Baylor surrendered a double-digit lead yet held tight in the final minutes to win the NCAA women’s title game against guarding champs Notre Dame by a single point Sunday night in Tampa, Fla.
With the 82-81 triumph, the Lady Bears secured their third NCAA women’s basketball championship — joining UConn and Tennessee as the main Division I programs with at least three or more titles. The last time Baylor clinched the title was in 2012 against the Fighting Irish.
Baylor kept a comfortable lead for the first half, before Notre Dame shut the gap to tie the game over the most recent five minutes of the final quarter.
With 3.9 seconds left, point protect Chloe Jackson drove past Notre Dame’s defense to put Baylor ahead at 82-80. At that point Notre Dame called a timeout and inbounded to tournament champion Arike Ogunbowale. The Irish got an opportunity to turn the game around when Ogunbowale was fouled going for a layup. Be that as it may, fortunate for the Lady Bears, Ogunbowale missed her first free throw in the remaining 1.9 seconds, leaving Baylor to hold on to the 1-point lead.
Baylor managed with the final stretch without star forward Lauren Cox, who harmed her knee in the third quarter. Cox, who stumbled to the sidelines on crutches to celebrate with her teammates after the last ringer, disclosed to ESPN that she’s uncertain about the severity of her injury.
Cox, who contributed 8 and 8 bounce back to Baylor’s 62-50 lead before getting rolled off the court in a wheelchair, has remained an essential player all through Baylor’s 37-1 season. Her initial exit in the final upped the ante for her teammates.
“We had to do it for LC,” Chloe Jackson, referring to Cox, told reporters after the game. “She got us here. We had to finish the job for her.”
The win brought Baylor coach Kim Mulkey to tears. “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.”
The NCAA reports its most noteworthy participation in 15 years at the Women’s Final Four and provincial playoffs. That record fanfare was prove by the in excess of 20,000 fans that filled Tampa’s Amalie Arena for the final game, as reporter Bradley George of member station WUSF reports.
