Indianapolis - A dream season came to a tough end Tuesday night as the No. 1 seed MSU women's basketball team came up short against No. 2 seed Baylor, 84-62.
Much like the national semifinal game in which MSU was behind by 16 points, the Spartans (33-4) trailed for most of the championship game and tried to play catch up, but this time they never got closer than nine points.
"You have to give all the credit to Baylor," MSU head coach Joanne P. McCallie said. "They played great, and we played average and you just can't do that at this level."
The margin of victory for Baylor was the second largest in championship history - the largest margin is 23 points.
The Spartans were outrebounded 45-22. The 22 rebounds were the lowest total in a championship game.
Baylor head coach Kim Mulkey-Robertson became the first woman to win an NCAA championship both as a player and as a coach.
Not all was lost, though, in a great season for the Spartans.
Junior forward Liz Shimek tied the school record for points in a season with 546. Senior guard Kristin Haynie finished the season with 117 steals, which is the single-season record for MSU.
Junior guard Lindsay Bowen led on offense with 20 points, and Haynie added 17. Bowen and Haynie were the only two Spartans who reached double figures.
"The key to the game was rebounding," Haynie said. "We were just ineffective on the glass, and it is tough to win games when you get outrebounded the way we did."
The glaring stat of the game was in the rebounding category, in which the Lady Bears had 16 offensive rebounds, and the Spartans were only able to grab three on the offensive glass.
"They have two great post players," McCallie said. "We have not played a team with two post players of their caliber all season. Sophia Young is a great player and was able to do just about anything tonight."
The Spartans shot 41.5 percent, while the Lady Bears shot 49.2 percent from the floor.
The Spartans accomplished many things this year, and the outlook is bright for a program that had never previously advanced past the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
"This game is going to hurt for a little bit, but we did a lot of great things this year and for this program," Haynie said.
McCallie knows this team is on the rise and could not have asked for much more from her team.
"We have nothing to be sorry about," McCallie said. "These girls got a lot of hardware this season and have earned everything they have done. These girls have been champions all year."
