Baylor Postgame Notes
4/4/2010 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
April 4, 2010
Recap | Box Score | Quotes | Photo Gallery 
[1] CONNECTICUT (38-0) 70, [4] BAYLOR (27-10) 50
ALAMODOME • SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS
APRIL 4, 2010
ROAD TO THE FINAL FOUR
• Defeated (13) Fresno State, 69-55; defeated (5) Georgetown, 49-33; defeated (1) Tennessee, 77-62; defeated (2) Duke, 51-48; lost to Connecticut, 70-50.
GENERAL NOTES
• Today's loss marks Baylor's first in a Final Four, where the Lady Bears are now 2-1 all-time.
• Baylor is 19-8 in nine NCAA tournament appearances. The Lady Bears are 1-1 in the national semifinals.
• The 34 points scored by Connecticut's Maya Moore are the third most points allowed by Baylor this season.
• Baylor was outscored by Moore and Tina Charles, 55-50.
• With 5 blocks, Griner broke the all-time, all-division NCAA record for single season blocked shots with 223. The record was previously held by Lakisha Phifer of Division II St. Paul's with 219 in 1996.
• Griner's 5 blocks tied for fourth most in a women's NCAA national semifinal and tied for sixth in a women's NCAA Final Four game.
• Griner's 40 blocks have broken the tournament record set by Alison Bales of Duke, who recorded 30 blocks over six NCAA tournament games in 2006. Rebecca Lobo (UConn, 1995) and Courtney Paris (Oklahoma, 2009) are tied for third with 22 blocks. Griner's 14 block effort against Georgetown is a single-game tournament record.
TEAM NOTES
• Baylor opened the second half with a 10-2 run to cut the 13-point halftime deficit to five.
• Baylor is 9-8 against ranked opponents this season, including 3-2 versus top 10 teams.
• Baylor is 6-3 when the underdog according to the ESPN poll. The Lady Bears are 8-2 on neutral courts this season and 11-7 in televised games.
• Kim Mulkey is 264-76 (.777) in 10 years at Baylor, including five Sweet 16s and the only National Championship for the Lady Bears.
• This is Baylor's seventh straight NCAA tournament appearance and ninth in the last ten years.
• Baylor won 25-plus games for the seventh straight year and eighth time in the last 10 seasons under Mulkey. The Lady Bears have posted 12, 25-win seasons in program history.
• Baylor and Connecticut had never played each other in women's basketball but both teams have had five opponents in common this season: Duke, Georgetown, Oklahoma, Texas and Iowa State. Connecticut is 5-0 against these teams while Baylor is 3-5.
• Baylor is the closest of the Final Four teams to the Alamodome. Waco is 182 miles northwest of San Antonio. There are five native-Texans on the team.
• Baylor is the first and only Big 12 women's basketball team to win a national title. As members of the Southwest Conference, Texas won in 1986 and Texas Tech won in 1993. Baylor has won one other team national title in the school's history: 2004 men's tennis.
• Mulkey is the only women's basketball coach to have won a national championship as both a player and coach. She was an All-American and Olympic Gold medalist as a player at Louisiana Tech.
INDIVIDUAL NOTES
• Prior to this loss, Baylor was undefeated in fourteen games while starting Kelli Griffin, Shanay Washington, Melissa Jones, Morgan Medlock and Brittney Griner, the same five used against Duke, Tennessee and Connecticut.
• Baylor is 16-2 with junior guard Melissa Jones in the starting line up this season, losing only to Tennessee in the season opener.
• Griner's 223 blocks this season broke the Baylor, Big 12 and NCAA Division I single-season records. Her season total currently ranks No. 6 on the Big 12 Conference's career block shot chart.
• Griner had Baylor's first triple double vs. Oral Roberts with 34 points, 13 rebounds and 11 blocked shots. She has had three triple-doubles this season.
• With 10 blocks against Tennessee in the Sweet 16, Griner became the first player with 10+ blocks in multiple tournament games.
• Griner's accolades include AP All-America second team, USBWA's Freshman of the Year, Big 12 Freshman of the Year, Co-Defensive Player of the Year, All-Big 12 first team, All-Big 12 Defensive team, and All-Big 12 Freshman team.
• Griner's performances this tourney: Versus Fresno State: 18 points, 8 rebounds, 2 blocks, 6-16 FG, 6-11 FT; Versus Georgetown: 7 points, 6 rebounds, 14 blocks, 2-7 FG, 3-7 FT; Versus Tennessee: 27 points, 7 rebounds, 10 blocks, 8-18 FG, 11-13 FT; Versus Duke: 15 points, 11 rebounds, 9 blocks, 6-13 FG, 3-8 FT; Versus Connecticut: 13 points, 6 rebounds, 5 blocks, 5-13 FG, 3-6 FT.
• Griner has averaged 16.0 points, 7.6 rebounds, 8.0 blocks per NCAA tournament game.
• With one assist today, Griffin now ranks tied for seventh on Baylor's career assist chart with 362 and second on the school single-season list with 187.
