Nyeshia Stevenson's 3-pointer rimmed out at the buzzer, and Louisville advanced to its first national championship game ever with a 61-59 win over Oklahoma, despite trailing by 12 at halftime.
The Sooners leaped out to a 16-2 lead after only seven and half minutes of play, behind the presence of Whitney Hand.
Hand's matchup with Louisville All-American Angel McCoughtry would define the game, with Hand dominating the first half, but paling in the second as McCoughtry simply took over.
"I thought she really made some things happen defensively, not just containing Angel, but made some plays happen, deflections, steals, that sort of thing. And then obviously knock down the open 3s," Oklahoma coach Sherri Coale said. "But in the second half, you know, Angel McCoughtry is going to be rabid. You know she's going to do that and go after everything off the rim, and she did. And we had a hard time containing her when she did that."
McCoughtry was 0-8 from the field in the first half, only scoring 4 points, but came out in the second period and simply had her way shooting 6-9 from the field, with 14 points.
"I just felt like they came out with a lot more energy than we did. And we were relaxed," Courtney Paris said. "We just didn't execute as well as we should have."
Many of the Sooners problems seemed to stem from their inability to knock down easy shots inside and at the free throw line.
"We got some great passes from D-Rob and the other girls and some of them just didn't drop and we missed some chippies," Ashley Paris said.
As a team the Sooners were less than stellar at the line shooting 14-21, and only shot 26 percent in the second half.
As for the guarantee made by Courtney Paris to her soon-to-be alma mater in February, well she says she won't welch.
"I do make good on the guarantee," said Paris. "Not today, though. Obviously, I don't have $64,000 waiting, but I do make good on it."
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