With OT victory, Baylor draws UConn, a few months after the fight for women’s basketball was canceled

SAN ANTONIO – Their January regular season showdown has been canceled due to a COVID-19 number, but women’s basketball titans UConn and Baylor will meet in 2021 eventually – in Monday’s NCAA River Walk Regional tournament final . And after her team survived its Saturday against a Michigan leader, the number 6 – 78-75 in overtime – Baylor coach Kim Mulkey said the Elite Eight game will fit in with force.

“You look at two programs that appreciate defense,” Mulkey said. “I think Baylor and UConn are in the top three in the field of field goal defenses. Then you look back. That could explain why both programs are respected across the country.

“So, yes, it could be a bad game. When I say bad, it could have a low score, it could be a turnover. Some people want to say boring. Maybe it’s not 80 and 90. I don’t know.”

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

Baylor took a break from COVID-19 in January after Mulkey contracted the coronavirus, which is why Huskies Geno Auriemma and Lady Bears did not meet then.

“There are two very proud programs,” Mulkey said. “I will definitely not beat Geno, so our players will compete better and try to beat their players.

“It is very difficult to support something that is an elite level. You see programs that are Cinderella, they do that – up and down – then you see the ones that are in the middle, they have good programs. We want you to stay up here and we want to play for the championships. “

Lady Bears is the national defending champion, winning her third title in 2019. UConn has 11 NCAA titles, most recently in 2016 and reached 12 consecutive Final Fours. This will be the second time the teams will meet in the NCAA tournament. It looked like they would face the NCAA title in 2013, when Baylor was the defending champion. But Lady Bears was upset that year at Sweet 16 in Louisville, and UConn won the first of four consecutive championships behind Breanna Stewart.

The series record is 4-4, with the first meeting in the semifinals of the 2010 NCAA tournament here at Alamodome. UConn, on its way to a perfect second consecutive season, won 70-50.

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

The defense played an important role in Baylor’s victories over UConn. In the 68-57 victory of Lady Bears in January 2019, they owned UConn at 29.4% of the field, the lowest shooting percentage of the huskies in the last 20 years. In 2020, the Huskies shot a little worse against Baylor: 29.0%.

After winning the first two games of the NCAA tournament this year with 49 and 42 points, Baylor had to transpose on Saturday the victory against a team from Michigan that was making its first appearance in Sweet 16.

“The deeper you go, the tougher your opponent is and the tighter the games are,” Mulkey said. “I guess you could say we did enough in the offensive and defensive end to win the game in overtime.”

Baylor junior NaLyssa Smith, who equaled a percentage of NCAA’s championship goal on Saturday, going 11-for-11 on the road to 24 points, said of the UConn clash: “Oh, we’re very excited. An opportunity to Playing a top team is what we thrive on [on] the most.”