DALLAS -- Two No. 1 seeds being defeated on Friday? Such shenanigans ended Saturday. After Bridgeport No. 1 UConn clobbered Mississippi State in the early show, the top seed here in the Dallas Regional looked very strong, too.
No. 1 seed Baylor defeated fifth-seeded Florida State 78-58 in front of a largely pro-Baylor crowd at American Airlines Center. The Lady Bears' campus in Waco, Texas, is just about an hour and a half to the south of downtown Dallas, and the green-and-gold crew will be back Monday (ESPN, 9 p.m. ET) to see if Baylor can advance to the program's fourth Women's Final Four.
After top seeds South Carolina and Notre Dame were knocked out on Friday, Baylor remains as the last No. 1 with a chance to perhaps stop UConn's four-peat. But first things first, the Lady Bears will have to win the Dallas Regional (and perhaps we should, for formality's sake, say the same about UConn in the Bridgeport Regional).
If Baylor plays as it did Saturday, it's going to be tough to deny the Lady Bears a trip to Indianapolis, where the program won its first NCAA title in 2005.
How the game was won: Baylor controlled every aspect of this game. It's not that Florida State isn't a good team; the Seminoles are. But the Lady Bears just did everything better. They ran their offense expertly, and forced Florida State into some shots the Seminoles didn't always want.
Player of the game: Have we mentioned Baylor's Nina Davis wasn't Big 12 player of the year? Yes, we have, and we get why Oklahoma State's Brittney Martin won that honor. But Davis has been playing in the postseason like she wants to remind everyone she's an All-American -- not as if anyone should have forgotten. She had 30 points on 12-of-18 shooting from the field, her second consecutive 30-point performance in this tournament.
Turning point: This one seemed pretty much a done deal after the first quarter, at which point Baylor led 24-15. The Seminoles were able to cut the lead in the third quarter to eight with Leticia Romero's 3-pointer at the 4:05 mark, but Baylor's Khadijiah Cave answered with a layup at 3:36, and the Seminoles never got that close again.
X factor: As usual, it was steady-eddy point guard Niya Johnson, who played all 40 minutes for Baylor and had eight assists.
Stat of the game: Two stats, actually, told the story of how Florida State couldn't keep up with Baylor: The Seminoles shot 35 percent from the field (21-of-60) and had 21 turnovers.
What's next: Baylor (36-1) will face the winner of Saturday's game between No. 2 seed Oregon State and No. 6 DePaul on Monday night for a trip to the Final Four. Florida State's season finishes at 25-8.