Yao Ming added 23 points and 11 rebounds for Houston.
Sophia Young's 26 points, Emily Niemann's precise 3-point shooting and the brilliant, energetic play of Baylor's backcourt carried Baylor to an 84-62 victory over Michigan State on Tuesday night for the school's first NCAA title by a women's team.
And what a title run it was. Five years after coach Kim Mulkey-Robertson took over a team that went 7-20 and was at the bottom of the Big 12, the Lady Bears now sit at the top of their sport after winning a game between two teams playing in the finals for the first time.
"What a team I get to coach!" Mulkey-Robertson said. "It wasn't the coaching, it's these guys taking me for a tremendous ride."
It was the second-largest margin of victory in a championship game, falling one point short of the record set in 1987 when Tennessee beat Louisiana Tech 67-44.
When the horn sounded Tuesday night, the Lady Bears flopped on the floor in delirious celebration as a rainbow of neon-colored confetti sprayed all around the RCA Dome. They jumped in unison, donned championship caps and fans chanted "Mul-key! Mul-key!"
They won with unforgiving defense that disrupted almost everything Michigan State tried, zooming to a 19-point lead in the first half. Niemann keyed the early surge and finished the first half with 15 points on 5-of-7 shooting from behind the 3-point line; she finished with 19.
The victory completed an unprecedented double for Mulkey-Robertson, who became the first in the women's game to play for a national championship team and then coach one. She was the starting point guard when Louisiana Tech won the first NCAA title in 1982, and later became an assistant coach at Tech, spending 15 years there before taking the Baylor job in 2000.
Michigan State (33-4) had reached the title game with unselfish play that epitomized team basketball. But guards Kristin Haynie and Lindsay Bowen had to do it almost by themselves in this one -- and that was asking too much. Bowen scored 20 points and Haynie 17.
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