#1 Lady Bears defeat #3 UConn

The Lady Bears just grind teams down with that pressure defense and transition offense, then put them away late with Griner killing them in the half-court sets. She and Sims had a miserable first twenty minutes, but as the second half rolled along, they showed why they are the best at their position in the country, and in Griner's case, the best ever. Watching her play defense is a rare treat -- such discipline and court awareness, and she never coasts or takes a few moments off.

Pope was magnificent, and everyone turned it up in the second half, as championship teams are supposed to do. I thought that Connecticut probably played as well as they could, given their opponent, and they used the home court advantage to good effect. If these two teams meet in New Orleans, I don't think that it will be this close.

Baylor has not been extended for so long that I think it took the Lady Bears about ten to twelve minutes to get anything going. The missed shots, a number of them at point blank range, the turnovers, and the offensive rebounds that enabled UCONN to get second and third chance points were uncharacteristic for this team, and allowed the fans up there to really get into it.

What was noticeable is that, despite playing about as well as they could play, and with Mosqueda-Lewis missing only one shot in the half, the game was only a one point advantage to UCONN until a second and a half remained in the half. At that point Sims and Griner were 3 for 18. I did not think that UCONN could win it in the second half, because the fourth quarter always belongs to Baylor's women, as it did tonight. UCONN needed a huge cushion to ride out the inevitable charge that the Lady Bears make in the second half, and they had not been able to hold that double digit lead.

Baylor's bench gave them far more than the UCONN bench, tonight, though their frosh McDonald's AA, Morgan Tuck, was very good for them off the bench. Moriah Jefferson and Brianna Stewart were non-factors. And when Mulkey rested Griner for several minutes in the first half, the Lady Bears actually narrowed the gap considerably, with Niya Johnson leading them and Sims playing off the ball, Pope and Williams in the paint.

Mulkey earned her dollars, tonight. Her decision to switch Griner and Pope on defense, with Pope guarding Dolson, and doing so effectively, worked very well for Baylor, and it took UCONN several minutes to adjust to it.

Mike, you may be right about the early lack of energy, or perhaps intensity....but we have seen this before from our team, and it usually means that they are just easing into their rhythm and will pick it up within a reasonable time. When you are this good, the lack of challenge by 90% of the teams you face can be a bit of a problem for the coach as well as for the players. I don't think that it will be a problem when they hit the post season. I think that they will be on a mission, once again.