Iowa Hawkeyes at Baylor Bears

Top-seed Baylor routs Iowa 85-53 to cruise to Final Four

Four rounds into the NCAA Tournament, and the Bears have barely faced any resistance.

Baylor cruised to its first Final Four since 2012 with its latest bracket blowout, this one an 85-53 rout of Iowa on Monday night in the Greensboro Regional final.

"We're getting up," forward Lauren Cox said, "and we're not letting people get back in the game."

Cox had 22 points and 11 rebounds, Didi Richards added 16 points and 10 rebounds and Chloe Jackson had 14 points.

The No. 1 overall-seeded Bears (35-1) won their 27th straight game by shooting 53%, clamping down on All-American Megan Gustafson and her supporting cast and holding the nation's best shooting team to a season-worst 32%.

"We don't know that we're going to score this many points every night," Baylor coach Kim Mulkey said. "What we do know is, we're going to defend you. ... That's the way I was taught. That's the way I believe. ... Nobody likes to be guarded for 40 minutes. It's work. It's hard."

Their four tournament victories have come by an average of more than 38 points with none closer than 25. Now, it's on to Tampa, Florida, for the school's fourth Final Four and its first in seven years, when the Bears won their second national championship.

Brown finished with 14 points, and Baylor held a 47-26 rebounding advantage with 20 second-chance points to six for Iowa. The Bears also outscored the Hawkeyes 52-24 in the paint.

"Baylor was obviously too much for us today," coach Lisa Bluder said.

Gustafson finished with 23 points on 9-of-17 shooting, but was held without a rebound in the second half for second-seeded Iowa (29-7). Kathleen Doyle and Tania Davis each had 10 points.

"We just tried to limit her touches," Cox said. "She's a good player. She's going to get her points. We just couldn't let that second or third player go off."

BIG PICTURE

"I'm not going to define our season by the last 40 minutes," Bluder said. "I don't think we played our best game. Did Baylor have something to do with it? Absolutely."

Baylor: Maybe the Bears will face some game pressure in Tampa. They certainly haven't so far in this tournament. They won their first three games by an average of 40.3 points, then turned the matchup of Cox and Brown against Gustafson into their latest mismatch.

BLOWOUT

STAR WATCH

Gustafson fell one rebound shy of setting an NCAA single-season record with her 34th double-double of the season. She'll have to settle for sharing the record with two other players after she matched them with No. 33 in the Sweet 16. Baylor held her without an offensive rebound. "They had a little bit of a size advantage," said the 6-3 Gustafson. "They were just throwing extra bodies at me."

KEY STRETCH

UP NEXT

Baylor faces Portland Region champion Oregon on Friday night in the national semifinals in Tampa, Florida.

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How can I watch Hawkeyes vs. Bears?

• TV Channel: Hawkeyes vs Bears 2021 College Basketball, week 2, is broadcasted on ESPN2.
• Online streaming: Sign up for Fubo.

Venue: First Horizon Coliseum

Location: Greensboro, NC
Attendance: 4,164 | Capacity: