just relax" and not put too much pressure on herself.

Georgetown: After winning their first three games of the season, the Hoyas have dropped three of their last four games. They will look to string together a few non-conference wins before starting Big East play on Dec. 29.

UP NEXT

Baylor (6-0) will visit No. 13 South Carolina in the SEC/Big 12 Challenge on Dec. 2.

Georgetown (4-3) will host Fordham on Thursday.