The celebration on the hardwood is over but it is only beginning of the celebration for the Baylor Lady Bears. The two seniors on the team, a graduate transfer from LSU, Chloe Jackson, and a 6 foot 7 inch center, Kalani Brown, dominated the game.
The Lady Bears actually led for nearly 36 of 40 minutes.
“It feels great. It is last thing on my check list and I checked it off so I am happy,” says Brown.
Brown and Jackson ended their college careers as champions. Jackson had the hot hand scoring 26 points and recording five assists.
Jackson says, “Just coming out early looking for my shot and taking what the defense was giving me but, really, the confidence came from my teammates and my coaches. They gave me the confidence I needed.”
That confidence proved to be invaluable after one of their teammates, Lauren Cox, left the game with a knee injury. She was the first player to climb the ladder to cut off a piece of the net.
“We just have to come together. Our motto was ‘together in Tampa’ and we just had to stick together. We knew it was going to be tough without her but we had to do it for her,” says Jackson.
“I just told her, ‘We did this for you,’ says Brown, “you know, when she went down I can say we got a little rattled but we had to pull it together and pull it out for her.”
Brown described the culmination of her senior season well. She will miss her team and she will miss her school because this experience is “the best thing ever.”
