Griner delivered on promise,
Center dominates Irish, lifts Baylor
DENVER — Before she arrived on campus, Brittney Griner promised Baylor coach Kim Mulkey she would win her another national championship.
On Tuesday, she delivered. With an 80-61 win against Notre Dame, Baylor won a title to add to its 2005 crown.
“It meant everything for us to get it for Coach,” Griner said of Mulkey, who before the Final Four was diagnosed with Bell’s palsy, a nerve disorder that has partially paralyzed her face. “She felt like she wasn’t there for us, but we told her every second that we could hear her loud and clear.”
The 6-8 junior didn’t do it in highlight-reel fashion — her two-handed dunk against Georgia Tech will be the lasting image of the 2012 NCAA women’s tournament.
She did, however, do it in her own dominant, game-changing style. She made her first seven field goal attempts of the second half, finishing with 26 points, 13 rebounds and five blocked shots.
“She’s like a guy playing with women,” Notre Dame coach Muffet Mcgraw said, a comment that Griner said she took as a compliment.
Added Mcgraw: “There’s so many things that she can do. . . . There’s been some guards that had some skill like that. But as a post player, she’s the best I’ve ever seen.”
The mere sight of Griner lurking in the lane flummoxed the Notre Dame offense, as it has so many others. Baylor played in only three close games all season en route to its historic 40-0 record.
The Irish tried a variety of backdoor plays and pull-up jumpers, largely to no avail. When they did venture within Griner’s long reach (she has a 7-4 wingspan), she almost casually swatted away their attempts.
“We just weren’t big enough,” Mcgraw said.
Moments after Griner lifted the trophy higher than anyone ever has, Mulkey told the crowd at Pepsi Center, “Brittney Griner may go down in history as the most dominant post player, especially on the defensive end.”
The Irish limited Griner on the of- fensive end in the first half, when she scored nine points. That was commendable, given Notre Dame’s fourguard starting lineup and starting forward Devereaux Peters’ early foul trouble.
Peters, a 6-2 senior forward, got called for her second foul less than three minutes into the game and her third with 4:39 left in the first half. Primary defensive duty then fell to Peters’ backup, 6-3 sophomore Natalie Achonwa, who was helped by double-teams and a zone defense that closed in on Griner every time she touched the ball.
In the second half, though, Griner called on the composure she has developed through practice after practice, when her teammates double-and-triple-team her and hack away at will.
By the 10-minute mark, Baylor had a double-digit lead, and soon after, with Peters and Achonwa tagged with four fouls apiece, Griner’s promise was signed and almost sealed.
And now it’s delivered.
“This is what our team wanted, and this is what we promised Coach when we got here,” Griner said. “It had nothing to do with validating me as a player.”