Women's Tournament 2019: Final Four Scores, Championship Preview

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish are one win away from their second national championship with only the Baylor Lady Bears standing in their way.

In a rewind of last year's semifinal, Notre Dame knocked off the Connecticut Huskies on Friday night. Baylor opened the evening with a victory over the Oregon Ducks. Now, the Fighting Irish and Lady Bears will return to the court Sunday to decide the national title.

Here's a recap of how the semifinals unfolded and a look ahead to the championship game.

Final Four Results

No. 1 Baylor def. No. 2 Oregon, 72-67

No. 1 Notre Dame def. No. 2 Connecticut, 81-76

Baylor 72, Oregon 67

Oregon will have to wait another year for its first national championship. Baylor shut the Ducks down late to edge out a 72-67 victory.

Kalani Brown gave Baylor a 65-64 lead with 3:50 left in the game, and Lauren Cox made it a three-point game at the 1:59 mark. Satou Sabally answered back with a three-pointer to tie the game at 67.

With Baylor in possession inside the final minute, Maite Cazorla and Erin Boley had a miscommunication on defense that allowed Chloe Jackson a wide-open lane to the basket. Jackson laid it in with 39 seconds left to put the Lady Bears ahead.

Sabally's shot attempt on the other end hit the back iron, with Brown grabbing the defensive rebound. After getting fouled by Boley, Cox knocked down two free throws to increase Baylor's advantage.

With time rapidly running out, Sabrina Ionescu attempted a desperation three that missed the mark. Juicy Landrum appeared to foul Ionescu during the shot, but the referees didn't whistle for a foul.

From there, Brown put the finishing touches on the Lady Bears' victory.

Ionescu is eligible for the 2019 WNBA draft and would almost certainly be the No. 1 overall pick if she were to make the jump. Should this be her final game at Oregon, it would be a disappointing end to a great career.

The junior guard shot 6-of-24 from the field and 4-of-11 from three-point range to finish with 18 points. She added four rebounds and six assists.

As a team, Oregon made just 36.8 percent of its field goals. Three-point shooting helped the Ducks stay in the game as they owned a 36-point edge in that category.

Head coach Kelly Graves did his best to scheme for Oregon's shortcomings inside against Baylor, but his team ultimately had no answer for Brown and Cox. The two frontcourt stars combined for 43 points and 18 rebounds.

Notre Dame 81, Connecticut 76

Friday's encounter lacked an Arike Ogunbowale buzzer-beater but had nearly the same drama of last year's tilt between Notre Dame and UConn. The lead changed hands 26 times as neither the Fighting Irish nor the Huskies could enjoy any prolonged spell on top.

Napheesa Collier gave Connecticut some breathing room with a layup to put her team up six points at the 5:11 mark of the fourth quarter. But Ogunbowale and Marina Mabrey hit back-to-back threes to tie the game, setting the stage for a breathless final sequence.

Over the final four minutes alone, the teams exchanged the lead on seven occasions.

With 1:30 remaining, Jessica Shepard hit a jumper to put Notre Dame ahead 74-73. Crystal Dangerfield missed a layup at the other end for Connecticut. Ogunbowale grabbed the defensive rebound and was almost immediately fouled by Christyn Williams. She sank her two free throws to make it a three-point game.

Brianna Turner essentially sealed the win when she rose up to swat away an inside shot attempt by Collier.

Turner's presence around the basket was massive for the Fighting Irish. The senior forward earned a double-double (15 points, 15 rebounds) and added a game-high five blocks. Shepard (20 points, 13 rebounds) and Mabrey (12 points, 12 assists) had double-doubles of their own. After scoring just two points in the first half, Ogunbowale had 23 for the game to lead all scorers.

Turner and Shepard helped Notre Dame own a 53-37 advantage in rebounding, and the Fighting Irish had 21 offensive rebounds as a team.

UConn bottled up the high-powered Notre Dame offense in the first half, limiting the Irish to 29 points as the teams headed to the locker room. The second half was a different story as the Huskies could only stifle Ogunbowale for so long.

Katie Lou Samuelson scored 20 points for the game after a scoreless first half, and Williams was second on the team with 19 points. Together Samuelson and Dangerfield shot 3-of-16 from beyond the arc, which summed up a night when UConn's long-range shooting simply wasn't there.

Championship Preview

The championship game couldn't have set up any better.

Notre Dame owns the highest-scoring offense (89.1 points per game) and the most efficient offense (51.6 percent) in Division I. Baylor, meanwhile, ranks 10th in scoring defense (54.6 points per game) and first in opponent field-goal percentage (31.3 percent).

How each team will approach this game is clear.

The Lady Bears will want to slow down the pace and pound the ball inside to Brown and Cox, with Landrum and DiDi Richards looking for any opportunity to attack the basket. When Baylor beat UConn on Jan. 3, Brown had 22 points, and the Lady Bears made three three-pointers as a team. They successfully forced the Huskies to play at their tempo and exposed Connecticut's lack of size.

Notre Dame will want to follow the blueprint set up by Oregon and the Stanford Cardinal, the latter of whom were responsible for Baylor's only defeat. Stanford shot 13-of-30 from the perimeter in a 68-63 win on Dec. 15.

The Fighting Irish aren't an elite shooting team from deep but have the players necessary to stretch the defense. Entering Friday, Ogunbowale was a 35.1 percent three-point shooter, and Mabrey connected on 41.0 percent of her attempts.

In Turner and Shepard, Notre Dame also has a way to somewhat limit Brown and Cox's impact in the paint.

Baylor was the tournament's No. 1 overall seed for a reason, yet the Lady Bears might be the underdogs against the reigning national champions.