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The Baylor Lady Bears made a statement heard across all of women’s college basketball Thursday night as they secured a marquee victory, handing No. 1 UConn its first regular season loss since November 2014.

Kalani Brown led the way with 22 points and 17 rebounds. She anchored the defense inside with Lauren Cox, who blocked five shots and played all 40 minutes. The Huskies only turned it over nine times but shot just 29 percent from the field. More on how Baylor pulled off the upset:

Brown in the paint

Brown was matched up with sophomore Megan Walker for most of the evening. She regularly had two feet in the paint as she sagged off Walker, who spent a big chunk of time in no man’s land hanging out between the paint and the 3-point line. Here’s what UConn’s players were looking at as that unfolded:

UConn was never going to get much going around the basket with the opponent’s 6’7” center freely roaming the paint. Walker did get some quality spot up looks. There were also a few record scratches and four long 2-pointers that could have just been spot up triples. Why not take the extra step back to force Brown, somebody still with the length to get back into the picture, to cover more ground to run out to you?

They never punished Brown’s approach. As a result, UConn attempted just 10 shots in the paint. (16 of Baylor’s 30 made field goals were right around the rim.) Crystal Dangerfield, Katie Lou Samuelson and Napheesa Collier did not fare much better on midrange jumpers, combining to shoot 4-of-18. The game unfolds differently if they make a few more shots. Samuelson missed some clean looks from deep.

Aside from two 3-pointers at the end of the third quarter, freshman Christyn Williams did not leave a noticeable imprint on this game. You may remember her 28-point breakout performance last month against then-No. 1 Notre Dame.

The difference?

UConn did not get out in transition nearly as much. Breakaway layups accounted for 10 of those 28 points for Williams against the Fighting Irish. Here is Thursday’s shot chart, illustrating the disparity in paint points and attempts:

Quick start for Juicy

UConn elected to open the game extending its 2-3 zone out toward halfcourt. That approach backfired as Baylor quickly racked up eight points on a high-low entry to Brown and back-to-back triples by Juicy Landrum.

Baylor’s 42 percent team 3-point percentage may be a bit misleading. They don’t shoot very many. Their 3-point rate of 12.5 percent entering Thursday was dead last among 351 Division I teams per Her Hoop Stats. Landrum was at 43 percent on more than four attempts per game. No other Baylor player is even taking two per game.

UConn failed to shade toward the one player that they didn’t want seeing open looks from deep. They went to a box-and-one defense as a response, aggressively denying her the ball. (That will come up again later.)

In addition to the two early splashes, her defensive awareness from the weak side corner helped prevent two potential early layups:

Still scoring when Brown draws attention

Kim Mulkey turned to a quick hitter out of a timeout near the six-minute mark of the second quarter that overloaded one side of the floor, opening a window to drop a lob in to Brown.

They ran it again on the next possession. Because Samuelson stuck to Brown anticipating the lob, freshman NaLyssa Smith stepped right into an open jumper at the free throw line and drilled it.

Later in the game Samuelson snuffed it out again. They reversed it, Brown came across to establish position and Landrum snuck to the top of the key for her third triple of the game as the entire defense locked eyes on Brown.

Brown drawing multiple defenders worked in her team’s favor even when her shots weren’t falling. Smith dove right to the opposite side of the glass twice for second chance scores right as her defender left.

Cox takes a turn

Opponents have left Lauren Cox alone at the top of the key before. She will occasionally take those open looks (0-of-5 from deep on Thursday) but is ultimately looking to drop a lob in to Brown. Cox didn’t settle to just play that role as a stationary facilitator in this one. She reversed roles with Brown several minutes into the third, ducking in on the smaller Walker for a bucket.

Then in another fantastic quick hitter she set a dummy down screen for Smith. UConn switched it, probably as expected, and Cox sealed her new unsuspecting defender right under the goal.

Note Landrum’s position relative to Cox both times: Ball side, hugged by her defender. That gave them more wiggle room entering it to Cox and eliminated the threat of a guard digging down as she caught it.

Brown scores one-on-one

UConn tried sending an extra body to Brown. It hadn’t been effective enough. As mentioned before, their smaller lineup was not getting out in transition nor were they generating turnovers. Baylor had just five all night.

Brown pounced on two opportunities to turn and shoot right over Collier and knocked down her fourth midrange jumper of the game.

It almost looks like a different game when Brown gets multiple chances in a close game to go at her defender one-on-one. Therein lies so much of the intrigue—and the great mystery—of her as a pro prospect. Playing with better shooters and (more importantly) a defensive three seconds rule, the floor will be more spread. Some reads, in a sense, will become much easier to make.

What this says about UConn

What this game really showed isn’t new in the slightest. You need to execute your plan of attack and have some things break your way to beat great teams. It happened in Oregon’s loss at Michigan State, Oregon’s home win over Mississippi State and in UConn’s win at Notre Dame.

For all the talk over their lack of size, UConn won the battle on the offensive glass. Baylor kept them out of transition, took care of the ball and got a great performance from their best player.

The Lady Bears pulled away late. But go back to the 3:30 mark when Baylor had no idea what they were running and were hit with a shot clock violation. Dangerfield took a handoff from Collier and got a clean look from deep. That shot would have made it a one possession game with about 2:30 to play. Chloe Jackson acted swiftly from there, making the biggest plays of her brief time at Baylor to date.

Just like that the Lady Bears were back up by double digits.

Don’t read this as diminishing of all that happened leading up to that point. Baylor deserved to win. It simply goes to show that UConn had plenty of chances, even in the closing minutes, to do the same. Both can be true.

Thankfully we only need to wait another week for a matchup of Final Four contenders—No. 2 Notre Dame hosts No. 3 Louisville next Thursday (7 PM ET, ESPN).

Previous editions of women’s college basketball observations: Week 7 | Week 6 | Week 5 | Week 4 | Week 3 | Week 2 | Week 1