Baylor finally comes to Bay Area to face Cal

BERKELEY, Calif. (AP)—Alexis Gray-Lawson and her California teammates are long overdue to face Baylor on their home court. Little did they know they would have to prepare for defending the dunk.

The teams were supposed to meet at Haas Pavilion last Dec. 22, but a severe winter storm in the Northwest kept the Baylor team from getting to the Bay Area after its game at Oregon. The eighth-ranked Lady Bears (1-1) will finally come to play the No. 17 Cal Golden Bears (2-0) on Sunday.

“We’ve been waiting for this game a really long time,” Gray-Lawson said.

And now there’s an intriguing new dimension to the matchup: star Baylor freshman Brittney Griner and her attempts to dunk.

“It’s great for the women’s game,” Cal coach Joanne Boyle said. “You just don’t see it that often.”

While the Cal players know that the 6-foot-8 Griner dunking could be a big boost for their sport, they would rather it not happen against them. Griner is trying become the seventh woman to dunk in a college game and the first since Tennessee’s Candace Parker on Feb. 3, 2008, against Kentucky—the seventh career dunk for the current Los Angeles Sparks star. Lisa Leslie has dunked twice in WNBA games.

“Everybody loves everybody who can dunk,” Gray-Lawson said. “People like her ‘cuz she can dunk. She’s a good player.”

Fifth-year senior Gray-Lawson, teammate Natasha Vital and Boyle know some fans will come out Sunday to not only see Cal but also because of their interest in Griner and whether it will be her day to dunk. She sometimes dunks in warmups, too.

“For a woman player to dunk, it brings a lot of excitement to the women’s game and brings a lot of people out to watch us. I think it’s good for our fan base,” Vital said.

Griner missed her lone attempt in a 100-55 victory over Tennessee Tech on Tuesday night, but still wound up with 10 points, 11 rebounds and eight blocks.

Griner already threw down a right-handed dunk in an exhibition game earlier this month and coach Kim Mulkey ran a set play for Griner to make it happen. If Mulkey’s Lady Bears have Sunday’s game in hand, she might just go for it again.

Griner has her own Web site—www.brittney-griner.com/—in which the header reads “Basketball Phenom.”

“They all know who she is,” Boyle said of her team. “There’s a lot of pressure on a freshman. You guys saw her against Tennessee. She gets in foul trouble. She’s a freshman just like everybody else. We have to play her like we would anybody else: make her make tough shots, make her uncomfortable, get her off the block.”

It will be an important early test for a young Cal team, which narrowly escaped Saint Mary’s with a 68-65 win Tuesday night and struggled offensively. Boyle acknowledged afterward her team would have to be much better against Baylor “to have a chance.”

Gray-Lawson is the lone remaining player from a highly touted recruiting class in 2005. While her comrades—Ashley Walker and Devanei Hampton—have departed, Gray-Lawson is back for her senior season after missing all but nine games of her sophomore campaign with a serious knee injury that required surgery. She redshirted the season.

This is a new role for her, leading a roster filled with freshmen.

“It’s an everyday process. We have a lot to learn,” she said. “I’m just trying to do the little things so my teammates can follow from there.”