No. 6 Baylor 72, Missouri 57

1/23/2008 11:09 PM

COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) -Baylor women's basketball coach Kim Mulkey became the sixth-fastest Division I women's coach to reach 200 victories. She was just glad to escape Mizzou Arena with a win.

Jhasmin Player scored 18 points, Danielle Wilson had 16 and Baylor beat Missouri 72-57 on Wednesday night, getting a win in a place where they lost in their last visit, two years ago.

``Last time we came here, we left pretty dejected,'' Mulkey said. Two years ago, then-defending national champion Baylor was upset by Missouri 64-61.

Wednesday night, Baylor looked vulnerable again in winning its 10th straight game.

The victory improved Mulkey's career record to 200-54, putting her at 200 wins faster than several of her peers in the women's game, including Tennessee's Pat Summitt, the winningest coach in college basketball history, men's or women's. Summitt needed 259 games to reach the 200-win plateau.

``Coach is incredible. You can't ignore it,'' junior guard Jhasmin Player said. ``She's done things a lot of coaches haven't done in her couple years at Baylor. But I know tomorrow we're going to be in the gym working like 199 is coming up again.''

Mulkey wasn't interested in discussing the milestone.

``If I had to say anything, it'd be indicative of the talented kids that I had the opportunity to coach at Baylor,'' she said. ``I don't mean to downplay it, but honest to goodness, I don't know if it means anything for the program. It's a win that helps us this year.''

Missouri, which stunned then-defending national champion Baylor two years ago in Columbia, never really threatened the Big 12-leading Bears despite nine first-half turnovers by Baylor.

``I felt like they didn't play their best game, and we didn't obviously either,'' Missouri coach Cindy Stein said. ``When you've got the No. 6 team in the country coming in, you've got to be on your A-game and we were not.''

The Tigers went nearly seven minutes without a field goal midway through the first half, helping Baylor (17-1, 5-0 Big 12) overcome sloppy play to take a 19-10 lead.

A put-back by Nicole Wilson ended the Missouri drought, but it wasn't enough to keep the Bears from stretching the lead to 32-21 at the half.

Coming off a 35-point performance against Oklahoma on Sunday, Baylor guard Angela Tisdale shook off a cold first half (1-for-7) and gave Baylor a 41-24 lead three minutes into the second half with a 3-pointer from the top of the key.

But she picked up her third foul with 14:30 remaining and watched the rest of the game from the bench after scoring just seven points.

Missouri (8-10, 1-4) lost its fifth game in seven tries and fell to 0-3 against ranked teams this year.

The win improved Mulkey's career record to 200-54, making her the sixth-fastest women's Division I coach to reach 200 wins.

It was the 10th straight win for Baylor.

Jessra Johnson led Missouri with 18 points on 7-of-14 shooting. The Tigers made just 3-of-14 from beyond the 3-point line.