Griner scores 40 to lead Baylor
DALLAS -- Brittney Griner had another big game, got some help from Baylor's freshman point guard, and the top-seeded Lady Bears ended any chance for Wisconsin-Green Bay to have a Butler-like finish.
Griner had a career-high 40 points with 10 rebounds, and combined with Sims to score all the points in the game-clinching 14-0 spurt, as the Lady Bears finally pulled away for an 86-76 victory over Green Bay last night.
Baylor advanced to the regional final by snapping a 25-game winning streak by the feisty team from the Horizon League that also boasts a two-time Final Four team on the men's side.
The Lady Bears (34-2) led only 52-49 before Griner made a short baseline shot over two defenders with just over 13 minutes left. Sims then had consecutive three-pointers before two free throws and a putback by Griner. Sims ended the spurt with a steal and breakaway layup.
"Stuff started clicking for us," Griner said. "We weren't rushing anything."
Green Bay (34-2), in the NCAA round of 16 for the first time, put up quite a fight for a while against a team trying to get to the Final Four for the second straight season -- and proved it wasn't intimidated by Griner, Baylor's 6-8 sophomore standout.
In the end, though, Griner stood tall again.
"You might better change the way you think about guarding her," Baylor coach Kim Mulkey said. "They said they weren't going to do much different."
Griner was coming off 30 points and eight blocks in Baylor's victory over West Virginia, when she sat on the bench the final 9:20 of the first half with two fouls.
This time, she sat the final 5:51 of the half with 13 points after two fouls in a 14-second span.
Next up for Baylor is a very familiar foe.
Baylor plays Texas A & M (30-5) tomorrow night, and the winner goes to the Final Four. It is a rematch of the Big 12 championship game three weeks ago, when the Aggies took a 12-0 lead before Baylor recovered to beat its conference rival for the third time this season, 61-58.
The Aggies advanced with a 79-38 victory over Georgia yesterday that was never close.
Sims, the freshman playing only a few miles from home, finished with 18 points, four assists and three steals. That was plenty to offset a season-high eight turnovers.
Griner was 15-for-21 from the field and made all 10 of her free throws.
Kayla Tetschlag led Green Bay with 27 points and 10 rebounds. Celeste Hoewisch had 20 points.
The Phoenix finished with 34 rebounds, the same as Baylor, with an impressive 21 offensive boards, despite Griner usually clogging the middle.
