No. 2 Baylor women beat Texas for 58th Big 12 win in a row

WACO, Texas (AP) — Te’a Cooper scored 20 points, fourth-year senior Lauren Cox had 17 and Big 12 champion Baylor extended its record winning streak to 58 regular-season conference games in a row, with the No. 2 Lady Bears beating Texas 69-53 on Thursday night.

Baylor (28-1, 17-0 Big 12) also won its 56th straight game at the Ferrell Center, where in two weeks it will host its NCAA Tournament opener.

Cox also had 12 rebounds for her 36th career double-double. NaLyssa Smith also had a double-double with 13 points and 10 rebounds.

Audrey Warren scored 10 points for the Longhorns (18-11, 10-7), who had won three of their previous four games.

Cooper had 13 points before halftime, but was still scoreless after the break when she missed the rim attempting a 3-pointer with about 6 1/2 minutes left in the third quarter. The graduate transfer then scored seven points in less than 90 seconds as part of a 15-3 run that put the Lady Bears ahead by double figures for rest of the game.

Both the Big 12 winning streak and home winning streak for the Lady Bears began after a home loss to Texas on Feb. 6, 2017.

Soon after the badly missed 3, Cooper drove for a layup. She had another driving layup before DiDi Richards penetrated before passing out to Cooper, whose 3 from near the same spot put Baylor up 45-27.

Baylor led 57-34 when Erin DeGrate, another grad transfer, converted a three-point play at the end of the third quarter. She made a layup and was fouled after Richards saved a ball from going out of bounds and got it to DeGrate near the basket.

BIG PICTURE

Texas: The Longhorns have a four seniors who have all played more than 110 college games. But those seniors have beaten Baylor only once. Texas has lost 20 of the last 21 meetings — the lone win in that stretch being that one three years ago.

Baylor: With the outright Big 12 title already in place, the Lady Bears played their regular-season home finale. That included senior night recognition at halftime for Cox, Juicy Landrum, Cooper and DeGrate. Cox and Landrum have both been part of four consecutive Big 12 championships. Landrum finished with six points, making all six of her free throws while going 0 for 10 from the field (0 for 5 on 3-pointers).

UP NEXT

Texas finishes out the regular season at home Sunday against Oklahoma State.

Baylor plays Sunday at Iowa State with a chance to close out its third consecutive regular season without a Big 12 loss.