Griner’s big dunk adds insult to injury as Lady Bears get huge win
WACO, Texas – Baylor freshman sensation Brittney Griner took a lob pass inside with no one around her, turned and became the seventh woman to dunk in a college game with her one-handed slam in the eighth-ranked Lady Bears’ 104-45 victory over Jacksonville State on Tuesday night.
On a set play about 5 minutes into the game, the 6-foot-8 Griner took a pass from Kelli Griffin on the right and dunked with her right hand. By then, the Lady Bears (3-1) already had a 17-3 lead.
After missing one-handed dunk attempts in each of her previous two games, there was no doubt about the third try. Griner was wide open in the right side of the lane under the basket when she got the pass. A defender didn’t get near her until she was already slamming it home.
Griner finished with 20 points, six rebounds and eight blocked shots in 21 minutes.
Morghan Medlock, the lone Baylor senior, had 18 points and seven rebounds, while Ashley Field had 17 points. Zenobia Pitts led Jacksonville State (0-4) with 11 points.
The last collegiate female to dunk was Tennessee’s Candace Parker on Feb. 3, 2008, against Kentucky. Parker had seven dunks in her college career, and is the only woman with two in a game.
There were no more dunk attempts, though it appeared Griner could have had a couple of more chances.
Following an extended break after her dunk, Griner came back with two quick baskets. The first was a breakaway layup out of the timeout when Jacksonville State wasn’t set and Griner took a pass from Lindsay Palmer, but opted for the short shot rather than take an extra step and dunk it home.
A minute into the second half, Griner appeared to be trying to go up for another slam, but was fouled by 11-inch shorter Danielle Beneby. A couple of minutes later, Griner was inside when she bobbled a pass from Griffin, and had to settle for a layup.
Before coming out of the game for good with 10 minutes left, Griner had blocks on consecutive shots by Jacksonville State and was in position for a third on the same possession when the shot clock expired. Her last basket came with 11:52 left when she had a putback on her own miss.
With Baylor playing three games in three days in a tournament this weekend, Griner and the rest of the starters didn’t play the final 10 minutes. Plus, the Lady Bears didn’t get home until after early Monday after an overnight trip home from their 69-49 victory at California on Sunday.
Griner became a YouTube sensation with her dunks at Houston’s Nimitz High, where in 32 games as a senior last season she had 52 dunks and averaged nearly 12 blocks a game. She had seven dunks in one game.
The six college women who dunk before had only a total of 15, and the 25th anniversary of the first is next month. Georgeann Wells of West Virginia had the first one Dec. 21, 1984.
• No. 24 Pittsburgh 75,
St. Francis, Pa. 70
PITTSBURGH – Taneisha Harrison matched her career high with 25 points, Jania Sims added a career-best 23 points, and Pittsburgh beat St. Francis, Pa.
The Panthers (3-0) were ranked for the first time this season but were challenged by a Red Flash (0-4) team that had been outscored by an average of 20.3 points.
St. Francis used a 12-1 in the second half to pull to within 55-50 and got as close as 71-68 with 1:19 to play.
Samantha Leach led the Red Flash with 20 points, and Britney Hodges added 16 to give her 1,007 for her career.
Pitt coach Agnus Berenato won her 400th career game. Berenato, who is in her 26th season – seventh with the Panthers.
• No. 21 Vanderbilt 59,
Saint Joseph’s 46
PHILADELPHIA – Hannah Tuomi scored 15 points and grabbed 11 rebounds, and Vanderbilt pulled away midway through the second half for a victory over Saint Joseph’s.
Jence Rhoads added 11 points and Jordan Coleman had a career-high 10 rebounds for the Commodores (4-0).
Ashley Logue had 12 points and 10 rebounds while Michelle Baker contributed a career-high 10 rebounds for the Hawks (1-3), who committed 20 turnovers and shot just 26 percent (16-for-61) from the field.