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AMES, Iowa (AP) — Nina Davis scored 26 points to help No. 9 Baylor clinch a share of the Big 12 title by beating Iowa State 70-54 on Tuesday night.
Sune Agbuke had nine points and 11 rebounds for the Lady Bears (26-4, 16-2 Big 12), who finished the regular season tied with West Virginia atop the conference. The Lady Bears have the top seed in the Big 12 tournament due to a tiebreaker.
Baylor won despite a season-low 11 points from star Odyssey Sims, the nation's leading scorer at 30.2 points per game entering play. But her first basket was a big one, as it put the Lady Bears ahead 59-44 with 4:39 left.
Nikki Moody had 17 points and Hallie Christofferson scored 14 for Iowa State (20-9, 9-9), which was outrebounded 48-32.
Baylor entered Sunday's game against West Virginia just a win shy of its fourth straight league title. But the surging Mountaineers stunned Baylor in Waco, 71-69, to pull even with the Lady Bears heading into the season finale.
Sims had 39 points against the Mountaineers, but she also banged her right shoulder hard in that game.
West Virginia clinched a piece of its first Big 12 title by beating Kansas 67-60 earlier Thursday. But while the Mountaineers were cutting down the nets in Morgantown, the Lady Bears found themselves in a surprising fight with the Cyclones.
Davis helped pull them through.
Davis converted back-to-back 3-point plays and hit a jumper in traffic to put Baylor up 50-38. Sims effectively finished off the Cyclones on a runner with 3:18 left that gave the Bears a 62-47 lead.
Sims finished just 4 of 16 from the floor in 32 minutes.
It was hard to imagine that Iowa State could hang as close as it did after the first meeting with Baylor back on Feb. 19.
Baylor blew out the Cyclones 89-51 by shooting 54 percent, hitting nine 3s and scoring 20 points off of 19 Iowa State turnovers.
Iowa State bounced back with three straight wins to solidify its hopes for an at-large NCAA tournament bid. But the Cyclones again fell behind big early, and even shutting down Sims wasn't enough.
Sims, whose previous season low was 17 points, went scoreless on 0 of 6 shooting in the first half. Baylor still led by as much as 13 with Christofferson in early foul trouble, though the Cyclones were able to cut it to 31-24 by halftime.
Baylor managed to hold off Iowa State and win for the 14th time in 15 games.
Niya Johnson had eight assists for the Lady Bears.
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