By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
 
WACO, Texas – One play, one shot, one defensive mistake. That was the difference in Ole Miss surviving and fourth-seeded Baylor's season coming to an abrupt and all-too-soon end.
 
Madison Scott, who missed her previous four shots, hit a pull-up jumper over 6-3 Baylor center Aaronette Vonleh with 40 seconds left to help the 25^th-ranked and fifth-seeded Rebels (22-10) pull out a 69-63 win over the 14^th-ranked Bears (28-8) Sunday afternoon in an NCAA Tournament second-round game before a crowd of 3,772 at Foster Pavilion.
 
"I think they just made one more play than us," said Baylor coach Nicki Collen, whose team was 26-0 when leading at halftime before the Rebels rallied from a 29-26 halftime deficit. "I thought we allowed Scott to get comfortable, settle into her pull-up. Obviously, she made the shot of the day in a tie game to take the two-point lead with under a minute to play."
 
Scott, who scored 14 points, was the lone holdover from an Ole Miss team that lost a first-round game to South Dakota three years ago in Waco's Ferrell Center.
 
"It was fitting that God brought us back here in my final year after losing here, getting ousted the first round last time," said Scott, who missed nine of her first 14 shots before what was essentially the game-winner. "Definitely was in the back of my head that I wanted to come and led my team to victory. I wanted to come and it be a different story this time."
 
After Scott's go-ahead bucket, Baylor senior guard Yaya Felder missed a corner 3-pointer that would have given the Bears the lead back with 29 seconds left. KK Deans, who scored 11 of her 13 points in the fourth quarter, sank six-straight free throws to ice the game for the Rebels.
 
"I think if Yaya's 3 goes in, we're maybe celebrating instead of a really sad locker room," Collen said. "But really, really proud of this team. Proud of the resilience.
 
"Hard to believe I won't ever be on another one of these stages with (ffith-year senior guard) Sarah Andrews, because we've been together a long time. She's going to miss me, but I'll miss her more."
 
One of five seniors playing in their last game for the Bears, Andrews hit two 3-pointers and had 14 points and a game-high six assists in her 168^th and final game, a program and Big 12 record.
 
"Coach Nicki can't live without me, either," said Andrews, who was Baylor's lone holdover from an Elite Eight team in 2021 and the only player not recruited by Collen, "no matter how many headaches I gave her. My time in Waco have been a great five years. The coaching here was just amazing. And just to be here for five years, I wouldn't want to do it any other way."
 
After trailing by as many as eight early in the second quarter, the Bears closed the half on a 10-0 run to go up 29-26 on a Vonleh layup with four seconds left. The 6-3 fifth-year senior center was a perfect 5-for-5 in the first half when she scored 10 of her 16 points.
 
Vonleh, who led Colorado to the Sweet 16 last year, said she "could have just been more aggressive and posted up in better spots to keep getting the ball" in the second half.
 
"Nettie is just elite," Collen said. "And if she continues to play the way she did the last month, she's going to make a lot of money playing this sport. . . . When she makes up her mind to do something, no one can stop her. It's just her making up her mind that that's what she wants to do every possession."
 
Vonleh scored in double figures for the ninth-straight game with 16 points, hitting 8-of-10 from the floor and adding five rebounds, two blocks and a pair of steals. Senior guards Jada Walker and Andrews scored 15 and 14 points, respectively, while junior forward Darianna Littlepage-Buggs had 10 points and five rebounds in her second game back from a knee injury aht sidelined her for seven games.
 
"It was a tough game today, but I think we came out and matched their energy," Littlepage-Buggs said. "We knew it was going to be a tough, physical game. We made some mistakes down the stretch, and that may have cost us the game. Aside from that, I think we came to play."
 
Down by three at the break and by as many as five early in the third quarter, Ole Miss battled back to tie it at 35-35 on a driving layup by freshman Sira Thienou, who matched Vonleh with a game-high 16 points. A back-and-forth third quarter had five ties, the last one coming on a free throw by Walker that made it 48-48 going into the final period.
 
"I'm super proud of our fight and our resilience and how we can keep games close and continue to fight and take leads," Walker said. "It's been a game of runs all year, so I'm glad we could play through it. We've won a lot of big games doing that. Today just wasn't our night. But super proud of them."
 
Scoring the first six points of the final period, the Rebels never trailed again, but Vonleh and Andrews both had buckets that tied it up in the final two minutes.  Following Scott's pull-up jumper, Deans sealed the win with her six-straight free throws in the last 30 seconds.
 
Ole Miss advances to Friday's semifinal in Spokane, Washington, and will face top-seeded UCLA (32-2) after the Bruins' 84-67 win over eighth-seeded Richmond.