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  • Lady Bears are headed to the Final Four!

    // Posted In Athletics, Honors

    Baylor seniors Kalani Brown and Chloe Jackson hug after the Lady Bears' win

    For the fourth time in program history, Baylor women’s basketball is headed to the Final Four!

    WBCA National Coach of the Year Kim Mulkey’s Lady Bears cruised past South Carolina on Saturday, 93-68, and Iowa on Monday night, 85-53, to roll into the Final Four. With all eyes (and defenses) focused on senior all-American Kalani Brown, it was some of Brown’s teammates who came through big in both wins; sophomore guard DiDi Richards scored a career-high 25 points in the win over South Carolina, and junior forward Lauren Cox (also an all-American) led the Lady Bears with 22 points and 11 rebounds against Iowa.

    [Get your Lady Bears Final Four gear from the Baylor Bookstore]

    Next up for No. 1-ranked Baylor: a showdown in Tampa with No. 7-ranked Oregon (Friday, 6 p.m. CT, ESPN2). The Ducks won the Pac-12 regular season title, led by Pac-12 Player of the Year and first-team all-American Sabrina Ionescu. The junior guard has averaged 19.9 points, 7.5 rebounds and 8.2 assists per game, and her eight triple-doubles this season have extended her NCAA career record to 18.

    If past history means anything, the Lady Bears have to like their chances moving forward; two out of the previous three times BU made the Final Four, they went on to win the national title. Also, Baylor seems to be on a “lucky seven” trend; the Lady Bears won it all in 2005, then waited seven years to win it again in 2012. Now here we are, seven years after that, needing just two more victories to bring home another national championship. (Bonus fun fact: Over the last 15 seasons, only UConn, Stanford and Notre Dame have been to the Final Four more often than Baylor — and only the Huskies have more national championships than the Lady Bears in that time.)

    The winner of Baylor-Oregon will face the winner of UConn-Notre Dame on Sunday for the national title (5 p.m. CT, ESPN). Limited tickets are available through NCAA.com for both the semifinal and championship games. A special plan for Baylor students is in the works; follow Baylor Student Activities on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for details when they are available.

    Sic ’em in the Final Four, Lady Bears!