women’s college basketball | Friday’s games

Baylor 72, Oregon 67

TAMPA, FLA.

Kalani Brown scored 22 points and Lauren Cox added 21 as Baylor held off Final Four newcomer Oregon to reach the women’s championship game for the first time since 2012. The Lady Bears (36-1) won their 28th straight game. Chloe Jackson delivered a tiebreaking layup with 39 seconds left and Brown and Cox finished out the victory with free throws for the overall top-seeded team. 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. After Jackson’s layup, Cox made two free throws and Brown finished with a foul shot in the closing seconds. The opening semifinal at sold-out Amalie Arena was billed as “old-school” vs. “new school” — a matchup of contrasting styles, with Baylor hoping to exploit a size advantage inside with an imposing frontcourt of the 6-foot-7 Brown and 6-4 Cox and Oregon looking to test the Lady Bears’ ability to defend the 3-point line.

Notre Dame 81, UConn 76

TAMPA, FLA.

Arike Ogunbowale scored 23 points and led Notre Dame’s rally from a nine-point deficit in the fourth quarter as the defending champion Irish beat UConn 81-76 Friday night to return to the title game. The Irish will face Baylor for the crown Sunday night, trying to become the fourth different school to win consecutive championships — UConn, Tennessee and Southern California have done it. Notre Dame coach Muffet McGraw danced a little jig at midcourt after this comeback victory. Baylor beat Oregon 72-67 in the first semifinal, setting up a rematch of the 2012 national championship game the Lady Bears won 80-61. This game between the Huskies and the Irish was a rematch of last season’s Final Four classic that Notre Dame won on a last-second shot by Ogunbowale. This one — the latest chapter in the greatest rivalry in women’s basketball over the past decade — provided a fitting encore. Katie Lou Samuelson scored 20 points for coach Geno Auriemma’s Huskies (35-3).

Associated Press