Defending champion No. 4 Baylor falls to No. 16 Arkansas to create top-5 rankings shake-up
Another top five program is in the loss column this weekend.
The No. 4 Baylor Bears women’s basketball team couldn’t overcome No. 16 Arkansas on Sunday night, 83-78. It’s a rare loss for the program that technically is the defending champions from April 2019. They had barely escaped South Florida, 67-62, on Tuesday.
The result will force those voting in the Associated Press Top 25 poll to make a lot of tough decisions ahead of the release on Monday.
Fouls hurt Baylor most in loss
The Bears (2-1) trailed by a basket, 38-36, at halftime and slowly fell farther behind in the third quarter. Arkansas’ largest lead was 10 points. The Bears cut into it to force attempts at last-minute heroics, but couldn’t make it happen.
Going without junior center Queen Egbo, who fouled out early in the third quarter, hurt Baylor’s cause. She came into the contest averaging 25.0 points, 11.0 rebounds and 3.0 blocks per game. In 11 minutes on the court she had six points, seven rebounds and one assist.
Guard DiJonai Carrington, a grad-transfer from Stanford, carried Baylor coming off the bench. She had 24 points on 8-of-16 shooting and added five rebounds. NaLyssa Smith scored 16 points with seven rebounds, tied with two other Bears for a team-high, two steals and two blocks. Moon Ursin scored 14 points, making two of three 3-point attempts, with three rebounds and four assists.
Baylor was statistically better controlling the boards, 51-38; sharing the ball with assists, 24-5; and shooting at 43.7 percent. But they had 22 turnovers to Arkansas’ 20 and had six steals to the opponents’ 10. The Razorbacks took 39 shots from the free throw line, sinking 30 of them.
Ramirez, Dungee carry Arkansas
Arkansas (4-1) is coming off four games in five days last week, only losing to No. 14 Maryland in a 115-98 offensive showcase. Four starters came into the contest averaging double-digits and all kept that trend up in the Baylor game.
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Amber Ramirez scored 23 points on 7-of-14 shooting and added six rebounds. Chelsea Dungee scored 14, hitting 10 of 12 free throws. And Makayla Daniels scored 16 points with three rebounds, one assist and one steal. Destiny Slocum scored 14, hitting 8 of 12 free throws and adding a team-high seven rebounds and two steals.
Rankings will get a shake-up
The new top five teams will look very different after the week’s events. It could be the first major top-end shakeup of the rankings since before the 2019-20 season and holds plenty of pondering.
No. 1 South Carolina lost its first game in more than a year on Thursday, falling to No. 8 N.C. State, 54-46. Though they bounced back to cruise over No. 23 Iowa State, 83-65, on Sunday the Gamecocks will lose the top spot with the loss.
No. 2 Stanford returned to the court this weekend with back-to-back games in Las Vegas, where they will relocate through Dec. 21 due to local municipality COVID-19 restrictions. They beat UNLV, 101-54, and Pac-12 foe Washington, 83-50.
No. 3 UConn still hasn’t played a game. It paused activities due to a positive COVID-19 test within its team and won’t return to the court until the coming weekend.
No. 5 Louisville is where it really gets interesting. The Cardinals took it to No. 20 DePaul on Friday night, setting a school record for points in a 116-75 demolishing. They had 101 points before the start of the final quarter and tapered off. DePaul came in averaging 109.5 points per game.
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