As Baylor gears up for its final regular-season homestand, the Bears are set to host Arizona on Saturday night at 7 PM. This matchup, airing on ESPN+ and the Baylor Sports Media Network, follows a doubleheader featuring the Baylor men's team against Arizona State.
In their fifth meeting, Baylor and Arizona have split their encounters during the Nicki Collen era. The Wildcats triumphed in the 2022 Pac-12 Coast-to-Coast Challenge in Dallas, but Baylor bounced back with an overtime victory in Tucson during Arizona's inaugural Big 12 season.
Currently sitting at 22-6, Baylor holds the No. 15 spot in the AP Top 25 and No. 14 in the USA TODAY Coaches Poll. This marks the Bears' 22nd consecutive appearance in the AP rankings, boasting 363 appearances over the past two decades, second only to UConn.
In the Big 12 standings, Baylor is tied for second place with Texas Tech and West Virginia at 11-4, trailing TCU, which leads at 12-3. Oklahoma State and Colorado are close behind at 10-5.
Saturday's game also features Senior Night celebrations, honoring players Bella Fontleroy, Kiersten Johnson, Darianna Littlepage-Buggs, and Jana Van Gytenbeek, along with graduate assistants Read Jackson and Sean Mullen, and student manager Jake Andrade.
Baylor continues its impressive streak of 26 consecutive seasons with at least 20 wins, the second-longest active run in NCAA Division I, again trailing only UConn's 33 seasons.
Head coach Nicki Collen has made her mark, becoming the fourth coach in the last 15 seasons to kick off a collegiate head coaching career with at least five 20-win seasons at the DI level, and the third among power-conference coaches.
Standouts Taliah Scott and Darianna Littlepage-Buggs have been recognized on midseason top-10 lists for their respective Starting Five Awards by the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. Baylor's two selections are only behind South Carolina and UCLA, which have four each, and match 10 programs nationally, leading the Big 12.
Scott, a contender for the Ann Meyers Drysdale Shooting Guard of the Year Award, ranks second in scoring among her peers with 20.4 points per game, just behind Vanderbilt's Mikayla Blakes at 25.6. Scott also joins the 2026 Jersey Mike's Naismith Trophy Women's College Player of the Year Late-Season Team, as one of three Big 12 players and one of 11 underclassmen on the 30-player watchlist.
Littlepage-Buggs, a power forward standout and Katrina McClain Award finalist last season, is one of only two players on this year's top-10 list averaging a double-double, alongside NC State's Khamil Pierre.
Despite a setback with an 87-56 loss to Texas Tech in Lubbock, where Baylor allowed 55.7% shooting from the Lady Raiders, Taliah Scott led the scoring with 13 points, including seven from the free-throw line. Kiersten Johnson contributed with a team-high six rebounds, four offensively, while Jana Van Gytenbeek and Yuting Deng each added three assists.
Texas Tech surged ahead by as many as 35 points late in the fourth quarter, despite Baylor's strong third-quarter push that narrowed the gap to 15.