Baylor booted by Louisville, 82-81

Friday, January 1, 1904

photo Baylor 's Brittney Griner (42) shoots Sunday as Louisville guard Shoni Schimmel (23) defends in their regional semifinal game in the women's NCAA tournament in Oklahoma City.

OKLAHOMA CITY - Shoni Schimmel scored 22 points and Monique Reid hit two free throws with 2.6 seconds left to lift sixth-seeded Louisville to a stunning 82-81 upset of top-ranked, defending national champion Baylor on Sunday night in the regional semifinals of the NCAA women's tournament.

Odyssey Sims scored 28 points and hit a pair of free throws with 9.1 seconds left to give the Lady Bears (34-2) their only lead of the game.

Reid caught an inbounds pass near the baseline after that and went coast to coast before getting fouled by All-American Brittney Griner on her way to the basket.

Sims had one last chance to save Baylor's season after Reid's free throws but was off-target and late on a desperation heave.

The Lady Bears had been practically invincible for the past four months, winning 32 straight games mostly by double digits.

Louisville (27-8) tied an NCAA record with 16 3-pointers to pull off the upset.

Norfolk Regional

• Notre Dame 93, Kansas 63

At Norfolk, Va., Skylar Diggins scored 22 of her 27 points by halftime Sunday and became the school's career scoring leader, helping the top-seeded Fighting Irish beat Kansas in the semifinals of the Norfolk Regional.

And Diggins made it look easy, adding nine assists and three steals, and scoring nine straight during a 16-2 first-half run that put the Irish (34-1) ahead to stay.

The victory was the 29th in a row for Notre Dame, and left the Irish one victory shy of a third consecutive trip to the Final Four. They have lost in the title game each of the last two years.

Carolyn Davis led the upstart Jayhawks (20-14) with 25 points on 11-for-17 shooting, but the second No. 12 seed ever to get this far in the women's tournament since the seeding format began in 1994 didn't stick around long.

• Duke 53, Nebraska 45

Tricia Liston scored 17 points and Duke shook off a slow start to beat Nebraska.

Alexis Jones added 14 points for the Blue Devils (33-2), who also struggled last weekend at home. They advanced to Tuesday night's game against top-seeded Notre Dame with a berth in the Final Four on the line.

The Cornhuskers (25-9), in the round of 16 for just the second time in school history, struggled from the field. They shot 30.3 percent and hit just 3 of 24 3-point tries. Nebraska entered the game averaging 6.4 3-pointers and made eight last week in stunning Texas A&M on its home floor.

Lindsey Moore led the Cornhuskers with 11 points, but on 5-of-18 shooting. Their leading scorer, Jordan Hooper, who averages 18.2 points, left with an apparent knee injury with eight minutes left and scored just six points.