Lady Bears get revenge against Cardinals
OKLAHOMA CITY — Baylor gave Louisville no shot at an upset this time.
Nina Davis scored 21 points to help the topseeded Lady Bears roll over the Cardinals 97-63 on Friday and advance to the Elite Eight.
Baylor was a No. 1 seed in 2013 when it lost to Louisville in the Sweet 16 at Oklahoma City. This time, the Lady Bears never trailed, and the game was tied for just 13 seconds — when it was scoreless. Baylor led 25-9 at the end of the first quarter.
“We got off to a quick start, which is something we needed to do, something that we were focusing on,” Davis said. “We were just getting out running. Everyone was running out on fast breaks. They were feeding me the ball and that’s the kind of game we like to play. We like to push the ball and play up-tempo.”
Beatrice Mompremier and Alexis Prince each scored 14 points for the Lady Bears (33-3), who advanced to play Mississippi State on Sunday for a spot in the Final Four. The second-seeded Bulldogs defeated No. 3 Washington 75-64 in the early game Friday night.
Asia Durr scored 21 points for the Cardinals (29-8), but she made just six of 21 shots.
“Starting off in the first quarter, I mean, I started off too hyped,” Durr said. “As the game went on, I calmed down. We started to get a few stops here and there, but we didn’t shoot the ball too well.”
Louisville shot 30 percent.
“They played well and unfortunately we did not,” Cardinals coach Jeff Walz said. “We did not put up a performance that resembled anything I’d seen from our ballclub in the last month.”
It was the fifth Sweet 16 in the last seven years for Louisville. It wasn’t an ideal way for the season to end, but the Cardinals have just one senior starter. Durr, the team’s top scorer for the season, is a sophomore. Myisha Hines-Allen, the No. 2 scorer, is a junior, and so is No. 3 scorer Mariya Moore.
“It hurts a lot because we knew we could have played a lot better, and we didn’t follow through with the game plan for the whole 40 minutes,” Hines-Allen said. “We didn’t come up with stops when we needed to.”
Baylor led by 18 at one point in the first half and was up 43-31 at the break. The Lady Bears continued to roll and led 72-45 at the end of the third quarter.