39-0 Baylor beats Stanford to reach NCAA final

DENVER -- One win from perfection.

Brittney Griner, constantly hounded and double-teamed, made only one basket in the second half -- so the Baylor supporting cast jumped in and carried the unbeaten Bears to the national championship game.

The 6-8 Griner had 13 points and nine rebounds as Baylor beat Stanford, 59-47, Sunday night to reach the women's final Tuesday night against Notre Dame.

"We're not the Brittney Griner show," coach Kim Mulkey said. "Brittney Griner is the face of women's basketball, and she deserves to be, but this team is bigger than Brittney. She will tell you that. Brittney Griner double- and triple-teamed allows other players on her team to have opportunities."

Baylor (39-0) is one victory from becoming the seventh team to finish unbeaten and has a chance to be the first squad in NCAA history, men or women, to win 40 games in a season.

Baylor and Notre Dame met in the preseason WNIT final, with the Bears winning in Waco, 94-81, on Nov. 17. "It's going to be a good game," Griner said. "We beat them earlier in the season, but we've got to erase that. This is the game everybody wants."

Stanford (35-2) fell short in the Final Four for the fifth straight season as its school-record winning streak ended at 32 games.

The Cardinal continually collapsed on Griner in the paint, and the strategy worked for the first 20 minutes before the other Bears started making shots.

Trailing 31-29 early in the second half, Baylor went on an 11-1 run keyed by Jordan Madden. The junior guard had an acrobatic three-point play and a layup that made it 40-32. Griner hit a tough baseline turnaround that capped the burst, and Stanford never got closer than six again.

Nnemkadi Ogwumike had 22 points in her final game for Stanford, then had a long chat with Mulkey, who gave the opposing star a heartfelt hug. -- AP