page_title: 2012 NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Tournament
section_title: Semi-Finals
hierarchical_section_title: 2012 NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Tournament / Final four / Semi-Finals
caption_attribution_description: English: Floor of the arena at the 2012 Women's Basketball NCAA Division I Final Four, held in the Pepsi Center in Denver Colorado.
context_page_description: The 2012 NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Tournament began March 17 and concluded April 3, 2012. The Final Four was played at Pepsi Center in Denver. For only the second time in history, and the first time since 1989, all four of the number one seeds made it to the Final Four. Baylor won its second national championship, defeating Notre Dame 80–61 in the championship game. They were the only team to win 40 straight games in a season until Connecticut matched it in 2014.
context_section_description: In the first semi-final game of the evening, UConn faced Notre Dame for the fourth time this season. Notre Dame prevailed in the two regular season games, one of which went to overtime, while UConn won the match-up in the Big East Tournament Finals. The Huskies scored first, but Notre Dame quickly responded with seven straight points. The game was close through most of the first half, with UConn holding on to a small three-point halftime lead. The Irish scored the first five points of the second half to take the lead, and would hold on to a slim lead for much of the rest of the half. With under three minutes left in the half, Notre Dame had a six-point lead, but UConn managed to come back and took a two-point lead with eleven seconds left, but Notre Dame responded to force overtime. Although UConn started the overtime period with a three-point basket, the Irish responded with three-point baskets, one  by Diggins, then two by Mallory, to put the game out of reach. The final score in favor of Notre Dame was 83–75.
  In the second semi-final, Baylor faced Stanford. Baylor had played, and beaten the other two Final Four participants, but had not played against the Cardinal. The Stanford team was playing in their fifth consecutive Final Four. Stanford's coach, Tara VanDerveer was faced with the challenge of stopping a team with outside and inside threats. The inside threat,  Brittney Griner, would be named (the following day) the winner of three  national player of the year awards, the Naismith,  the Wade Trophy and the WBCA defensive player of the year. VanDerveer chose to emphasize defense on Griner and it had some success, as Griner was limited to seven points in the first half, and the outside shooters did not take advantage. The Cardinal were down at the half, but by only two points. Stanford's Nneka Ogwumike would be the leading scorer for the game, with 22 points, but she was the only double-digit scorer for the Cardinal, while Baylor had three players in double digits. Baylor would go on to the national championship game with a 59–47 victory.
caption: Floor of arena in Pepsi Center, Denver
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