TAMPA, Fla. — DiDi Richards had four points and seven assists in her return from a scary spinal cord injury five weeks ago, Queen Egbo scored a game-high 25 points and No. 4 Baylor beat South Florida 67-62 on Tuesday night.
The Lady Bears (2-0) became the 15th women's program in Division I history to reach 1,000 wins. Baylor coach Kim Mulkey improved to 606-101 in her 21 seasons at the school.
South Florida (1-1) got 18 points from Maria Alvarez and Bethy Mununga added 13.
Richards entered three minutes into the game and quickly scored an in-close basket. The senior guard was hurt on Oct. 24 after colliding in mid-air with teammate Moon Ursin during a practice scrimmage and briefly lost feeling below her knees.
"It was an emotional day," Richards said. "It's kind of hitting me now, It was exciting to play a game again."
All the Baylor players wore Richards t-shirts during pregame drills.
Richards was medically-cleared Monday night and ended up playing 30 minutes.
"I really had not planned to play her as much as I did," Mulkey said. "When you watched DiDi play I just realized the kid is good, she's back playing DiDi basketball. We needed her tonight. The lift is just the mere presence on the floor."
