TAMPA, Fla. -- Will Notre Dame win back-to-back national championships? Will Baylor win its first NCAA title since 2012? The Fighting Irish and Lady Bears meet Sunday (ESPN/ESPN App, 6 p.m. ET) at Amalie Arena in the championship game of the women's NCAA tournament. Last season, Notre Dame won its second championship, adding to its 2001 title. Baylor, which is 2-0 in championship games, won in 2005 and 2012. Women's Tournament Challenge Check out Tournament Challenge for live updates with a chance to win $5,000 in Amazon.com gift cards! Sunday's final is a rematch of the 2012 championship game. Seven years later, the Lady Bears' Kim Mulkey and the Irish's Muffet McGraw meet again, each seeking to become the third head coach in Division I women's basketball history to win three national titles. ESPN's Basketball Power Index says Notre Dame has a 53 percent chance to win. Our panel weighs in with its picks: Andrea Adelson: Baylor The Lady Bears thrive on their post players and defensive play, and those two factors will put them over the top. Baylor feels especially confident in this matchup because of its swarming defense, and believes that will help take Notre Dame and its powerful guards off rhythm. Its play against Oregon, and Sabrina Ionescu in particular, only enhanced that confidence going into the championship game. Beyond Kalani Brown and Lauren Cox, watch for Didi Richards' defense on Arike Ogunbowale to be one of the difference-makers. Charlie Creme: Notre Dame Experience will carry the day for the Irish. Notre Dame delivered in the key moments against UConn in the semifinals and certainly did last year in winning the national championship. Baylor handled its first close game in a while well in its semifinal win over Oregon, but that pales in comparison to the on-the-job training that the Irish have. Graham Hays: Notre Dame Repeating is difficult over the course of a season, but no defending champion that reached the final has lost a repeat bid since 1983. And with Jessica Shepard and Brianna Turner uniquely suited to challenge a team with Kalani Brown and Lauren Cox, Notre Dame has more than history on its side. Elizabeth Merrill: Notre Dame Initially, I picked Baylor, but the Irish really seem to be on a mission. And I'm not sure anything is going to get in the way of Arike Ogunbowale. Kevin Pelton: Baylor Before the NCAA tournament, Notre Dame was the consensus statistical favorite, but Baylor has been so dominant in March and April -- aside from Friday's narrow win over Oregon to reach the title game. Despite Notre Dame's history of Final Four heroics, I'm going with Baylor. LaChina Robinson: Notre Dame Experience means a lot at the Final Four, and Notre Dame has players on its roster that have competed for a national championship. Handling pressure, responding to runs and getting over the hump of adversity in a pressure situation is always a little easier when you have done it before. Mechelle Voepel: Notre Dame Notre Dame's offense is so difficult to beat; the Irish can strike from anywhere, and they never lose confidence. Every starter is a threat. Baylor is better positioned than any other team to combat that defensively, and there is a belief that much of the time, defense ultimately wins championships. But in this case, Notre Dame's offense probably will.<doc-sep>Here’s the AP recap: TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Baylor recovered after blowing a 17-point lead and losing a star player, beating Notre Dame 82-81 for the NCAA women’s basketball championship Sunday night when 2018 tournament hero Arike Ogunbowale missed a foul shot in the final seconds. Baylor Championship Gear Chloe Jackson made a layup to put Baylor ahead with 3.9 seconds left. Notre Dame called timeout and inbounded to Ogunbowale, whose buzzer-beating jumper in the championship game lifted Notre Dame to last year’s title. Ogunbowale was fouled trying for a layup, then missed the first of two free throws with 1.9 seconds remaining. She made the second, but the Irish never got the ball back. The Lady Bears (37-1) won their first championship in seven years. Coach Kim Mulkey and Baylor have won titles in 2005, 2012 and 2019. The 2012 championship game also pitted the Lady Bears against Muffet McGraw’s Irish in the last meeting of two female coaches for the title. Game stats here. Baylor was able to pull off the win without star forward Lauren Cox, who injured her knee late in the third quarter. The Irish were able to rally from a 14-point deficit in the third quarter to tie it at 78 in the fourth. Jackson then scored a jumper from the foul line, and Jessica Shepard countered with two free throws to tie it, setting up the exciting finish. The Lady Bears were primed to run away with the game as Notre Dame struggled to score. But the Irish have a knack for big comebacks, doing it against UConn in this year's semifinal and against Mississippi State in last year's title game, when they rallied from 15 down in the third quarter. Ogunbowale led the charge again, scoring 17 of her 31 points in the second half. That included a buzzer-beating 3 at the end of the third quarter, sparking an 11-0 Notre Dame run. It helped the Irish that the Lady Bears had to play the last 11 minutes without Cox. She got tangled up with Kalani Brown on the defensive end and went down clutching her left knee with about a minute to go in the third quarter. The 6-foot-4 junior was crying in agony for a few minutes before they took her off the court in a wheelchair. Her mom was tearing up in the stands, and her dad had his hands over his face. She came back to the bench in the fourth quarter on crutches, with a big brace on her left knee. She was the first one to hold the trophy after the game. Mulkey was able to celebrate her third title with her family close by. Daughter Makenzie is on the coaching staff, and infant grandson Kannon Reid was sitting in the front row behind the bench. As the final second ticked off, she hugged her daughter and the rest of the staff at midcourt. Jackson was named the Final Four’s Most Outstanding Player. With the game tied at 80, she drove with her right hand and hit a layup that bounced off the rim before dropping in. Baylor survives! The Bears are now 3-0 all-time in National Championship games, including 2 wins over Notre Dame (2012, 2019). This was just the 2nd 1-point game in the national final since the tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1994. pic.twitter.com/QBUS5915lL — ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) April 8, 2019 The last one-point game in the national final was UNC's one-point win over Louisiana Tech in 1994. Baylor head coach Kim Mulkey was an assistant on that Louisiana Tech team. — ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) April 8, 2019 *** The No. 1 seeded Notre Dame Fighting Irish meet the No. 1 seeded Baylor Bears in the 2019 NCAA Women’s Championship at Amalie Arena on Sunday, April 7, 2019 (4/7/19) in Tampa, Florida. Here’s what you need to know: Who: Notre Dame vs. Baylor What: NCAA Women’s Championship When: Sunday, April 7, 2019 Where: Amalie Arena, Tampa, Fla. Time: 6 p.m. ET TV: ESPN Livestream: WatchESPN Notre Dame coach Muffet McGraw is excited that Sunday's night championship game will have two women coaches. The Fighting Irish will be looking to join UConn, Tennessee and Southern Cal in winning consecutive titles during the NCAA era against Baylor. It will be the first championship game since 2012 when both coaches — McGraw and Baylor's Kim Mulkey — are women. "The same two," McGraw said after Friday night's 81-76 semifinal win over UConn. "This weekend we're all about basketball right now. So want to really focus on that. I am excited to have two women in the final." McGraw, during her Thursday's news conference, said it's time for more women in positions of power, and not just in women's basketball. She is disappointed that there aren't more female leaders in all walks of life. Baylor and Notre Dame will both be looking for a third national championship in a rematch of the 2012 title game won by the Lady Bears 80-61. UConn, which was beaten by Notre Dame in last year's semifinals, captured four national straight championships from 2013-16. Tennessee went back-to-back in 2007-08, while Southern Cal won it all in both 1983 and 84. Baylor advanced after a 72-67 win over first-time Final Four participant Oregon in Friday's first semifinal. "The feeling is unreal," Baylor center Kalani Brown said. "I'm still in shock. I'm overwhelmed. I'm just happy to be a part of this team right now." Brown scored a game-high 22 points Friday night. Forward Lauren Cox added 21. Baylor last made a Final four appearance in the 2012 title season. “We’ve played in big games,” Cox said. “Obviously we haven’t been to a Final Four in a while, but we’re used to the pressure, used to that big-game moment.” (The AP contributed to this report.)<doc-sep>
Matching the excitement of last year's unreal Final Four was always going to be a difficult task, but the four teams in Tampa this weekend have done an admirable job of imitation so far. Both semifinal games on Friday night were either tied or within a point in the final minute of regulation. In the first game on Friday night, Baylor's interior attack and stout defense helped the Bears outlast Oregon's 3-point barrage to reach their first title game since 2012. There they'll face Notre Dame, who, led by Arike Ogunbowale, overcame a nine-point deficit in the fourth quarter to take down their old rivals, UConn, and get back to the championship for the second straight season. Two No. 1 seeds, two women's basketball powerhouses with two titles apiece, two legendary coaches and stars up and down each roster. The title game between Baylor and Notre Dame -- a rematch of the 2012 edition, which the Bears dominated -- has everything you could hope for. Sunday night is going to be all sorts of fun. (1) Notre Dame vs. (1) Baylor When: Sunday at 6 p.m. Sunday at 6 p.m. Where: Amalie Arena -- Tampa, Florida Amalie Arena -- Tampa, Florida TV: ESPN ESPN Streaming: WatchESPN Notre Dame: Midway through the fourth quarter of Friday night's second semifinal game, Notre Dame's season, and chance to repeat, was on the ropes. Katie Lou Samuelson was heating up, and UConn ran out to a nine-point lead. From that point, the Irish buckled down and closed the game on a 26-12 run led by who else but Arike Ogunbowale. Last year's Final Four hero scored 14 of her 21 second-half points in the fourth quarter to will Notre Dame back to the title game. Overshadowed at times this season by the rise of her backcourt partner, Jackie Young, Ogunbowale gave everyone a reminder of her greatness and sense of the moment. But as impressive as Ogunbowale was in the second half, Notre Dame wouldn't have won without the strong play of their frontcourt, Jess Shepard and Brianna Turner. That duo combined for 35 points, 18 rebounds, nine assists and five blocks in the victory. And they might have to play even better -- if that's possible -- on Sunday, when they'll go up against the nation's premier frontcourt. How well Shepard and Turner can hold their own against Baylor's paint attack could decide the game. Baylor: All season long, Baylor has been the nation's most dominant and consistent team. They're 36-1, with their only loss coming on the road to Stanford, and perhaps more impressively, 30 of their wins have come by double digits. It's been a season reminiscent of their 2012 campaign, when they went a perfect 40-0, and crushed Notre Dame in the title game. So it's fitting that they'll meet the Irish for the championship again, with each team vying for their third title. Like Notre Dame, Baylor just barely got here though, sneaking past an electric Oregon squad that provided a tricky style matchup with their perimeter skills and shooting. As it has all season long, however, Baylor's frontcourt proved to be too much. Kalani Brown and Lauren Cox -- both All-Americans -- combined for 43 points, 18 rebounds, nine assists and four blocks while just generally controlling the game. That frontcourt matchup of Brown and Cox vs. Shepard and Turner could decide the game, but another member of Baylor's dynamite defense will be key as well. Didi Richards was key in limiting Sabrina Ionescu to just 18 points on 6-of-24 shooting on Friday night, and will have another tough matchup on Sunday, whether she guards Jackie Young or Ogunbowale.