Baylor makes loud statement against Iowa
Lauren Cox drops 22 points on 10-of-16 shooting to lead the Baylor Lady Bears past the Iowa Hawkeyes 85-53 and into the Final Four. (1:08)
GREENSBORO, N.C. — Baylor coach Kim Mulkey made another one of her loud fashion statements for Monday night’s Elite Eight showdown against Iowa, wearing a bright orange pantsuit highlighted by a neon yellow blouse and high heels.
Her top-seeded Lady Bears made an even louder statement with a dominating 85-53 victory to advance to the Final Four of the women’s NCAA tournament for the first time since winning the title in 2012.
Like their coach, they did it with style, controlling every aspect of the game as they have during a winning streak that reached 27 straight.
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Next up is Oregon, which defeated Mississippi State on Sunday to punch a ticket to Tampa, Florida.
At this point, it doesn’t seem to matter who Baylor (35-1) faces. The Lady Bears don’t seem phased by anything with arguably the biggest and most talented starting five in the tournament.
They weren’t phased by anything they saw in this regional at Greensboro Coliseum — including Iowa center Megan Gustafson, the nation’s leader in scoring (28 points per game) and field goal percentage (70 percent) during the regular season.
Gustafson missed two of her first three shots and finished the first half 6-for-10, after not missing a shot until midway of the third quarter on Saturday. She finished 9-of-17 for 23 points and had to work harder than normal against Baylor’s 6-foot-7 center Kalani Brown and 6-foot-4 forward Lauren Cox to get that.
It was evident early this was going to be a struggle for Iowa. The nation’s leader in field goal percentage at 52 percent made 11 of 33 shots in the first half (33.3 percent) against the nation’s leader in defensive field goal percentage (31 percent).
Iowa finished at 32.1 percent.
With the Hawkeyes’ defense focused on Brown, double- and triple-teaming her inside, Cox took advantage with 14 first-half points — she was averaging 12.7 a game — on 7-for-11 shooting.
Cox scored four of Baylor’s first six points to start the second half en route to a team-high 22 points, and she was named most valuable player of the Greensboro Regional.
Iowa tried using a zone early to negate Baylor’s height advantage. It wasn’t effective, as the Lady Bears shot 6-of-8 on nine possessions.
Man-to-man wasn’t much more effective, as Baylor showed why it was the heavy favorite to advance and win it all.