Baylor gets past Oregon to set up title chance.
Imposing inside players combine for 43 points in win
Kalani Brown (6-foot-7) scored 22 points and Lauren Cox (6-4) added 21 as Baylor held off Final Four newcomer Oregon 72-67 Friday night to reach the women’s championship game for the first time since 2012.
The Lady Bears (36-1) won their 28th straight game, exerting themselves defensively down the stretch. Chloe Jackson delivered a tiebreaking layup with 39 seconds left and Brown and Cox finished out the victory with free throws for the overall topseeded team.
Baylor will play Notre Dame for the title on Sunday night. The Irish beat Uconn, 81-76.
All-american Sabrina Ionescu led Oregon (33-5) with 18 points, but didn’t score in the fourth quarter. She missed a layup that would have given her team the lead in the final minute and the Ducks misfired on 11 of their last 12 shots.
Baylor coach Kim Mulkey gave Ionescu a hug and talked to her for a few moments in the postgame handshake line. Ionescu shot 6-for-24.
After Jackson’s layup, Cox made two free throws and Brown finished with a foul shot in the closing seconds.
Ionescu shrugged off a scoreless first quarter in which she attempted just two shots. She gave Oregon a 34-33 halftime lead after making a long 3 while being bumped to the ground by Baylor’s Didi Richards and making the free throw.
Baylor hasn’t lost since before Christmas and trounced its first four opponents in the NCA A Tournament by an average of more than 38 points per game.