There was something about being down eight points going into the fourth quarter of a do-or-die game that awoke the bear in Diana Taurasi.

After scoring just 10 points through three quarters, the 39-year-old delivered 14 in the fourth to lead the No. 5 Mercury to an 87-84 win over the No. 2 Aces in Game 5 of the WNBA semifinals on Friday.

After the game, before Phoenix head coach could even hear the end of the question about what gave Phoenix the win, she said, “Diana making shots. She gave us hope.”

On a fractured foot and a sprained ankle, Taurasi hit back-to-back 3-pointers to start the fourth quarter. Those buckets helped Phoenix finally re-gain the lead over Las Vegas, who had been ahead by 10 points through much of the third.

In the last two minutes of a tie game, the 6-foot point guard blocked a layup attempt by 6-8 Liz Cambage and immediately followed that with another 3-pointer.

“In these moments, you just can’t care anymore,” Taurasi nonchalantly said of her performance after the game.

"SHE'S THE GOAT!"

Brittney Griner had to video bomb Diana Taurasi's interview with @ROSGO21 😅 pic.twitter.com/mltIh34AMu

— ESPN (@espn) October 9, 2021

The Mercury made it through 16 games this season without their star, getting Taurasi back only recently, in the second round of playoffs against the Seattle Storm.

“It shows what happens when she’s on the court,” Brondello said. “That’s how special she is. We knew if we could just get her healthy, get her back, good things would happen.”

Taurasi wasn’t the only injured Phoenix player. Kia Nurse is out for the rest of the season after tearing her ACL in Game 4, and Sophie Cunningham, who played a big role in getting the Mercury through the first round of playoffs, sat out of Friday’s game with a calf injury.

Brondello hopes Cunningham will be back on Wednesday for Game 2 of the Finals at the latest.

‘I’ve got so much respect for Shey’

Taurasi saved the Mercury in the fourth quarter, but giving Phoenix momentum in the first half was Shey Peddy, who took on a bigger role in the absence of Nurse and Cunningham. Finishing the game with a playoff-high 15 points, the 32-year-old led Phoenix to a 20-14 lead in the first 10 minutes with seven points and strong defense.

“She’s resilient, to be quite honest,” said Brondello. “She fits in, wherever you need her.”

Averaging 5.4 points per game this season, the guard came to the Mercury in August 2020 after getting waived by the Washington Mystics. She was drafted 23rd overall by the Chicago Sky in 2012 and subsequently cut in three WNBA training camps — 2012 by the Sky, then 2013 and 2019 by the Mystics — and didn’t make her WNBA debut until June 2019 with Washington.

Teammate Skylar Diggins-Smith’s eyes filled with tears when talking about Peddy during the postgame press conference.

“I’ve got so much respect for Shey,” she said through tears. “Her story is just so inspiring. She just works so hard … Even when my confidence is down, she pushes me. She’s just a great teammate.”

Patience is a virtue! 🙏🏾 https://t.co/VKO8mz5mef

— Shey Peddy (@SheyP11) October 9, 2021

Diggins-Smith is heading to her first WNBA Finals after eight years in the league, contributing 14 points and eight assists against the Aces on Friday.

Brittney Griner had a team-high 28 points, along with nine rebounds, to continue her dominant playoff run. She added the most important block of the night in the final two seconds of the game to keep the Aces from tying the game at 84.

The Mercury will face the Chicago Sky in a rematch of the 2014 WNBA Finals, which Phoenix won in three games with Taurasi and Griner. Neither team has been in the Finals since then.

Game 1 of the best-of-five championship series tips off Sunday at 3 p.m. ET on ABC, Sportsnet and NBA TV.

Jessa Braun is an editorial intern for Just Women’s Sports. She is also the Head of North American Content for the Women’s Sports Alliance. You can find her on Twitter @jessabraun.

With the 2025 NCAA gymnastics season in full swing, top collegiate athletes are already eyeing mid-April's national championship in Fort Worth, Texas.

Unlike elite gymnastics, where difficulty can outweigh execution, the college level values precision over big tricks, so Division I athletes all aim for perfect 10s in their competition performances.

Despite this difference, many of the world's most decorated elite gymnasts also compete in the NCAA. Two-time Olympian Jade Carey is back for her senior season with No. 14 Oregon State while her US teammate in both Tokyo and Paris, Jordan Chiles, is entering her junior year at No. 11 UCLA.

The Bruin, who took the 2024 NCAA season off to prepare for last summer's Olympics, will attempt to reclaim the national titles on uneven bars and floor exercise that she earned in 2023.

Top teams poised for the podium

After earning their first national title last spring, No. 2 LSU is hitting the 2025 mat armed with a stacked roster, headlined by 2024 all-around champion Haleigh Bryant and social media star Livvy Dunne.

Add in last year's freshman phenom Konnor McClain, whose prowess on the balance beam ultimately clinched LSU the NCAA trophy, and 2024 Olympic alternate Kaliya Lincoln, who opened her NCAA career with a 9.825 vault two weeks ago, and the Tigers are more than capable of a back-to-back run.

LSU isn't the only SEC team predicted to make a deep run this season, as the conference is once again flush with perennial contenders.

Elite US stars Kayla DiCello and early Freshman of the Year frontrunner Skye Blakely will join two-time US Olympic alternate Leanne Wong in trying to return No. 7 Florida to the NCAA championship meet. At the same time, new SEC team No. 1 Oklahoma, winner of seven of the last 10 NCAA trophies, could see senior Jordan Bowers de-throne Bryant for the 2025 all-around title.

Also causing early national championship chatter are 2024 finalists No. 5 Cal, who return two of the country's best all-arounders in senior Mya Lauzon and junior eMjae Frazier, and Big Ten champs No. 6 Michigan State, whose veteran-heavy lineup boasts stars Skyla Schulte and Sage Kellerman.

How to watch NCAA gymnastics this weekend

Some of the country's top NCAA gymnasts will take the mat when No. 7 Florida visits No. 2 LSU at 7:30 PM ET on Friday. Live coverage will air on ESPN2.

The NCAA unanimously approved implementing a women's March Madness revenue-sharing plan on Wednesday, aligning the women's side with the compensation program the men’s edition has enjoyed since 1991.

"This is a historic day for women's sports, women's basketball, and the NCAA," said NCAA president Charlie Baker in the college sports governing body's statement. "Today's vote means our members have the opportunity to do even more on campus to promote and support female athletes. I can't wait to see all the incredible things they do."

Sparked by 2021's landmark NCAA gender equity review, the decision ultimately actualized after years of pressure from administrators and coaches.

"The long-awaited, hard fought for, and well-earned day is here," said UNC coach and Women's Basketball Coaches Association president Courtney Banghart. "I am so grateful for the effort of so many to bring this reality to our sport."

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Deep March Madness runs earn more revenue

Beginning this year, each team competing in the Division I tournament will now receive performance-based units of revenue, with deeper runs earning more units.

With plans to grow the prize pool to $25 million by 2028, this year's inaugural $15 million purse represents 26% of the competition's $65 million media rights valuation — putting it proportionally on par with the percentage allocated to the men's fund.

Distributions will begin in 2026 and, like the men’s program, they will be paid directly to conferences, whose member schools will collectively decide how to best invest the unrestricted funds.

For the 2025 edition, a unit will reportedly be worth $113,636. According to ESPN's calculations, a Final Four team could amass approximately $1.26 million for its conference over the next three years.

With conferences and schools set for an influx of funds should their teams flourish at the national tournament, the revenue plan becomes a significant incentive for institutions to further invest in women's basketball.

Ultimately, the NCAA's move not only addresses the sport's equity disparity, it could also bolster the annual tournament's level of competition.

Unrivaled basketball hits the court for the first time on Friday and, according to ESPN, the debut league's style of play will look a little different from the 3×3 Olympic game's rules.

Unlike the half-court version currently played in major international 3x3 basketball competitions, Unrivaled's full-court edition uses slightly smaller court dimensions from a traditional 5×5 setup.

Similarly, the inaugural league's format follows a four-quarter setup, but opts for seven-minute periods rather than the WNBA's 10-minute quarters. The shot clock will also be a speedier 18 seconds versus the professional 5×5 game's 24 seconds.

Unrivaled victories, however, rest solely in fourth-quarter play. This "winning score" quarter denotes that the win goes to the first team to score 11 more points than the highest final third-quarter score. For example, if a game's third quarter ends with a 45-43 scoreline, the first team to post the target score of 56 points in the final period walks away with the victory.

This system essentially eliminates the possibility of overtime. League organizers also hope it deters the late-game fouls used strategically and prolifically in 5×5 contests.

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Unrivaled 3×3 format revamps fouls

Speaking of fouls, Unrivaled is also condensing the free throw system to keep the game moving. Each player has six fouls to give, but each shooting foul will earn a single free throw at the line.

Those awarded free throws, however, will contain different point opportunities depending on the foul incurred. Fouled two-point shots grant a single free throw worth two points, while a free throw awarded from a three-point attempt will be worth three. All and-ones are worth one point.

With six players rostered on each of Unrivaled's six teams, the league also tweaked the traditional rule of fouling out to ensure games can be completed should they become especially chippy. If an athlete fouls out with only three available players left on their team, that player can continue competing. She will instead incur a technical foul — resulting in one opponent free throw — for each additional foul.

The new league's rules all point to Unrivaled's efforts to put an engaging, fast product on the court.

"This game is rooted in how you would play basketball as a kid on a black top," Unrivaled president of basketball operations Luke Cooper told ESPN's Kendra Andrews on Tuesday. "There's flow, there's pace. When you are watching, it feels like you are watching basketball... it's not a gimmick."

The WNBA free agency carousel started spinning this week, with teams evaluating rosters and coring athletes to either retain talent or trade players for a return.

Thus far, cored players include Las Vegas Aces guard Kelsey Plum, New York Liberty forward Breanna Stewart, Dallas Wings forward Satou Sabally, and Seattle Storm forward Gabby Williams.

Squads employ single-use coring on WNBA stars

Each of the WNBA's teams can core one unrestricted free agent on their roster, ensuring them exclusive rights to that cored athlete. Cored players receive an offer for a one-year, supermax salary contract, along with the option to negotiate different terms.

Cored athletes are unable to directly sign with another franchise, but they can be part of a trade offer by their coring team.

New York cored Stewart after she expressed interest in remaining with her 2024 WNBA Championship-winning squad. Sabally, on the other hand, will likely be part of a sign-and-trade deal after telling media late last week that she is looking to leave Dallas in 2025.

Plum's situation with the Aces is less clear-cut: The two-time WNBA champion could re-sign with her team, though Las Vegas could be exploring opportunities to cash in should she want to compete elsewhere.

Other offers spark WNBA free agent negotiations

In addition to coring, WNBA teams have also begun sending qualifying offers to certain restricted free agents, allowing them to initiate negotiations with those players.

Most notably, despite making Monday offers to three players — guard Dana Evans, forward Michaela Onyenwere, and forward Nikolina Milić — Chicago has yet to extend a qualifying offer to the Sky's 2024 points-leader Chennedy Carter.

Ultimately, while negotiations kick off next week, WNBA contracts cannot be finalized until free agency revs up in February, meaning more shuffling is on deck as teams gear up for the longest and most competitive roster-building season in recent memory.