Brittney Griner set another conference record in the final Big-12 regular season game of her illustrious career as she scored 50 points in No. 1 Baylor’s 90-68 victory over Kansas State on March 4. With the victory, the Lady Bears (29-1, 18-0 Big 12) become the first team in Big-12 history to go unbeaten in consecutive seasons.
Two of Griner’s points came on her first dunk at the Ferrell Center since her freshman year.
"It means everything to just go out with a bang like that," Griner said. "Got a dunk finally at home, scored 50. I mean there's not a better way to go out."
With 16:57 remaining in the game, Griner slammed home her 14th career dunk after getting a pass from Kimetria Hayden and taking a step around a Wildcat defender along the baseline.
Griner shot 75 percent (21-of-28) from the floor and connected on 80 percent of her shots from the charity stripe (8-of-10). She also grabbed six rebounds, doled out two assists and blocked two shots.
Griner moved into second-place on the all-time NCAA scoring list with her big-game. She now has 3,123 career points, which is 271 points behind Jackie Stiles (Missouri State 1997-2001) all-time mark of 3,123.
Destiny Williams had 14 points for Baylor while Odyssey Sims chipped in with 12. Hayden added nine points and dished out a team-high eight dimes.
Kansas State (14-16, 5-13 Big 12) had five players reach double figures, Brittney Chambers led the way with 22 points while Haley Texada contributed 13 points and Brianna Craig added 12 points. Chantay Caron and Mariah White chipped in with 11 and 10 points, respectively. Chambers also hauled in seven caroms and had five assists.
Baylor shot a school record 69.8 (37-of-53) percent from the field while Kansas State connected on 40.4 percent (23-of-57) of their field goal attempts. The Lady Bears also made more free throws then the Wildcats (14-to-7) did, out-rebounded them (29-to-20) and committed fewer turnovers (8-to-10).
Kansas State was 15-of-35 from beyond the three-point line. With their 35 attempts, the Wildcats set a new conference record for three-point tries in a season (852).
Baylor, which has the nation’s longest current winning streak, will play the winner of the Texas/Kansas State game in the second round of the Big-12 Conference Tournament in Dallas, Texas on March 9.
Other game notes:
- Baylor extended two winning streaks against Kansas State. The Lady Bears have now won 46 straight games against Big-12 foes, including tournament games, and 55 consecutive home games (nation’s longest winning streak).
- Baylor celebrated senior day and honored five seniors after the game. The five players were Griner, Hayden, Williams, Brooklyn Pope and Jordan Madden. All five seniors started and all but Pope recorded a point.
- Baylor’s 69.8 field goal shooting percentage set a school record.
- The Lady Bears will host the first two-rounds in the NCAA Tournament sub-regional play.
-10 of Griner’s dunks have come on the road.
- The Lady Bears have been ranked number one in the Associated Poll for nine straight weeks and number one in the ESPN Coaches Poll for nine straight weeks.
- A record-tying 10, 627 fans attended the game at the Ferrell Center.
-Mary Mowry owns the Lady Bears single-game scoring record as she tallied 54 points in 1994.
- Chambers has scored in double figures 28 times this season. Chambers has scored 607 points this season, which is the sixth most in Kansas State history.
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