WACO, TX — Baylor controlled Abilene Christian from the tip as they won their first NCAA tournament game 95 to 38.
The Lady Bears erupted for a 12-0 run to start the game before forcing a shot clock violation and sending the Wildcats into a timeout.
Junior forward Lauren Cox and senior point guard Chloe Jackson both had made threes in the first six minutes.
Kalani Brown added a pair of transition layups of her own and the Lady Bears were off and running.
The run would extend to 20-0 before ACU scored a three.
It wouldn’t make a ton of difference as Baylor finished the first quarter with a 26-3 lead.
Head coach Kim Mulkey then changed lineups going with all her reserves. They extended the lead to 35-3 before giving up a three of their own and being swapped for the starters.
For the remaining four minutes of the second quarter, the Lady Bears expanded their lead by pounding the ball inside, but they did allow ACU to make a few threes.
Score at the half was 49-16.
The second half was more of the same as Brown and Cox continued to impose their will on the smaller Abilene lineup.
This was not the largest margin of victory for the Lady Bears in a tournament game though. That came against Texas Southern in 2017 when Baylor won by 89 points.
Top seeded Baylor moves on to play California on Monday night.
