With OT victory, Baylor pulls on UConn, months after the women’s basketball battle could be called off

SAN ANTONIO – Their regular-season showdown in January was canceled due to a COVID-19 issue, but women’s basketball titans UConn and Baylor will still meet in 2021 – in Monday’s NCAA Regional Finals at River Walk . And after her team survived a close call against No. 6 seed Michigan – 78-75 in extra time on Saturday – Baylor coach Kim Mulkey said their Elite Eight game will match strength against strength.

“You’re looking at two programs that value defense,” Mulkey said. “I think Baylor and UConn are in the top three in the country in terms of defense percentage. Then you look at rebounding. That could explain why both programs are respected across the country.

“So yeah, it could be an ugly game. If I say ugly it could score low, it could be some sales. Some people want to say boring. It might not be 80 and 90. I don’t know.”

On Saturday, No. 2 seed Baylor indeed came first in field goal percentage defense (31.7) and No. 1 seed UConn third (32.9), with Alamo Regional No. 1 seed Stanford second at 32.7. In the Sweet 16 wins, Baylor allowed Michigan to shoot 46% and UConn allowed Iowa to shoot 43.3%.

Baylor took a COVID-19 hiatus in January after Mulkey contracted the coronavirus, which is why Geno Auriemma’s Huskies and the Lady Bears didn’t meet at the time.

“They are two programs that are very proud,” said Mulkey. “I’m definitely not going to outcoach Geno, so our players can compete better and try to outsmart his players.

“It’s very hard to sustain something at an elite level. You see programs that are Cinderella, they do this – up and down – then you see those who stay a little in the middle, have good programs. We want to stay. here and we want to play for championships. “

The Lady Bears are the defending national champions, winning their third title in 2019. UConn has 11 NCAA titles, the most recent in 2016, and has reached 12 consecutive Final Fours. This is the second time the teams have met in the NCAA tournament. It looked like they were going to compete for the NCAA title in 2013, when Baylor was the defending champion. But the Lady Bears were upset in Louisville’s Sweet 16 that year, and UConn won the first of four consecutive championships behind Breanna Stewart.

The series record is tied at 4-4, with the first meeting in the semifinals of the 2010 NCAA tournament here at the Alamodome. UConn, then heading for a second consecutive perfect season, won 70-50.

Since then, three UConn-Baylor games have been decided with six points or less. Three others had margins of 11 points. Last season’s 74-58 Baylor win in Hartford, Connecticut, was close – 55-52 through three-quarters – before the Lady Bears dominated the fourth quarter and outperformed the Huskies 19-6.

Defense has played a huge part in Baylor’s victories over UConn. In Lady Bears ’68-57 win in January 2019, they held UConn at 29.4% of the field, the Huskies’ worst shooting rate in 20 years. In 2020, the Huskies shot slightly worse against Baylor: 29.0%.

After winning their first two NCAA tournaments this year with 49 and 42 points, Baylor had to sweat out victory on Saturday against a team from Michigan that played for the first time in the Sweet 16.

“The deeper you go, the stronger the opponent and the tighter the matches,” Mulkey said. “I think you could say we did enough offensive and defensive to win the game after extra time.”

Baylor junior NaLyssa Smith, who achieved a record percentage of NCAA field goals on the field on Saturday by going 11-for-11 on the way to 24 points, told UConn: “Oh, we’re very excited. is what we thrive [on] most.”