Feb. 15, 2008

WACO, Texas -

Complete Release in PDF Format

#8/8 Baylor (21-3, 9-2) vs. #10/10 Oklahoma (18-4, 8-2)

Sunday, Feb. 17 - 12:30 p.m.
Ferrell Center (10,284) - Waco, Texas

OVER THE AIRWAVES

Television - Fox Sports Net
Kevin Eschenfelder (Play-by-play)
Brenda VanLengen (Color analyst)

Internet Feeds
Webcast: None

Audio: Live audio stream at BaylorBears.com

Radio: KRZI/ESPN 1660 AM, Waco
KVCE 1160 AM, Dallas

Radio Talent:
Rick May, play-by-play
Lori Fogleman, color analyst

BAYLOR AND OKLAHOMA
Two top 10 teams will meet for the second time this season when No. 8 Baylor hosts 10th-ranked Oklahoma on Sunday, Feb. 19, at 12:30 p.m. Baylor, 21-3 on the season and 9-2 in Big 12 action, is coming off a 61-51 loss at Texas while the Sooners, 18-4 on the year and 8-2 in league play, are riding a seven-game win streak. Oklahoma's last loss came on Jan. 20 when the Lady Bears posted an 84-73 victory in Norman.

Sunday's game, a nationally televised contest, will be broadcast on Fox Sports Network. Veteran sportscasters Kevin Eschenfelder and Brenda VanLengen will provide play-by-play and color analysis, respectively.

BAYLOR'S "GOLD OUT"
Saturday's men's game against Texas, as well as Sunday's women's contest between the No. 8 Baylor Lady Bears and 10th-ranked Oklahoma Sooners, have been declared Gold Outs at the Ferrell Center.

All fans taking in Sunday's 12:30 p.m. contest will receive a free Lady Bear Gold Out t-shirt courtesy of Time Warner Cable and Baylor Athletics. Fans attending the men's game will receive a free Baylor Basketball Gold Out t-shirt compliments of Texas Farm Bureau and Baylor Athletics.

LADY BEAR LEADERS
With 24 games under their belt, the Lady Bears boast four players averaging double-digit scoring. Leading the way is the squad's lone senior, All-Big 12 candidate Angela Tisdale, with 14.8 a contest, while junior Rachel Allison, another All-Big 12 candidate, manages 13.2 points and a team-leading 8.6 rebounds a game. Junior guard/forward Jessica Morrow follows with 12.2 a contest and sophomore post Danielle Wilson manages 11.5 points an outing.

In addition to Allison's 8.6 boards, two other players haul down 5.5 or more rebounds an outing. Wilson manages 6.9 a game while freshman Melissa Jones manages 5.5.

SENIOR LEADERSHIP IN THE CLUTCH
Baylor's lone senior, point guard Angela Tisdale has shown that in the clutch, she can get it done.

- In Baylor's 59-56 win over No. 13 Texas A&M, Tisdale missed her first 10 3-point attempts, but made her only trey of the day with 38 seconds left to give the Bears a one-point lead and Baylor went on to win.

- On the road against No. 11 Oklahoma, an 84-73 victory, Tisdale scored a career-high 35 points and helped put some distance between the Lady Bears and Sooners when she scored seven points in an 8-1 run midway through the second half. After sinking a 3-pointer from the top of the key, she scored a basket in transition off Melissa Jones' steal and then hit two free throws that extended Baylor's lead to 66-59 with 8 minutes remaining.

- In Baylor's one-point win over No. 25 Texas (61-60), Tisdale scored 19 points, including a game-winning 3-pointer with 19 seconds left.

ALLISON NAMED TO MIDSEASON NAISMITH TROPHY LIST
Junior Rachel Allison was among 31 players named to the 2008 Naismith Trophy midseason list recently announced by the Atlanta Tipoff Club.

The women's list, which includes 31 candidates because of a tie, was voted on by the Atlanta Tipoff Club's Board of Selectors, comprised of leading basketball journalists, coaches and administrators from around the country. The board based its criteria on player performances this season, and the list was narrowed down from the preseason list of 50 candidates who were announced at the beginning of the season.

A Big 12 Player of the Week selection this season, Allison, a 6-1 forward, averages 13.2 points and a team-leading 8.6 rebounds a game. The Jonesboro, Ark., native ranks among the league leaders in rebounding (3rd), steals (9th), free throw percentage (12th) and scoring (17th).

DEFENSE
Superior defense as well as a balanced offense has led Baylor to a 21-3 season mark. The Lady Bears rank among the NCAA's top in several defensive categories: No. 5 - field goal percentage defense (.342), No. 7- blocked shots (6.1), No. 16 scoring defense (54.5), No. 61 - steals (10.3).

Among Big 12 defensive categories (all games), the Lady Bears are No. 1 in scoring defense, field goal percentage defense and blocks; No. 2 in 3-point field goal percentage defense. In league games only, Baylor ranks No. 1 in field goal percentage defense (.363) and scoring defense (57.8); No. 2 in 3-point field goal percentage defense (.256) and in steals (10.00).

TISDALE JOINS ELITE GROUP
With her 18-point performance against Rice, senior point guard Angela Tisdale became the 24th Lady Bear to score 1,000 career points. She now has 1,201 career points to her credit.

In Baylor's 84-73 victory over 11th-ranked Oklahoma, Tisdale poured in a career-high 35 points, 15 of which came from 3-point range. She is now No. 3 on Baylor's career 3-point list (147) and ranks No. 18 on the Baylor all-time scoring list.

TISDALE CLAIMS TOP SPOT ON BAYLOR ASSIST CHART
With her nine assists against Texas Tech on Jan. 9, Angela Tisdale became Baylor's all-time assists leader. Her 459 career assists surpassed former Lady Bear Chelsea Whitaker's school-record of 457, Tisdale has since extended that mark to 464.

ALLISON'S GOT A NOSE FOR THE BALL
Despite being the shortest of Baylor's posts, 6-1 junior Rachel Allison leads the Lady Bears in rebounding at 8.6 a game. She has hauled down 207 rebounds this season, including a career-high tying 14 at Oklahoma State. In addition, she has registered a team-leading 46 steals, 26 assists and 14 blocks on the year.

Over the past five games, Allison has hauled down 10 or more rebounds in every game, averaging 11.8 rebounds an outing: Texas (10 & 11), Kansas State (12), Oklahoma State (14)and Texas Tech (12).

BAYLOR'S BLOCK MACHINE
With her 23 blocks over the past six games, sophomore post Danielle Wilson now has 150 career blocks and ranks No. 2 on Baylor's career list. She needs just 10 rejections to surpass Steffanie Blackmon's (2001-05) top mark of 159.

In addition, Wilson owns two of the Big 12's top marks this season in blocks when she rejected nine shots against Oregon and seven at 11th-ranked Oklahoma. In fact, four of Wilson's seven against Oklahoma came in the second half with the Sooners' two-time All-American Courtney Paris as the victim.

She has blocked 64 shots which ranks No. 3 in the conference in block average at 2.8 a game, that mark also ranks her No. 13 nationally. In Baylor's 61-60 homecourt victory over Texas, the Longhorns had a chance at winning the game, but Kathleen Nash's shot with 3.4 seconds left was blocked by Wilson, her only block of the game.

Last year in her rookie campaign, Wilson blocked a school-record 86 shots.

BAYLOR QUICK HITS
- Over the past five games, Rachel Allison has hauled down 10 or more rebounds a game, averaging 11.8 rebounds an outing: Texas (10 & 11), Kansas State (12), Oklahoma State (14), Texas Tech (12).

- Over the past six games, Jessica Morrow has averaged 15.5 ppg: Missouri (16), Nebraska (10), Texas (16 & 19), Kansas State(16), Oklahoma State (24, season high), Texas Tech (8). In Baylor's three losses this season she has averaged 19.7 ppg.

- Entering the 2007-08 season, Baylor ranked No. 7 on the NCAA's Winningest Teams During the Last Five Years list with 135 victories. Schools ranking ahead of the Lady Bears are: Duke (159), Tennessee (159), Connecticut (157), LSU (151), North Carolina (149) and Stanford (141).

- Baylor ranks among the top seven in all four RPI rating services: No. 6 Jeff Sagarin, No. 7 in both College Basketball News and collegerpi.com and No. 7 in NCAA. This ranks No. 1 among Big 12 schools. The Big 12 ranks No. 1 in all RPI listings as a conference.

- The contest versus Oklahoma State marked Baylor's seventh game versus a ranked opponent in 2007-08; Baylor is now 5-2 versus ranked teams. It defeated then-No. 12 California (69-56), lost to then-No. 5 Stanford (87-63), downed then-No. 13 Texas A&M (59-56), triumphed over 11th-rated Oklahoma (84-73), beat 25th-ranked Texas (61-60), defeated #18 Kansas State (63-49) and most recently lost at Oklahoma State (77-67).

- 2007-08 team captains - senior Angela Tisdale and juniors Rachel Allison and Jhasmin Player.

- Baylor ranks in the top 15 in NCAA Division I statistics in five categories as of games through Feb. 14: No. 5 in field goal percentage defense (34.2); No. 6 in scoring margin (+19.3); No. 7 in blocked shots (6.1); No. 11 in won-lost percentage (87.5) and No. 15 in rebounding margin (+7.5). - Danielle Wilson's 2.8 blocks per game rank her No. 13 nationally.

- The Lady Bears have shot 44.3 percent or higher in 13 of 24 games this season and have posted a 50.0 percent or higher mark in seven games.

- Baylor has shot 50 percent or higher from 3-point range in five games.

- BU is 106-20 (.841) since the start of the 2004-05 season with 17 of the 21 setbacks coming at the hands of nationally ranked opponents. Of Baylor's last 16 losses, 15 have come to ranked opponents.

- Danielle Wilson has blocked at least one shot in 51 of 57 career games, including 4 or more 18 times and 3 or more on 22 occasions. Wilson's wing span is 82.25 inches, only 5 inches less than Mamadou Diene, the 7-foot center on the Baylor men's team.

- Wilson narrowly missed a triple-double when Baylor defeated Oregon. She hauled down 10 rebounds, rejected a school-record nine shots and scored nine points.

- With her 1,201 points and 464 assists, Angela Tisdale is the fourth player in school history to score more than 1,000 points and dish out at least 400 career assists.

- The trio of Danielle Wilson (64), Jessika Bradley (27) and Jessica Morrow (25) have combined for 116 of the team's 146 season blocks. - Baylor led NCAA Division I last season in blocks per game with 7.2. So far this season the Lady Bears are averaging 6.1 a contest to rank No. 7 nationally.

20 VICTORIES AGAIN
For the eighth straight season and 14th time in school history the Lady Bears, with their 63-49 victory at Kansas State on Feb. 2, have achieved a 20-win season. Baylor has posted 20-win campaigns in each season since Coach Mulkey assumed the program's helm.

LADY BEARS CLOSE TO TOPPING 100,000 AGAIN
Baylor needs just 9,483 fans to pass through the Ferrell Center doors in its three remaining home games to eclipse the 100,000 fan mark for the third straight season. The Lady Bears average 6,034 fans a home game this season and would need to average 3,161 in the remaining home games to reach 100,000.

2005-06 - 13 games = 100,316
2006-07 - 19 games = 119,603
2007-08 - 15 games = 90,517

NATIONAL ATTENDANCE FIGURES
In unofficial NCAA Division I attendance figures compiled by the University of Wisconsin, Baylor currently ranks No. 14 with an average of 6,034 per contest. Big 12 Conference schools Oklahoma (No. 3, 9,673), Iowa State (No. 5, 9.074) and Texas Tech (No. 6, 8,987) currently rank ahead of Baylor.

MULKEY VERSUS RANKED OPPONENTS
With Baylor's loss at 17th-ranked Oklahoma State on Feb. 5, head coach Kim Mulkey is now 38-39 against ranked opponents, including a 5-2 record this season.

Since a 69-55 loss to No. 15 Texas A&M during the 2004-05 season, Baylor is 23-15 versus ranked opponents.

SCOUTING THE SOONERS
The Oklahoma Sooners are 18-4 on the season and 8-2 in conference action. After dropping their first two games of the season to national powers Maryland (76-66) and Tennessee (70-67), the Sooners reeled off 10 straight victories. Since the Sooners' loss to Baylor, they have posted seven straight victories.

Head coach Sherri Coale is in her 12th year at Oklahoma. She is 250-122 (.672) in her career, all of which have come as the Sooners' head coach. Oklahoma is led in scoring by 6-4 junior center Courtney Paris' 17.4 points and 15.0 rebounds an outing. Freshman Danielle Robinson, a 5-9 forward, is the team's second-leading scorer with 12.8 a contest. Ashley Paris, a 6-3 junior forward, completes the Sooners' double-digit scoring with 12.0 a contest and ranks No. 2 in rebounding with 7.4 a game.

SERIES RECORD
Oklahoma holds a 20-9 series lead over Baylor. Prior to Baylor's 84-73 win in Norman on Jan . 20, the Sooners had won six straight over the Lady Bears. In fact, the series seems to go in streaks. Oklahoma won three straight to begin the series, Baylor took the next four, then OU reeled off 11 straight before Baylor won four in a row and Oklahoma won six consecutive.

Baylor is 4-8 versus Oklahoma in games played in Waco. The Lady Bears' last victory in Waco came on Jan. 16, 2005, 78-68.

Mulkey is 5-13 versus Oklahoma.