Walker's career night carries Baylor past Virginia Tech in women's NCAA Tournament
BLACKSBURG, Va. (AP) — In the moments following their NCAA Tournament victory, the Baylor Bears remained on the floor celebrating, and then they started chanting “Jada, Jada, Jada.”
Jada Walker was certainly worthy of being serenaded — and more.
Jada Walker scored 26 of her career-high 28 points in the second half to lead Baylor to a 75-72 victory over Virginia Tech in the second round of the women's NCAA Tournament on Sunday night.
Fifth-seeded Bears (26-7) advanced to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2021. Playing in her home state, Walker connected on 9 of 16 from the floor and 9 of 10 from the foul line.
“Obviously, Jada did it in the second half,” Baylor coach Nicki Collen said. “She was unbelievable down the stretch.”
Matilda Ekh paced fourth-seeded Virginia Tech (25-8) with 19 points, while Georgia Amoore and Clara Strack each finished with 18. Strack was once again filling in for All-American Elizabeth Kitley, who tore her ACL in the regular season finale.
Walker made the big plays down the stretch for the Bears, who won for the eighth time in the past nine games. She scored the team’s final nine points, and none were bigger than her 3-point play with 19.1 seconds left that gave Baylor a 73-69 lead.
Following a 3-pointer by Amoore with 16 seconds remaining, Virginia Tech fouled Walker, who hit two free throws with 5.9 seconds remaining that gave the Bears their final margin.
“A little,” Walker said when asked if she was nervous at the free-throw line. “But all throughout the game, Sarah (Andrews) told me that I was made for these moments. That really gave me confidence to step up and knock them down and just clear out the noise.”
Virginia Tech was unable to get a shot off in the final seconds. With a foul to give, Baylor fouled with less then 2 seconds remaining. Then, the Bears got a hand on the Hokies’ inbounds pass. The ball wound up in the hands of Amoore, who wasn’t able to get a clean look.
“Our kids could have very well hung their heads in all of the dismay at the time when Liz's injury happened, but they didn’t,” Virginia Tech coach Kenny Brooks said. “They kept their focus and locked in and reinvented themselves. We didn’t lose because of a lack of effort tonight. We didn’t always play great. We had some spells and some things didn’t go our way, but I’m very proud of them and their effort."
Andrews added 16 points for the Bears, and Darianna Littlepage-Buggs finished with 10.
BIG PICTURE
Baylor: The Bears survived despite missing nine free throws in the game. Walker connected on all four of her attempts in the fourth quarter to help Baylor survive and advance. The Bears had been knocked out of the tournament in the second round in each of the past two seasons.
Virginia Tech: A great season comes to an end for the ACC regular-season champions, who got behind the Bears early, struggled to get over the hump, and saw their 26-game homecourt winning streak snapped. Virginia Tech led just once in the game — late in the third quarter — and trailed the entire fourth quarter.
FREE THROW WOES
Baylor went into the game shooting 70% from the free-throw line, but the Bears made just 16 of 25 from the line for the game. Their struggles at the stripe probably kept Virginia Tech in the game.
“I thought, had we made free-throws, we could have created more separation,” Collen said. “That was probably my biggest frustration.”
SADNESS TO SWEET 16
Baylor officials thought they had a chance at hosting the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament before the selection committee made them a No. 5 seed and they ended up in Blacksburg.
“It just feels good to celebrate with that group of girls,” Collen said. “We started this journey in July, really in summer school. When we went overseas and played, it was all about building camaraderie to get to this point to win these close games.”
UP NEXT
Baylor will play the winner of Monday’s Southern California-Kansas game in a Portland 3 regional semifinal game on Saturday in Oregon.
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AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-womens-bracket/ and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness
