2014 NCAA Tournament South Bend Region Elite Eight Game Breakdowns
#1 Notre Dame vs. #2 Baylor (South Bend, Indiana)
Not surprisingly, the Irish had little trouble against Oklahoma State in the Sweet Sixteen. Natalie Achonwa scored 23 points and blocked five shots, while Jewell Loyd added 20 points of her own to go along with a dozen rebounds. Notre Dame has not had to work too hard to get to this point in the tournament, but it all really starts right now for a team that is currently 35-0. They will take on the Lady Bears of Baylor, who are coming off of a quality 90-72 win over Kentucky. They had lost to Kentucky on a neutral floor back in December in a 133-130 quadruple overtime thriller. But the win on Saturday proves just how far this team has come since the beginning of the year.
Besides a bad loss at Kansas by 16 points, this is a Baylor squad that has not been blown out by anybody. They lost to Connecticut by 11 and West Virginia by two. They can certainly hang around against the Irish, especially now that Nina Davis has a full season under her belt. The freshman forward scored 20 points and grabbed eight rebounds against the potent Kentucky frontcourt and has gone from a green freshman to a consistent and efficient scorer in just a few months. Yet, Baylor is still about Odyssey Sims. The senior guard is not going to end her career without a fight and she steps up even more for big games like this one. This is going to be a high scoring contest. These are the second and third highest scoring teams in the country and points will be plentiful. Like many Baylor football games, it may come down to who has the ball last.
