DES MOINES, Iowa — Baylor has two wins to go for 40-0. Tennessee’s future is far less certain. DES MOINES, Iowa — Baylor has two wins to go for 40-0. Tennessee’s future is far less certain. ADVERTISING Brittney Griner had
DES MOINES, Iowa — Baylor has two wins to go for 40-0. Tennessee’s future is far less certain.
Brittney Griner had 23 points, 15 rebounds and nine blocks before being ejected with less than a minute left, and top-seeded Baylor rolled over Tennessee 77-58 Monday night to advance to the Final Four.
“We’re so happy, but you can’t relax,” Baylor’s Destiny Williams said. “We have two more games left.”
Shekinna Stricklen had 22 points for Tennessee (27-9), whose seniors became its first four-year Lady Vols class not to reach a Final Four.
The second-seeded Lady Vols now face an uncertain future, as Pat Summitt has yet to say if she’ll return for a 39th season as Tennessee coach. She announced in August she’d been diagnosed with early onset dementia, Alzheimer’s type.
“This team is about Pat Summitt. This team has battled all year,” said Tennessee associate head coach Holly Warlick as she fought back tears. “I’m proud of them. I thought our team and coaching staff obviously was in a difficult situation. But I thought this team was responsive. I wouldn’t trade anything that we did this year.”
The Lady Bears (38-0), who are back in the national semifinals for the second time in three years, will face Stanford on Sunday night in Denver. Should Baylor win it all, it’ll become the first men’s or women’s team in NCAA history to finish a year with 40 wins.
Baylor held Tennessee to just 30.3 percent shooting from the floor. Much of that was because of the inside presence of the 6-foot-8 Griner, who was just one block shy of her fifth career triple-double.
A rather ugly game for a purist’s perspective got even uglier in the final 46.8 seconds.
Baylor’s Odyssey Sims, who led the Bears with 27 points, tumbled to the floor, and she and Stricklen had to be separated and were each assessed technical foul for unsportsmanlike conduct.
No punches were thrown, but Griner and teammates Terran Condrey and Jordan Madden were ejected for leaving the bench. The NCAA says none of the players will be suspended for the Final Four.
Fresno Regional
Stanford 81, Duke 69
FRESNO, Calif. — Nnemkadi Ogwumike hoisted the regional championship trophy high into the air with both arms and showed it off for all the Stanford fans to see.
Not quite a Mile High. She hopes that comes next.
Ogwumike will end her sensational senior season right where she has the rest: at the Final Four.
In Denver this time.
Ogwumike made it happen on both ends of the floor with 29 points and nine rebounds Monday night despite constant double-teams, sending top-seeded Stanford past No. 2 seed Duke 81-69 in the Fresno Regional final for the Cardinal’s fifth straight Final Four berth.
“This started before I even came to Stanford. I always wanted to be part of the culture,” she said. “This never gets old. Not a lot of teams get to say that they’ve gone. For me to get to say I’ve been on four times, that’s a lot to ask for.”
Little sister, Chiney, did plenty to seal the Denver trip, too — along with everybody else. Chiney Ogwumike grabbed 17 rebounds to go with 12 points and freshman Amber Orrange came through with 13 points and four assists as the Cardinal extended their school-record winning streak to 32 games.
They all hope there will be one more piece of hardware to haul home to The Farm before Nneka Ogwumike is through.
