Midway through this year’s college basketball season, four of the country’s premier teams converged on northern New Jersey to take part in the inaugural Coretta Scott King Classic.
Held at Newark’s Prudential Center in celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s holiday and broadcasted on Fox, it was a banner day to be a women’s hoops aficionado in the New York City area.
The four teams that participated were the Maryland Terrapins, the Baylor Bears, the Texas Longhorns and the No. 1-ranked assembling in the nation – the UCLA Bruins. The event was jointly organized by Fox Sports, Hartis Blitzer Sports & Entertainment, Playfly Sports and The King Center.
First up was UCLA and Baylor. The Bruins jumped out to a 19-9 advantage following the first quarter but the Bears trimmed the gap to 37-29 at the half. When all was said and finished following the first game, UCLA managed to keep its perfect record intact by virtue of a 72-57 victory over Baylor.
Lauren Betts once again resembled one of the premier hoopers in the nation that afternoon in the Garden State. She scored 24 points and was one rebound and block shy of a double-double as she had nine boards and nine rejections. Kiki Rice logged 28 minutes of playing time and tallied 15 points with four rebounds and three assists. She connected on two of her three 3-point tries. Gabriela Jaquez chimed in with a double-double of 13 rebounds and 11 points. Janiah Barker, the transfer from Texas A&M added 10 points and eight boards off the bench.
Only one player for Baylor had a double-digit point game and that was Yaya Felder with 10. Kayla Nelms, Bella Fontleroy, Darianna Littlepage-buggs and Sarah Andrews all had eight points. Littlepage-buggs’ performance also included 10 rebounds. Fontleroy and Andrews each dished out three assists. Fontleroy also collected four steals.
UCLA is used to outdoing opponents in the paint – and the Bruins did so again that Monday when it had 42 points in the interior to Baylor’s 20. The Bruins had a 9-2 edge in terms of points in the paint. The Bears’ bench did outdo UCLA’s by a margin of 26-16 and had 26 points off of UCLA turnovers to 13 for the Bruins.
The second contest on the schedule would include the fifth-ranked Longhorns vs. the 14th-ranked Terrapins. Texas wasted no time displaying why it is ranked in the top five. The Longhorns would outscore Maryland by a margin of 48-18 in the first half and would go on to blow out the Terps with the final being a resounding 89-51.
Four for Texas finished in double-digits for points. One of those was Madison Booker who led the way with 28 points. Her game also included grabbing four rebounds, sending out three assists and collecting two steals. Kyla Oldacre gave the Longhorns scoring and rebounding depth off the bench with 15 points and six assists. Taylor Jones was one rebound shy of a double-double with 13 points and nine boards in the 22 minutes that she saw playing time. Texas also benefitted from the 12 points and three assists courtesy of Shay Holle. It also benefitted from the seven assists courtesy of Rori Harmon.
One bright spot for Maryland on what was a rough game for the Terrapins was Kaylene Smikle who tallied 15 points and collected four rebounds in 33 minutes. Eleven of Smikle’s 12 were scored at the free throw line. Christina Dalce finished with nine points, four rebounds and two steals in 28 minutes.
Texas had 52 points in the paint to 34 for Maryland. The Longhorns also outdid the Terrapins by a margin of 33-11 in terms of points off turnovers. Texas had an 18-9 second chance point margin and a 27-16 bench point margin.
