TAMPA, Fla. - Baylor lost a star player, then the rest of its 17-point lead. Led by the ever-poised Chloe Jackson, though, the Lady Bears kept their composure.
Jackson drove for a tiebreaking layup with 3.9 seconds left, and that put the game into the hands of another tournament hero.
Notre Dame's Arike Ogunbowale missed the first of two free throws with 1.9 seconds remaining, and Baylor held on for an 82-81 victory Sunday in the NCAA women's basketball championship game.
"They just kept doing what we've been taught to do, and that's guard people," Baylor coach Kim Mulkey said. "We just beat the defending national champions. That team is so good, so talented. You're going to see those guys play at the next level. Wow."
Baylor was able to pull off the win without star forward Lauren Cox, who injured her knee in a frightening scene late in the third quarter. The Fighting Irish were able to rally from a 14-point deficit in the third quarter to tie it at 78 in the fourth. Jackson then scored on a jumper from the foul line, and Jessica Shepard countered with two free throws to tie it, setting up the exciting finish.
With the game tied at 80, Jackson drove with her right hand and hit a layup that bounced off the rim before dropping in.
"We had to do it for LC," said Jackson, who was named the Final Four's most outstanding player. "She got us here. We had to finish the job for her."
The Lady Bears (37-1) won their first championship in seven years and third overall, with all of them coming under Mulkey. Baylor's 2012 title came seven years after its first.
The Lady Bears were primed to run away with Sunday's game as Notre Dame (35-4) struggled to score. The Irish have shown a knack for big comebacks in recent season, though, rallying against Connecticut in this year's semifinals and against Mississippi State in last season's title game, when they rallied from 15 down in the third quarter.
Ogunbowale was instrumental in all those victories, forever becoming a part of the Final Four during last year's title run. She made a shot with one second remaining to beat Connecticut in the semifinals a year ago, then hit a tiebreaking 3-pointer with one-tenth of a second left to top the Bulldogs in the title game.
Ogunbowale led the charge again Sunday, scoring 17 of her 31 points in the second half. That included a buzzer-beating 3 at the end of the third quarter, sparking an 11-0 Notre Dame run.
"It just wasn't meant to be. It's going to be a hard pill to swallow," Ogunbowale said. "But things happen. I had a fun, great career here at Notre Dame."
It helped the Irish that the Lady Bears had to play the last 11 minutes without Cox. She got tangled up with Kalani Brown on the defensive end and went down clutching her left knee with about a minute to go in the third quarter. The 6-foot-4 junior was crying in agony before being taken off the court in a wheelchair. Her mother teared up in the stands, and her father had his hands over his face.
"I'm emotional for a lot of reasons, but mostly for Lauren Cox, and I'm so happy," Mulkey said. "These are tears of joy, but they're also tears of thinking about injuries.
"The worst part of the game was (the injury to) Lauren Cox. We had control of that game from the start to the time she went off the floor. We had to regroup. For us to win was a miracle in itself when you lose a player of that caliber."
Cox came back to the bench in the fourth quarter on crutches, sporting a big brace on her left knee. She was the first one to hold the trophy after the game.
"I'm one of the leaders on the team," Cox said, "so just to have my voice there (on the bench) and tell them I'm still OK, they told me they were going to do this for me."