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Reed leads No. 18 Texas to win over No. 14 Baylor

Mar 7, 2010 - 11:47 PM WACO, Texas(AP) -- Baylor could have used freshman star Brittney Griner in the second half Sunday, when the No. 14 Bears managed only a pair of field goals.

Instead, Cokie Reed and Brittainey Raven scored 18 points each and No. 18 Texas cruised to a 70-54 momentum-building victory heading into the Big 12 tournament.

Griner is serving a two-game suspension after throwing a punch at Texas Tech's Jordan Barncastle during a win in Lubbock on Wednesday night. She attended the game but sat in the student section near the Baylor bench, where she signed autographs and posed for pictures.

"Brittney Griner is loved here," Baylor coach Kim Mulkey said. "Brittney Griner is loved a lot of places. She just made a bad mistake and is paying for it dearly."

So did the Bears.

Kathleen Nash added 12 points for the Longhorns (21-9, 10-6), who didn't allow a second-half field goal by Baylor until there was 4:44 left. Erika Arriaran added 10 points and Ashley Gayle had 11 rebounds for Texas.

Kimetria Hayden scored 14 points to lead Baylor (22-8, 9-7), while Kelli Griffin had 10 points and Morghan Medlock had 12 rebounds.

Baylor led 32-28 at halftime and was up 41-34 with 15:21 to play, before Texas switched to a zone defense and played extended minutes with two post players.

"We played Ashley Gayle and Cokie together, and we don't really play them together often," coach Gail Goestenkors said. "Because we were in a zone, it allowed us to play them together. They changed or altered so many shots and if they didn't, they got the rebounds. I thought they were very effective together."

After moving to the zone, Texas embarked on a 19-0 run to build a 53-32 lead with 8:02 left.

Baylor made 13 of its first 14 free throw attempts in the second half before Lindsay Palmer's jumper with 4:44 left gave the Bears their first field goal.

By that point, Texas had built a 62-47 lead.

"It was hard trying to get a shot off with their size inside, even though we did attack," Griffin said. "They had a good strategy in the second half to go to a zone. We just did a poor job of attacking it."

Medlock said Baylor can usually handle a zone defense with Griner playing.

"It's like she draws all the attention and then that leaves everybody else open to cut," she said. "We didn't have her, so they just stretched out and were big in there and it was hard for the guards to see over a player like Brittainey Raven, who's long and fast."

Texas led 14-12 before Waco native Reed hit back-to-back baskets and Raven converted a three-point play to go up 21-12 with 7:50 remaining.

Baylor trailed 23-14 with 5:03 left in the first half before Jordan Madden came off the bench and hit two consecutive baskets to spark a 10-0 run to leave the Bears up 24-23 with 3:24 to play.