Bear Crown: Baylor Beats Notre Dame To Win Women’s Tournament, Finishes 40-0

The Baylor Lady Bears have won their second national championship following their 80-61 victory over the Notre Dame Fighting Irish on Tuesday night, finishing the season with a perfect 40-0 record (first men’s or women’s team to do so). Baylor won its first title in 2005.

Baylor started to pull away from Notre Dame when it went on a 14-0 run to extend the lead to 25 points, 75-50. Brittney Griner, as expected, dominated the Irish to the tune of 26 points, 13 rebounds and 5 blocks. Odyssey Sims added 19 points, seven rebounds and four assists. Baylor outrebounded Notre Dame, 45-24.

On Tuesday night, the true final game of March Madness will take place, as the Baylor Bears will take on the Notre Dame Fighting Irish in the national championship game of the 2012 NCAA Women’s Tournament.

Before the championship game even takes place, the Lady Bears received some great news regarding star player Brittney Griner -- the 6-foot-8 junior will return to school for her final year.

The 2012 NCAA women’s basketball championship game will be the second meeting of the season between Baylor and Notre Dame, who faced off in a November non-conference game.

Baylor defeated Notre Dame, 94-81, in the fourth game of the season in a game played in Waco.

Nnemkadi Ogwumike was spectacular in the second half for the Stanford Cardinal in their women’s NCAA Tournament national semifinal against the Baylor Bears, but she got virtually no help on the offensive end. Baylor wasn’t particularly proficient shooting the ball as a team either, but they spread it around well and thanks to a spectacular cameo performance by Terran Condrey off the bench, they’ll be playing in the final after a 59-47 win.

Ogwumike had 22 points, but there wasn’t another member of the Cardinal in double figures. The team shot just 33 percent from the field, which included a poor shooting performance of 2-17 from behind the arc. Baylor got 13 from both Condrey and Brittney Griner, as well as 11 points from Odyssey Sims. Though she had a very quiet first half, Sims had a couple of crucial buckets down the stretch that helped Baylor pull away.

So far, in the second women’s NCAA Tournament semifinal, two great defensive teams are cancelling each other out. Both the Baylor Bears and Stanford Cardinal are shooting the ball poorly, and there has not been a high volume of blocks or turnovers. Both teams are just playing good halfcourt defense, and neither is hitting outside shots. At halftime, Baylor leads 25-23.

Stanford’s Nnemkadi Ogwumike, the presumed No. 1 overall pick in the WNBA draft if Brittney Griner elects to stick around for her senior season, has just seven points on 3-9 shooting. Griner’s not doing much better, with seven points on 2-5 shooting. Baylor’s Odyssey Sims is struggling with just two points on 1-5 shooting.

Notre Dame took the lead from UConn in the second half of the two teams’ 2012 Final Four clash, then lost it in the game’s final minute of regulation and had to scramble to tie it. The Fighting Irish also gave up the first bucket of overtime — then, via some clutch shooting by Brittany Mallory, built an unassailable advantage and moved on to the national championship game with an 83-75 victory.

Mallory, who did not score in the second half, sank two threes and a free throw in the extra period to get Notre Dame its second consecutive berth in the national title game. The Irish will move on to Tuesday’s game against either Baylor or Stanford.

UConn and Notre Dame played a pitched national semifinal in the 2012 Final Four — and then an insane final minute happened to send the Big East rivals to overtime tied at 67-67.

Kelly Faris got fouled twice on drives in the final minute, including once after a steal on a possession with Notre Dame looking to hit a game-winner, and hit all four of her free throws to give the Huskies a 67-65 lead.

UConn hasn’t relied on Stefanie Dolson to do a lot on its way to the 2012 Women’s Final Four. But the Huskies’ biggest player came up huge for them in the first half of their Final Four matchup with Notre Dame, and UConn has a 36-33 lead at halftime as a result.

Dolson racked up 12 points, five rebounds, and two blocks as UConn coped with Notre Dame’s pressure by throwing the ball down low to her. Dolson has four turnovers and two fouls, though, and that will make Bria Hartley (10 points) continuing her good play an important part of the Huskies’ second half.

The 2012 Women’s NCAA Tournament has come down to the Final Four and it’s nothing but No. 1 seeds. All four of the top women’s teams in the nation have run through every opponent and coasted straight to Denver. Both national semifinals will be held Sunday night to determine which two teams compete in the national championship game.

The first of two games will begin at 6:30 p.m. ET and pit the Notre Dame Fighting Irish against the Connecticut Huskies. Notre Dame blew out Maryland to reach the Final Four, while UConn bested Kentucky.

It’s over. Stop trying to Tebow in odd places because this is probably the end — if the fad wasn’t dead already. The Notre Dame women’s basketball team managers have set the bar too high, and it probably can’t be topped.

↵

The Final Four in the women’s NCAA Tournament features nothing but No. 1 seeds. None of the No. 1 seeds were even remotely challenged in any of their games thus far in the tournament, their Elite Eight contests included. All of them destroyed No. 2 seeds in their regional finals. Chalk, chalk and more chalk.

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish and UConn Huskies filled out the Final Four with their wins on Tuesday night. This is the fifth consecutive appearance in the Final Four for Connecticut, an incredible feat considering that this year’s team has just one senior. That one senior, Tiffany Hayes, had a big 22-point performance in UConn’s 80-65 win over Kentucky in their Elite Eight matchup. UConn shot 51 percent from the floor and out-rebounded Kentucky 37-21.

Half of the bids for the Women’s Final Four are accounted for after Baylor defeated Tennessee, 77-58, and Stanford topped Duke, 81-69, Monday night. The remaining two spots will be decided Tuesday evening when Kentucky takes on Connecticut (7 p.m. ET, ESPN) and Maryland battles Notre Dame (9 p.m. ET, ESPN).

The UConn Huskies are hoping to make their fifth straight appearance in the Final Four -- and eventually, win their third national championship in four years -- but first they need to get past Kentucky to advance from the Kingston region.

The No. 1-seeded Baylor Bears and Stanford Cardinal are through to the Final Four after recording convincing wins in their Elite Eight games on Monday night. Baylor and Stanford have looked like the country’s clear top two for much of the season, and there was an obvious gap between both of them and their opponents in their regional final games.

Baylor comfortably beat the No. 2 seed Tennessee Lady Vols in the early game, 77-58. Brittney Griner scored 23 points and had a dominant defensive game with 15 rebounds and nine blocks. The Vols shot just 30 percent from the floor in the game. Odyssey Sims led all scorers with 27 points. In an unfortunate incident in the final minute, Griner and two other Baylor players were ejected for leaving the bench after a hard foul was committed on Sims, but the NCAA has said that the players will not be suspended.

Baylor’s Brittney Griner and Stanford’s Nnemkadi Ogwumike both put on a show on Saturday, but Sunday’s women’s NCAA tournament games are potentially more interesting and more competitive than Saturday’s games. The first game of the day is a great No. 2 vs. No. 3 matchup between a very strong Maryland Terrapins team and the defending champions, the Texas A&M Aggies.

Skylar Diggins and Notre Dame play in the second game, and they’re heavily favored against St. Bonaventure. Connecticut face a good Penn State team after completing two incredible routs in their first two games, and the day concludes with a game between Kentucky and Gonzaga

It’s all chalk in both the Fresno and Des Moines regions in the women’s NCAA Tournament. Monday’s Elite Eight games in both regions will feature No. 1 vs. No. 2 matchups. All four of the top seeds won comfortably on Saturday, setting up marquee matchups for the right to go to the Final Four.

Brittney Griner put in a fantastic performance in Baylor’s 83-68 win over Georgia Tech. She scored 30 points, grabbed 10 rebounds and blocked six shots. She also threw down this absolutely ridiculous two-handed dunk. Baylor move on to face Pat Summit’s Tennessee Lady Vols, who beat Kansas 84-73. The two teams met in non-conference play in Waco, with Griner leading Baylor to a victory.

Another day, another dunk for Baylor center Brittney Griner. For the second time in as many games, Griner went up strong and dunked, capping the Bears’ convincing win over Georgia Tech on Saturday. Unlike Tuesday, however, Griner was alone ahead of the pack and dunked with two hands instead of one.

“I just wanted to get a two-handed dunk, so I just went up strong and just slammed it,” Griner said. “That was probably my favorite dunk since I’ve been at Baylor.”

Half of the Sweet 16 in the Women’s NCAA Tournament will be played on Saturday, with four of the country’s biggest programs in action. Brittney Griner and the Baylor Bears resume their tournament and they will be heavily favored against the Georgia Tech Yellowjackets.

Coach Pat Summit leads the Tennessee Lady Vols in the first game of the day at 12:00 p.m. ET. Duke and St. John’s will be playing an intriguing late game before the night cap between Stanford and South Carolina. The No. 1-seeded Cardinal have just one loss on the season, away to UConn.

Brittney Griner, who was held scoreless for the first 12 minutes of Baylor’s second-round matchup against Florida, finished with 25 points to lead the top-ranked Lady Bears over the Gators, 76-57.

There are only two points that have people talking, though, and those came early in the second half when she became the second woman to dunk in an NCAA Tournament game. Check it out below the jump.

The first games in the second round of the Women’s NCAA Tournament were highlighted by a thriller in College Park that saw Maryland advance in controversial fashion over Louisville and UConn do something not many people thought they’d ever see: hold an eight-seed, Kansas State, to an unbelievable 26 points all game. Tuesday, the Round of 32 concludes with, among others, Brittney Griner and Baylor and the nation’s leading scorer, Elena Delle Donne, and third-seeded Delaware. Here’s the full slate of games:

Des Moines Region

A largely expected series of outcomes on Day One — of the 16 games played only one resulted in an upset, 11th-seeded Gonzaga beating sixth-seeded Rutgers — mean women’s college basketball fans are clamoring for some excitement on Day Two. The other 32 teams hoping for a spot in the second round will be in action all day long, starting with Ohio State and Florida at 12:15 p.m. ET on ESPN2. The big storyline of the day will be what Brittney Griner and undefeated Baylor do; they play UC-Santa Barbara right after OSU and Florida meet. Here’s the rest of the matchups, which will be broadcast in constant rotation on ESPN2 and in their entirety on ESPN3. All times are Eastern.

Des Moines Region

The first day of the Women’s NCAA tournament is underway, with a full 16-game slate of action on Saturday. No.1 seeds Stanford and Connecticut are in action this afternoon, with No. 1 overall seed Baylor and Brittney Griner set to start their run to the Women’s Final Four on Sunday. Games will be continuously broadcast on ESPN2 with a constant rotation from site to site. A complete schedule of today’s games below:

Fresno Region

The 2012 Women’s NCAA Tournament field was announced Monday night, and it lacked any surprises at the top, where the country’s four top-ranked teams -- undefeated Baylor, Stanford, UConn and Notre Dame -- earned the No. 1 seed in their respective regions. Here’s the full bracket:

Des Moines Region

There will be little surprise when the Baylor Lady Bears are announced as the top seed for the 64-team 2012 Women’s NCAA Tournament during Monday’s Selection Show. The Lady Bears (34-0) are poised to make history, as they try to become the first team to cap an undefeated season with a 40th win. They are also trying to avenge last year’s disappointing loss in the Elite Eight when they were also a No. 1 seed.

This year, the Lady Bears are even better than in 2011. They dominated their opponents all year, winning by an average of more than 27 points per game. Among those wins were eight over Top 25 teams, including convincing wins over Notre Dame and UConn, both of whom were ranked No. 2 at the time of the games.