Balanced attack helps No. 10 Lady Bears pull away from Owls

WACO, Texas (AP) -- Baylor's Angela Tisdale is not your typical pass-first, shoot-second point guard. Coach Kim Mulkey is fine with that.

Tisdale scored 18 points on Sunday, giving her 1,000 for her career, and 10th-ranked Baylor survived an early scare for a 76-51 win over Rice.

"Not many point guards score," Mulkey said. "Most of them are distributors. But Angela is the best shooting point guard I've ever coached at Baylor. This team needs her to be a shooter and a scorer. They really need her to step up and produce."

Rachel Allison had 17 points and 10 rebounds for Baylor (10-1). Danielle Wilson scored 11 and blocked five shots and Melissa Jones added 10 points.

Kadie Riverin scored 16 for Rice (7-7). Valery Berezhynska had 13 points and nine rebounds before leaving the game with an ankle injury with 3:53 remaining.

"She's had ankle problems before -- all year," Rice coach Greg Williams said. "It's much better that it's an ankle than a knee."

Rice took an early 12-2 lead as Baylor turned the ball over and took no shots on its first five possessions and then committed two additional turnovers after Tisdale scored the Lady Bears' first points on a driving layup at the 16:10 mark.

"We came out with our motors running too fast," Mulkey said. "Our defensive assignments were not very good and they made us pay for it."

Trailing 22-11 with 7:55 left in the first half, Baylor put together a 14-2 run to go up 25-24 with 4:00 remaining. Wilson fed Allison for three layups during the spurt and Rice also committed four turnovers during a 55-second span.

"Rice did us a favor when they doubled our post players," Mulkey said. "They went and doubled Danielle and we work on that literally every day in practice. She found Rachel on the backside a lot."

Mulkey left the Baylor bench and headed to the locker room with 1.3 seconds left in the first half when Allison was whistled by referee Brenda Pantoia for a blocking foul on Riverin. Mulkey had previously disagreed with a call Pantoia made on an offensive foul on Tisdale with 8:19 left in the first period.

"My britches split," a smiling Mulkey said after the game. "That's what I told [Pantoia] so I wouldn't get a technical."

After being tied at 31 at halftime, Baylor opened the second period with a 12-2 run to take a 43-33 lead with 15:56 remaining. Wilson hit a layup and a turnaround jumper and blocked a shot attempt by Berezhynska to start a fast break that culminated in a Jones layup. A 3-pointer and short jumper by Tisdale then sparked another run that left Baylor with a 53-35 advantage with 13:12 remaining.

"In the second half, they were more physical," Williams said. "They had 18 offensive rebounds. They showed why they're the 10th-ranked team in the country."