Clutch layup helps Baylor win women’s national title
Star player’s missed free throw with 1.9 seconds left seals Notre Dame’s fate.
BAYLOR 82 NOTRE DAME 81
TAMPA, Fla. — Baylor lost a star player, then the rest of its 17-point lead. But the Bears, led by the ever-poised Chloe Jackson, kept their composure.
Jackson drove for a tiebreaking layup with 3.9 seconds left, and that put the game into the hands of another tournament hero.
Notre Dame’s Arike Ogunbowale missed the first of two free throws with 1.9 seconds remaining, and Baylor held on for an 82-81 victory Sunday in the NCAA women’s basketball championship game.
“They just kept doing what we’ve been taught to do, and that’s guard people,” Baylor coach Kim Mulkey said. “We just beat the deaway fending national champions. That team is so good, so talented. You’re going to see those guys play at the next level. Wow.”
Baylor was able to pull off the win without star forward Lauren Cox, who injured her knee in a frightening scene late in the third quarter. The Fighting Irish were able to rally from a 14-point deficit in the third quarter to tie the score at 78 in the fourth. Jackson then scored a jumper from the foul line, and Jessica Shepard countered with two free throws to tie it, setting up the exciting finish.
“We had to do it for L.C.,” said Jackson, who was named the Final Four’s most outstanding player. “She got us here. We had to finish the job for her.”
The Lady Bears (37-1) won their first championship in seven years. Mulkey and Baylor have won titles in 2005, 2012 and 2019. The 2012 championship game also pitted the Bears against Muffet McGraw’s Fighting Irish in the last meeting of two female coaches for the title.
Baylor was primed to run with the game as Notre Dame struggled to score. But the Fighting Irish have a knack for big comebacks, doing it against Connecticut in this year’s semifinal and against Mississippi State in last season’s title game.
Ogunbowale, who was instrumental in all those victories, led the charge again Sunday, scoring 17 of her 31 points in the second half.
“It just wasn’t meant to be. It’s going to be a hard pill to swallow,” Ogunbowale said. “But things happen. I had a fun, great career here at Notre Dame.”
Baylor played the last 11 minutes without Cox. She got tangled up with Kalani Brown and went down clutching her left knee in the third. The junior was crying in agony before they took her off the court in a wheelchair. Her mom was tearing up in the stands, and her dad had his hands over his face.
“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.”