By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
SAN ANTONIO – Two years ago, the Baylor Lady Bears survived an injury to All-American Lauren Cox to win their third national championship.
This time, an injury to reigning National Defensive Player of the Year DiDi Richards proved to be too much to overcome.
With Richards sidelined with a hamstring injury for most of the last 12 ½ minutes, No. 1-ranked and top-seeded UConn (28-1) rallied from a double-digit deficit and went on a 19-0 run to earn its 13th-consecutive trip to the Final Four, handing the Lady Bears a heartbreaking 69-67 loss in Monday's region final at the Alamodome.
"It swung the whole momentum, her injury" said Baylor coach Kim Mulkey, whose team finished 28-3 with its sixth loss in an Elite Eight game over the last 10 NCAA Tournaments. "I'm so tired of injuries. Injuries are impactful through the course of the year, but you have time to make it up. You don't have time to make it up in a game. You're on a roll, you've got all the momentum in your favor, and that changed the momentum, obviously."
Baylor's frustration was compounded at the end of the game when DiJonai Carrington appeared to be fouled by the Huskies' Olivia Nelson-Oboda and Aaliyah Edwards on a drive to the basket in the last second with the Lady Bears down by one.
Carrington, a grad transfer from Stanford who finished with a team-high 22 points, said she didn't consider it a controversial call, that she was clearly fouled.
"I've already seen the replay," she said. "One girl fouled me in my face and one girl fouled me on my arm. At that point, you can't do anything else. We drew up a play. (NaLyssa Smith) got fouled posting up, and I got fouled driving. So, nothing we really could do about that situation, in particular. You know, turn the page."
After asking a reporter what she saw on the last play, Mulkey said she had "still shots and video from two angles."
"One kid hits her in the face, one kid hits her on the elbow," she said. "It doesn't matter what you write, it doesn't matter what I say. It doesn't matter what we saw. Life goes on."
Richards' injury and the last play put a damper on what had been an unbelievable performance by a Baylor team trying to make its fifth Final Four and fourth in the last 11 tournaments.
"They could have easily gotten down 15, just like we could have easily gone down 15," UConn coach Geno Auriemma said. "But, they're a great team, and they came back like we knew they would. And we knew we were going to have to keep making one play after another all the way to the end."
On the last play, Auriemma said, "A call's a call, and you've got to live with it, and the officials are going to make the call they think they need to make."
UConn came out on fire, reeling off 10 unanswered points and going up 16-4 on an Edwards layup about midway through the first period. In an explosive first quarter that featured a combined 50 points, the Lady Bears answered with a 10-0 run of their own and trailed by just two, 26-24.
"We just tried to weather the storm," Carrington said. "We've always had things thrown at us this whole season and just had to play through them and battle, and that's what we did We never gave up. We never thought we were out of it."
Carrington scored five-straight points at the end of the second quarter to give Baylor a 39-37 lead at the break.
Smith, who recorded a double-double with 14 points and 13 boards, finished off an 8-0 run with a jumper and second-chance bucket off a miss by Carrington to push the lead to 53-44. With a chance to extend the lead, Richards pulled up with a strained hamstring and was called for a traveling violation.
Moon Ursin knocked down a jumper to give Baylor its biggest lead, 55-45, but Christyn Williams and Paige Bueckers hit back-to-back 3-pointers in an 8-0 run that made it a two-point game going into the fourth quarter, 55-53.
"Obviously, you hate to see somebody get injured," said Bueckers, who scored a game-high 28 points to earn River Walk Region Most Outstanding Player honors, "but I think we just tried to take advantage of it and attack their guards, attack the paint, try to drive and kick and just get our feet into the paint and create shots for each other."
Carrying that momentum over, the Huskies scored the first 11 points of the fourth quarter and went up, 64-55, on a Williams layup.
Instead of going away, the Lady Bears battled back and closed to within one, 68-67, when Carrington hit four-straight free throws.
Williams left the door open when she missed two fouls with 10.0 seconds left, but Carrington couldn't get the call at the end of the game.
"I was proud of our team. They kept fighting," Mulkey said. "All you can do is ask for the opportunity to win it at the end. And I thought – what else could I do? All I can do is put it in the hands of two kids we think we can get fouled or score the ball. And guys, you all can write the rest of the story."
Ursin gave the Lady Bears a third double-figure scorer with 13 points and six rebounds,, while Williams and Evina Westbrook chipped in with 21 and 11 points, respectively, for the Huskies.
Making its 13th-consecutive Final Four and going for its 12th national championship, UConn will face Arizona (20-5) in Friday's national semifinals at the Alamodome. The Wildcats made it to their first Final Four by dominating the fourth quarter and pulling away for a 66-53 win in the late semifinal.
Joining Bueckers on the all-tournament team were Smith, Carrington, Williams and Iowa's Caitlin Clark.