Whitney Zachariason comes up big on Senior night, Baylor forward’s rebounding prowess helps team clinch Big 12 title

Whitney Zachariason heads to center court with her parents to be
honored  on Senior Night

WACO, Texas – Whitney Zachariason was among a group as she donned a dark green t-shirt emblazoned with a gold number five with her teammates to honor injured starter, senior Melissa Jones last night. However, she was not just another Baylor player that evening. Baylor’s only other senior on the 2010-2011 squad had a breakout night on the boards in the Lady Bears’ last regular season home game as they defeated Missouri 84-52 in front of a crowd of 8, 895 in Waco to clinch the Big 12 regular season title.

Predicting the outcome of the game itself was a no-brainer after just five minutes of the contest as Baylor raced ahead on a 12-0 run to start the matchup and never looked back. Within the first three minutes, Zachariason tallied three rebounds and one assist in her second career start at Baylor. A few minutes later she added another rebound plus two free throws. While Baylor dominated on both ends of the court led by the scoring of Brittney Griner in the first half, Zachariason went into the break with six rebounds under her belt. Teammates Griner and freshman starting point guard Odyssey Sims had 11 and 9 points respectively. Baylor led 43-22 going into the locker room.

The senior from Little Rock, Arkansas transferred to Baylor in 2008 and sat out the 2007-2008 spring semester as well as the next fall term to satisfy NCAA transfer regulations. She came into Wednesday night’s contest averaging just 1.6 points per game and 1.7 rebounds per contest. In the 11 minutes she played in the second half, she racked up four more rebounds to finish with 10 boards and three points.

Baylor head coach Kim Mulkey was not all surprised by Whitney’s performance starting in place of Jones.

“She’s always around the ball,” said Mulkey “I’ve always told coaches around me ‘you know the thing about Whitney, she may not be the fastest and fleet of foot but she’s always around the basketball’ and it didn’t surprise me the least. I mean it really didn’t. We’re going to need that because we don’t know how much we’re going to get out of [Melissa Jones] before everything is settled.”

Zachariason attributed her success on the floor to practicing against Jones day-in, day-out.

“Well I have to practice against Melissa Jones every day so you can imagine how difficult that is,” said Zachariason. “She has taught me a few things and I tried to get some boards and just help out the team. We really wanted to win this for Melissa and I think we did a good job of that tonight.”

Jones who is Zachariason’s roommate was overjoyed with her teammate’s performance.

“You just got to give it up for Whitney for being the rebound star that she was tonight,” said Jones. “It “was such a special moment to be able to share with her. It was awesome.”

Both Jones and Zachariason were honored at half time and received standing ovations from the Baylor faithful as they stood at center court with their families.

Zachariason gets a hug from Coach Mulkey

“I’m very happy for her,” said Mulkey about her senior forward, “and happy that the parents were here to see it.”

Baylor heads to Colorado for their last game of the season on Sunday, March 5 at 3 p.m. CT.

Missouri has their last game of the season on the same day. They host Iowa State at 4 p.m. CT.

Notes

• The lineup of Odyssey Sims, Jordan Madden, Whitney Zachariason, Destiny Williams and Brittney Griner marked the eighth different starting lineup used by Baylor this season.
• The attendance of 8,895 extends the Lady Bears’ record-setting season total to 149,689.
• Baylor is now 14-5 against Missouri, including 8-1 in Waco, winning eight straight.
• Baylor won its fourth overall Big 12 Championship and second regular season title (2005).
• Baylor hasn’t allowed an opponent to shoot 50 percent in 166-straight games, dating back to March 25, 2006 against Maryland.
• Baylor had five players score in double figures for the first time since Dec. 30, 2010 vs. UT-Pan Am.
• Baylor had its 10th game of the season shooting 50 percent or better from the field.
• Griner (22 points) has scored in double-figures in 62-of-63 career games, including all 29 this season. She also recorded her 19th 20-plus point performance of the season and 35th of her career.
• Sims (13 points) registered her 20th double-figure point performance of the season.
• Nae-Nae Hayden (13 points) recorded her ninth double-figure scoring game of the year.
• Jordan Madden (11 points) had her sixth double-figure scoring game of the year.
• Brooklyn Pope (12 points, 11 rebounds) collected her second double-double of the season.