Fourth-Quarter Comeback Fuels Wildcats to Fourth Straight Home Win

BALDWIN CITY - After taking down Central Methodist at home on Wednesday, the Baker women's basketball put together another gritty performance with a 76-70 victory over Mount Mercy here Saturday afternoon in the Collins Center.

With the Mustangs taking a nine-point lead after the first quarter, the Wildcats outscored them, 44-29 in the second half, including a 23-12 advantage in the fourth quarter to give BU back-to-back wins for the first time this season.

Baker drained nine 3-pointers and forced 17 turnovers in the game with 10 of MMU's miscues coming in the second half of play.

On a day in which she was honored for her 1,000 career points prior to the game, senior Sophia Barrett matched her career-high with 28 points against the Mustangs. Rihanna Blanchard fell a rebound shy of notching a double-double with 16 points and nine rebounds. Taniya Tease finished with 11 points and had an excellent game distributing the ball, tallying six assists to go along with five steals on the defensive end.

The Mustangs were able to get some easy buckets early on to take a quick 11-3 lead in the opening quarter. Barrett marked BU's first three of the game and Alyssa Morris followed with a three-point play as the Wildcats kept within single digits by the end of the first 10 minutes with MMU leading, 22-13.

After the deficit stretched to double digits, Baker started to work its way back with Maddie Wilbeck coming off the bench and swishing a trey. She followed up a three from Tease with her second triple to make it 37-28 with about two minutes left in the half.

Barrett made a couple more shots for BU as they went into halftime trailing, 41-32.

With Mount Mercy pushing the lead back out to double digits to start the third quarter, the Wildcats mounted their big comeback with Barrett knocking down another three and then Destiny Kiner coming through with a breakaway layup on a steal.

A basket by Morris brought the 'Cats within four, but the Mustangs countered with a nice response to build the lead back out near double-digit range. Blanchard and Morris each knocked one down from deep and Barrett closed out the quarter again with another pair of driving layups to make it a 58-53 ballgame going into the final quarter.

Tease and Barrett recorded back-to-back threes to ignite the fourth-quarter comeback for BU. Blanchard sank a couple of free throws to bring the game to its first tie since the opening minute with a 63-63 deadlock with five minutes left to play.

A nice up-and-under layup from Tease gave the Wildcats their first lead of the game, an advantage they wouldn't squander for the rest of the way. Barrett and Blanchard each came through with clutch baskets and a couple of free throws from Barrett made it a five-point lead for BU with less than two minutes remaining.

With Baker leading by three, Blanchard came through with a game-sealing steal on an MMU inbounds play as the Wildcats finished off with a 76-70 victory for their fourth straight win in front of the home crowd.

Since the start of the new year, the Wildcats have won five of their 11 matchups with four of them coming inside the Collins Center.

Moving to 5-15 in conference play, Baker closes out the homestand with a rivalry matchup against No. 11 MidAmerica Nazarene on Wednesday, February 12 at 5:30 p.m. in Baldwin City.

#BakerBuildsChampions