Baylor beats Michigan State to capture women's NCAA title

INDIANAPOLIS -- Michigan State advanced to its first championship game with a balanced team, getting contributions from up and down the lineup.\nBut with a title on the line, the Spartans became a two-woman show offensively and it wasn't enough.\nFor first time in the NCAA tournament Michigan State didn't have four double-figure scorers and they struggled to stop a trio of Baylor post players in a 84-62 loss Tuesday night.\nMichigan State's Lindsay Bowen scored 20 and Kristin Haynie had 17, but they didn't get much help.\nLeading scorer Liz Shimek finished with seven points -- well below her average of 15 -- and had only two points in the first 30 minutes of the game. She did, however, tie the school's single-season scoring record of 546 points.\nKelli Roehrig, second on the team in scoring, had just eight points. Victoria Lucas-Perry and Rene Haynes, who had averaged 15 points a game, were scoreless until midway through the second half. They finished with a combined eight points.\nThe Bears made it tough to score on every possession.\nThey extended their defense deep on the perimeter and when Michigan State tried to score inside, it often turned into a defender or two on low-post moves.\nMeanwhile, Baylor's Sophia Young, Steffanie Blackmon and Emily Niemann combined for 67 points -- more than the Spartans' entire team.\nMichigan State (33-4) will eventually look back on its season with pride.\nThe Spartans started the season ranked 15th before winning a share of the Big Ten title and being regarded as one of the nation's best with a program-record 17-game winning streak that ended in the final.\nThe top-seeded squad had not advanced past the second round in five previous NCAA tournaments.\nMichigan State rallied from a 16-point, second-half deficit to beat traditional power Tennessee in the Final Four on Sunday, but could not mount any sort of comeback against the Bears. The Spartans fell behind early, were down 12 at halftime and trailed by 20 midway through the second half.