March 24, 2009

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LUBBOCK, Texas (AP) -- Baylor continues to thrive on adversity.

Kelli Griffin hit a floater from outside the lane on the right side with 0.5 seconds remaining to lift the second-seeded Bears past South Dakota State 60-58 on Tuesday night to advance to the regional semifinals.

Griffin scored 21 points to lead Baylor (29-5), which trailed for most of the game and rallied from 14 points down in the first half. The Bears, making their fourth trip to the round of 16, will face Louisville in Raleigh, N.C., on Saturday.

Jennifer Warkenthien scored 18 points to lead the Jackrabbits (32-3), who failed on a desperate three-quarters-court pass to end the game.

"We just keep finding ways to win," said Baylor coach Kim Mulkey, who was hospitalized Sunday and didn't coach the Bears in their first-round game.

After Jessica Morrow gave Baylor its first lead of the game, 55-53, on 3-pointer from the corner with 2:57 remaining, Stacie Oistad pulled the Jackrabbits even at 55 on a layup.

Both teams failed to score on their next two possessions before Griffin hit a running layup with 40 seconds remaining to put Baylor up 57-55.

Warkenthien missed a layup but was fouled and missed the second free throw of a 1-and-1. Rachel Allison, who left the game with an injury to her left knee about 3 minutes earlier but returned, got the rebound and was fouled.

She appeared to hurt the knee again and Mulkey elected to have Whitney Zachariason shoot Allison's free throws. Zachariason hit only the front end of a 1-and-1 and Jackrabbits redshirt freshman Jill Young got a layup at the other end to tie it at 58 with 7 seconds left.

That's when Griffin took over. She took the inbounds pass and went the length of the court before cutting toward the lane and letting the ball fly from outside the paint.

South Dakota State worked the ball through Warkenthien almost every possession of the second half. At one point she scored seven straight points for the Jackrabbits.

The Bears tied it at 36, on a layup by Griffin, and Baylor leveled it again at 47 and 49 but couldn't pull ahead.

Allison went down after fouling Warkenthien with 4:20 remaining with what appeared to be an injury to her left knee. That came in the midst of a 3-minute drought the Bears could ill afford to trail 53-49.