No. 19 Baylor vs Southern | NCAA Women's Basketball | 11.6.23

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By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider

Until Sarah Andrews was subbed out with seven minutes to go in Monday's game against Southern University, the Baylor senior guard didn't have a clue that she had reached the 1,000-point career milestone.

Accomplishing the feat in her 99th career game, Andrews drained her third three-pointer of the night and then went to the bench after hitting a pair of free throws, finishing with 14 points and seven assists to lead the 19th-ranked Bears (1-0) to an 85-53 season-opening victory over the Jaguars before a crowd of 3,570 at the Ferrell Center.

"Nah, I didn't know at all, actually," said Andrews, one of Baylor's two returning starters from a 20-13 team. "I literally found out once I got subbed out. When Coach Nicki (Collen) pulled me out, she told me. I was like, 'Oh snap, That's kind of cool.'''

Since she only scored 129 points as a freshman for a team that was one play away from making the Final Four, Andrews has "done it essentially in two years," Collen said. Starting all but two games over the previous two seasons, she had scored 860 points and averaged 12.8 per game.

"To really get it done in two years and one game says a lot about her offensive skill set," Collen said, "doing it whether it was alongside NaLyssa Smith or last year taking the offensive load once Aijha (Blackwell) went down. . . . She's just got to trust and let the game come to her. There's nights that we're going to need her to get 20, and there's nights when we need her to get 10 assists."

Similar to the 79-point exhibition-game win over Division III Hardin-Simmons three nights earlier, the Bears showed off their tremendous depth with four double-figure scorers. Ten of the team's 13 players scored at least two points, with former Kentucky teammates Dre'Una Edwards and Jada Walker scoring 20 and 15 points, respectively.

"I thought Jada got more and more confident as the night went along," Collen said. "I thought Sarah was really, really solid all night, and I thought Dre started it and Madison (Bartley) kind of bookended that inside game that was so important for us to have balance."

Leading by just eight points at the break, the Bears broke it open by doubling up the Jaguars in the second half, 48-24.

"I think it was getting out the nerves," said Andrews, who hit 3-pointers to move up to fourth all-time in program history with 167 made treys. "First game in front of a crowd like that, new starting lineup, too. I think it was just getting over the hump of, 'Okay, it's really her. The season is really here.' I think once everybody calmed down, you started to see us play Baylor basketball."

In a pivotal four-minute stretch in the third quarter, Baylor went on a 14-0 run that began with a free throw by Blackwell and capped by a three-point play by Ohio University transfer Yaya Felder.

Edwards, who had to sit out last year as a 4-4-4 transfer, was 9-of-10 from the field in scoring a game-high 20 points. She hit three buckets in the 14-0 run and then fed Felder for a layup and follow free throw that pushed Baylor's lead to 60-36 with 2:01 left in the third quarter.

"I think she's someone that's starting to read our actions, when to hand it off, when to keep it," Collen said of Edwards. She does such a good job of creating angles to finish. She obviously finished some tougher shots tonight. She does a good job of using her shoulder and getting leverage and playing kind of through and around contact and understanding that."

One of the most impressive plays in that run was Walker stealing the ball near midcourt, taking it into the paint on the other end and crossing over at the last second before laying it in with her right hand. After a relatively quiet first half, she scored nine points on 4-of-4 shooting and added four assists, three rebounds and three steals in the last two quarters.

Reed knocked down 4-of-5 shots from 3-point range and scored 14 points in the first half and then added another 3-pointer just over a minute into the third quarter. But she was held scoreless over the last 18 ½ minutes.

"We can't get beat on the same play three or four times and make the same mistake," Collen said. "Sometimes, it takes seeing to really understand it. We switched it out a little bit, too. . . . I don't mean this in a bad way, but they get you moving, and then they get whoever they want into the high ball screen. And they'll just call it out, who they want. They'll do it to take advantage of a mismatch or bad ball-screen coverage."

Williams was the Jaguars' only other double-figure scorer with 11 points, while Bella Fontleroy had three points and a game-high eight rebounds to help Baylor dominate the boards, 42-26.