KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Baylor was wounded going into the Big 12 women’s tournament. Leading scorer and rebounder Brittney Griner was serving the second game of a two-game suspension and second-leading score Melissa Jones was on the bench due to injuries.
All the pieces were in place for the sixth-seeded Lady Bears to make a quick exit at Municipal Auditorium.
The only thing the Lady Bears had going for them was a deep bench and they used it to top 11th-seeded Colorado 72-65 and set up tonight’s 7:30 p.m. with third-seeded Oklahoma.
“We’re not just a one-person team,” said Baylor guard Kelli Griffin, who scored eight points and handed out a career-high nine assists against Colorado.
Griner’s absence dramatically changed the Lady Bears’ approach. The rebounding and shot blocking advantage the 6-foot-8 freshman usually gives them was sitting in the row of seats behind their bench.
Without her, Baylor had to use perimeter shooting and a full-court press to pull out the win against Colorado.
The shooting came from a very unlikely source. Whitney Zachariason had only taken 22 shots this season and was just 3-for-13 from 3-point range this season.
Colorado played a compacted 2-3 zone and dared Baylor to shoot them out of it.
Zachariason did, scoring a team-high 17 points and 5-for-10 shooting from 3-point range.
“They stayed in that zone and that’s what Whitney does best,” Baylor coach Kim Mulkey said. “She did what she was recruited to do: Make open 3-point shots.”
They’ll likely be there again tonight against the Sooners.
Mulkey didn’t announce until the conclusion of Thursday’s game that Griner’s suspension would end Thursday.
Griner, who leads the team in points (19.0 per game) and rebounding (8.7 per outing), was serving a Big 12 Conference mandated suspension after she threw a punch at Texas Tech’s Jordan Barncastle in the second-to-last game of the regular season.
Mulkey said Baylor might impose a longer suspension. That won’t be the case.
The Sooners and Lady Bears split the regular-season meetings. OU won an overtime thriller 62-60 at Lloyd Noble Center Feb. 20. Baylor took the season’s first meeting 57-47 at the Ferrell Center in Waco, Texas.
“The advantage they have is they got to sit today. The disadvantage is we used quite a lot of energy tonight,” Mulkey said. “I don’t anticipate it to be any different than the first two. The only difference is Griner will be back.”
John Shinn 366-3536 jshinn@normantranscript.com
