No. 11 Baylor 81, St. John's 58

12/22/2007 1:42 PM

By DOUG FEINBERG
AP Sports Writer

NEW YORK (AP) - Baylor coach Kim Mulkey has high expectations for junior Jessica Morrow.

Morrow scored a season-high 22 points to help No. 11 Baylor beat St. John's 81-58 on Saturday.

``She smoothly does the sort of things that big-time basketball players do,'' Mulkey said.

Danielle Wilson added 15 points and 10 rebounds for the Lady Bears (9-1), who improved to 93-3 under Mulkey when they score 80 points or more. Rachel Allison had 14 points and Angela Tisdale added 12.

``I thought we got a lot of contributions from everybody,'' Mulkey said. ``I thought we wanted to win the game for Danielle.''

Wilson and teammate Kaitlin Oberg are from Long Island.

``It's nice being here and playing in front of my family,'' Wilson said. ``My mom just told me stay focused and play my game.''

Tiina Sten and Kia Wright both scored 13 points to lead St. John's (8-4). Wright broke the school record for free throw's made passing Sabrina Johnson's all-time mark of 339. Wright was 6-for-6 Saturday and has 341.

Monique McLean added 11 for the Red Storm. Freshman Sky Lindsay, who is St. John's second leading scorer at 10.3 points, was held to just four.

``Baylor's an excellent team,'' St. John's coach Kim Barnes Arico said. ``At times we played well and at times they took us out of what we wanted to do on both ends of the floor.''

With Baylor holding a 61-50 lead midway through the second half, the Lady Bears went on a 7-0 run to put the game away. Morrow capped the spurt with her fourth 3-pointer. St. John's could get no closer than 14 points the rest of the way.

``Morrow is a special player,'' Mulkey said. ``Every run they made Jessica hit a 3 or a two.''

The Red Storm was coming off a disappointing loss to UAB in the championship game of the Blazer Invitational on Tuesday. St. John's held a 16-point lead with 8:50 left in that game, but couldn't hold it, falling 80-71.

On Saturday, the Red Storm fell behind early. With the game tied at 10, Baylor went on a 15-0 run over the next 5:28 to take a 25-10 lead with 10:09 left in the first half. Kelly McManmon finally ended the scoreless drought with a 3-pointer. The Red Storm responded with a 16-7 spurt to close to 32-26 on Sten's 3-pointer.

The Lady Bears then scored the next nine points to extend their lead back to 15, and they led 44-34 at halftime. Baylor shot 59 percent (17-for-29) from the field in the first half.

St. John's has one more non-conference game against Morgan State on Dec. 30 before opening the Big East season at No. 6 Rutgers on Jan. 5.

``We do have some work to do,'' Barnes Arico said. ``We've made tremendous strides. We won eight games all last year and now we've won eight by Christmas.''