The Final Four of women’s college basketball took center stage at Amalie Arena in Tampa, Florida on Friday night. The hottest team in the country is the Baylor Bears as they will be back in the national title game for the first time since 2012, while the defending national champion Notre Dame Fighting Irish will be back to defend their title.
National semifinal #1 Baylor 72, Oregon 67- In the first game of the night, the Baylor Bears got their toughest challenge in over a month against the Ducks of Oregon. Baylor (36-1) trailed by one at halftime, and also trailed 64-61 with just over six minutes left. Chloe Jackson though hit a tiebreaking layup with 39 seconds left, and Kalani Brown and Lauren Cox hit free throws in the waining seconds to lead the tournaments overall top seeded Bears to their 28th consecutive win. All-American Sabrina Ioenscu led Oregon with 18 points, but didn’t score in the fourth quarter and missed a layup that would of given the Ducks the lead in the final minute. Oregon (33-5) missed 12 of their final 13 shots in their first ever Final Four appearance. Brown had 22 points for Baylor, while Cox added 21. The last time the Bears played a game that was within 10 points was a 63-57 win at West Virginia back on March 4th. Baylor hasn’t lost since a five point setback at Stanford way back on December 15th, and will seek their third national title on Sunday. The Bears have won both times they have reached the national championship game, including 2012 when they finished off a 40-0 season.
National Semifinal #2 Notre Dame 81, Connecticut 76- In a rematch of the national semifinal from a year ago, the Irish rallied from a nine point fourth quarter deficit to take down the Huskies in the Final Four for a second straight time. UConn (35-3) has now lost in the national semfinal game three straight seasons. The Huskies led 16-12 after one quarter and 30-29 at the half, with neither team shooting well in the opening 20 minutes. The third quarter featured 11 lead changes, with UConn taking a 54-52 lead into the final 10 minutes. Katie Lou Samuelson, Connecticuts leading scorer, was held scoreless in the first half but scored 15 in the third quarter and had 20 overall. Notre Dame took over the game after UConn had taken the 64-55 lead with 7:52 left, outscoring the Huskies 26-14 the rest of the way. Brianna Turner helped the Irish in the win, becoming the schools all time shot block leader and had 15 points, 15 rebounds, and five blocks in the victory. After Notre Dame (35-3) went up 76-73 with 58 seconds left, Turner made a key block and the Irish made five of six from the line in the final seconds to preserve the win. Samuelson, who missed the national title win by the Huskies in 2016 due to an ACL injury, ends her college career with three losses in the national semfinals of the Final Four and no national title game appearances. The Irish will seek back to back titles and their third overall, in their fifth championship game appearance in school history.
The national championship game will be televised nationally on ESPN and is scheduled for a 6 pm tip time on Sunday evening.
