TAMPA, Fla. – Baylor lost a star player, then the rest of its 17-point lead. But the Bears, led by Chloe Jackson, kept their composure.
Jackson drove for a tiebreaking layup with 3.9 seconds left, and that put the game into the hands of another tournament hero.
Notre Dame's Arike Ogunbowale missed the first of two free throws with 1.9 seconds remaining, and Baylor held on for an 82-81 victory Sunday in the NCAA women's basketball championship game.
“They just kept doing what we've been taught to do, and that's guard people,” Baylor coach Kim Mulkey said. “We just beat the defending national champions. That team is so good, so talented. You're going to see those guys play at the next level. Wow.”
Baylor was able to pull off the win without star forward Lauren Cox, who injured her knee in a frightening scene late in the third quarter. The Irish were able to rally from a 14-point deficit in the third quarter to tie it at 78 in the fourth. Jackson then scored a jumper from the foul line, and Jessica Shepard countered with two free throws to tie it, setting up the exciting finish.
“We had to do it for LC,” said Jackson, who was named the Final Four's Most Outstanding Player. “She got us here. We had to finish the job for her.”
The Bears (37-1) won their first championship in seven years. Mulkey and Baylor have won titles in 2005, 2012 and 2019. The 2012 championship game also pitted the Bears against Muffet McGraw's Irish in the last meeting of two female coaches for the title.
The Bears were primed to run away with the game as Notre Dame struggled to score. But the Irish have a knack for big comebacks, doing it against UConn in this year's semifinal and against Mississippi State in last season's title game, when they rallied from 15 down in the third quarter.
Ogunbowale was instrumental in all those victories, forever becoming a part of Final Four lore during last year's title run. She made a shot with 1 second remaining to beat UConn in the semifinals, then hit a tiebreaking 3-pointer with 0.1 second left to top the Bulldogs in the title game.
Ogunbowale led the charge again Sunday, scoring 17 of her 31 points in the second half. That included a buzzer-beating 3 at the end of the third quarter to spark an 11-0 Notre Dame run.
“It just wasn't meant to be. It's going to be a hard pill to swallow,” Ogunbowale said. “But things happen. I had a fun, great career here at Notre Dame.”
It helped the Irish that the Bears had to play the last 11 minutes without Cox. She got tangled up with Kalani Brown on the defensive end and went down clutching her left knee with about a minute to go in the third quarter. The 6-foot-4 junior was crying in agony before they took her off the court in a wheelchair.
“I'm emotional for a lot of reasons, but mostly for Lauren Cox, and I'm so happy,” Mulkey said. “These are tears of joy, but they're also tears of thinking about injuries.”
http://www.journalgazette.net/sports/colleges/20190408/irish-run-as-champions-ends
2019-04-08 05:04:06Z
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