Sunday, January 30, 2011

Survivor: College Station

Since coming agonizingly close to ending UConn's record women's collegiate basketball winning streak back on  November 16, the Baylor Lady Bears have won 15 straight since that narrow 65-64 loss in Hartford

In the wake of Stanford beating the Huskies to end The Streak in December, the Lady Bears took over as the nation's Number one ranked NCAA women's basketball team.

This Lady Bear team is actually better than the Griner led squad that made it to the Women's Final Four last year in San Antonio with freshman gunners such as Odyssey Sims and Brooklyn Pope in the mix.

They took their unbeaten Big 12 conference record, winning streak and Number one ranking to a sold out Reed Arena to face the Number 6 nationally ranked Texas A&M Aggies and the Big 12's leading scorer in Danielle Adams.   Like the Lady Bears, the Aggies have only lost one game this year as well to then Number 3 ranked Duke.   They were on a 12 game win streak of their own and were 8-0 at home this year. 


It was the largest crowd for a women's basketball game this season at A&M and the assembled crowd at Reed Arena were treated to a first place showdown battle that went down to the final seconds.

The now 19-1 (6-0) Lady Bears prevailed 63-60 thanks to an Odyssey Sims jumper in the lane with 25 seconds left.   A steal on an A&M attempt to tie the game by Melissa Jones led to free throws that bumped the Baylor lead up to three points.

The Aggies had a chance to tie it, but Sydney Colson's 3-point attempt was short.  Baylor hustled to secure the rebound but couldn't corral it before it went out of bounds, giving Texas A&M one last chance to tie the game.   

Tyra White's desperation 3-point attempt at the buzzer was also short and Baylor finally could exhale and enjoy a hard fought win that kept them unbeaten in Big 12 conference play.

Odyssey Sims led all scorers with 25 points while Tyra White led all Texas A&M lady ballers with 18 points for the now 18-2 (6-1) Aggies. 

If this is any indicator of how close these teams are, the return matchup on Valentine's Day between Baylor and A&M in Waco's Ferrell Center should be a very interesting and hard fought game.




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