Walker and No. 10 Baylor open Big 12 play with big 85-79 win at No. 5 Texas

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AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Jada Walker scored 19 points and No. 10 Baylor opened Big 12 conference play Saturday with an 85-79 win over No. 5 Texas, which played its first game without injured point guard Rori Harmon.

The Bears (12-0, 1-0) also got 18 points and eight rebounds from Dre’Una Edwards. Baylor has won 14 in a row at Texas (13-1, 0-1) in a rivalry that won’t see as many matchups once the Longhorns leave for the Southeastern Conference after this season.

Walker, a transfer from Kentucky, scored eight consecutive points in one stretch of the third quarter.

“Coming on the road, playing with the lead and never relinquishing that, is a pretty big deal,” Baylor coach Nicki Collen said.

Texas freshman Madison Booker had 25 points, eight assists and seven rebounds in taking over the point-guard duties for Harmon, who was lost for the season when she tore a knee ligament in practice this week.

Harmon was last season’s Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year and was the league’s preseason player of the heading into this season.

“We’re obviously a little different without our motor (Harmon),” Texas coach Vic Schaefer said.

Baylor built a 13-point lead with a burst to start the game, before Texas rallied and closed to 59-55 on Booker’s stretching finger-roll layup at the end of the third quarter.

Amina Muhammad’s two free throws with 47 seconds left got Texas within four. But Muhammad fouled Baylor’s Sarah Andrews, who made two free throws with 20 seconds to play to stretch the Bears’ lead again — leading to “B-U!” chants from Baylor fans.

Booker then missed a long 3-pointer that rattled around the rim. Booker was 1 of 8 from long range.

Muhammad scored 17 points for Texas.

Texas also played its third consecutive game without forward Taylor Jones, who averages 16.2 points and has 79 blocks this season.

“I know there’s going to be a lot of conversation about Taylor and Rori not playing, and rightly so. But we don’t control that,” Collen said. “They were undefeated, we were undefeated.”

BIG PICTURE

Baylor: The Bears won 12 consecutive regular-season Big 12 championships from 2011-2022 and their hot start has them looking like the top title contender again. A win at Texas, even a depleted one that hung close without Harmon, is a huge step in that direction.

“Our No. 1 goal is to win the conference championship,” Collen said. “You knew they were going to be motivated to play Texas.”

Texas: The Longhorns got their first game without Harmon behind them. Now comes the grind of a long Big 12 season without her energy and efficiency on both ends of the court. Harmon had 93 assists against just 14 turnovers and was a lock-down defender despite her 5-foot-6 height. Booker is bigger and stronger at 6-1 but now shoulders the burden of leading the team.

“Watching Rori do it, she makes it look easy,” Booker said. “I struggled the first five minutes, I was supposed to lead the team and I didn’t help. We got punched and I learned from that.”

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AP women’s college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-womens-college-basketball-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/womens-college-basketball