HONOLULU (AP) - Stanford snapped defending national champion Baylor's 42-game winning streak Friday, winning 71-69 when player of the year Brittney Griner missed a short turnaround at the buzzer.
"It's been a long time since that bunch lost. I hope they feel like anybody or any competitor feels after a game that you lose," Baylor coach Kim Mulkey said. "I hope they don't forget it and it bothers them."
Griner scored 18 of her 22 points in the second half, helping the Lady Bears rally from a 14-point deficit in the first half. It was the Lady Bears' first defeat since losing to Texas A&M in the regional finals of the 2011 NCAA tournament. Baylor went 40-0 last year with no team coming within five points of the Lady Bears.
Stanford also ended Connecticut's NCAA record 90-game run in 2010.
Chiney Ogwumike scored 18 points to lead the fourth-ranked Cardinal (3-0), who lost to Baylor by 12 points at the NCAA Final Four in April. Her reverse layup gave Stanford a four-point lead with 22 seconds left, after Joslyn Tinkle broke the tie with a layup with just under 1 minute to go.
Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer said the Cardinal came in knowing they needed to limit Griner and play better than they did in the NCAA semifinal.
"Our game plan was never let Brittney Griner be 1-on-1," she said. "We were doubling her as hard as we could."
Baylor played the last 35 minutes without preseason All-America guard Odyssey Sims, who strained her hamstring early in the first half.
"You lose your All-American point guard that early in the game, it kind of takes you out of flow of things," Mulkey said.
Destiny Williams made her first 3-pointer of her career to pull Baylor (2-1) within one late in the game. Toni Kokenis made one of two free throws. Baylor got the rebound and advanced the ball to halfcourt before calling timeout to set up the final play.
Griner caught the ball in the low block and with three players draped on her, the 6-foot-8 star's shot fell harmlessly off the rim setting off a wild celebration by the Cardinal at midcourt.
"We knew where the ball was going - it's a matter if we're able to make the play. It's hard to make a play on Griner," Ogwumike said. "You knew it was going to Griner and she was going to turn around and shoot."
Baylor was the heavy favorite to repeat as champion with their entire starting lineup back from last season. The Lady Bears cruised to an easy 89-51 victory over No. 6 Kentucky on Tuesday before heading to Hawaii for the three-game Rainbow Wahine tournament.
Mulkey said that Baylor wasn't used to playing close games during its streak.
"We didn't respond very well, we got back in the game but we didn't execute some things and we didn't do some things defensively," Mulkey said.
While the Lady Bears returned mostly intact this year, Stanford lost All-American center Nnemkadi Ogwumike to graduation after last season.
Without Sims, the Lady Bears trailed by 14 points before rallying to 31-29 at the break. Stanford focused on Griner on defense and took advantages of missteps by Baylor on the other end to get second chances and open looks.
Griner was dominant in the second half, scoring 10 of Baylor's first 12 points and just under half its points for the final half. The Lady Bears gave up on shooting 3-pointers, allowing Griner to carry them. The attempted only three after ending the first half 1 for 11.
Baylor took a 55-54 lead with 7:11 left in the game on a layup from Williams. It was the Lady Bears first lead since early in the first half. They extended it to four points before Stanford rallied behind Kokenis, who made two free throws and a jumper to tie it at 60.
The game was back and forth until the final minute when Tinkle and Chiney Ogwumike gave Stanford the lead for good.
Ogwumike was one of four Stanford players to score in double digits. Taylor Greenfield had 16 points, Kokenis had 15 and Tinkle had 11.