Belmont first tourney qualifier
Baylor advances, Aggie women secure No. 1 seed and WAC title
EVANSVILLE, Ind. — Julie McCabe had 19 points and 10 rebounds as No. 22 Belmont became the first team to qualify for the NCAA Tournament, beating Tennessee-Martin 63-56 in overtime Saturday in the Ohio Valley Conference championship game.
Belmont (31-3) stayed alive in regulation with 3-pointers from Maura Muensterman with 14.6 seconds to go and Darby Maggard with 4.5 seconds left. The Bruins even got the final possession after forcing a five-second count on the inbound but didn’t get off a last shot.
Kylee Smith and Maggard each added 15 points to help the Bruins run their winning streak to a school-record 22 games. They’ve beaten OVC opponents 46 straight games.
No. 2 MISSISSIPPI STATE 70, No. 15 TEXAS 55:
In Nashville, Tenn., Victoria Vivians scored 22 points and Mississippi State remained in position to add a Southeastern Conference tournament title to its regular-season championship, beating Texas A&M in the semifinals.
The Bulldogs (32-0) reached the title game for a third straight year and extended the nation’s longest active winning streak to 32 games. They will play South Carolina today.
No. 3 BAYLOR 83, KANSAS STATE 54:
In Oklahoma City, Kalani Brown scored 26 points and Baylor beat Kansas State in the Big 12 quarterfinals. The Lady Bears (29-1) Baylor advanced to play TCU today.
Brown, a 6-foot-7 center who was named Big 12 Player of the Year this week, made nine of 12 shots and had 13 rebounds. Baylor shot 50.8 percent from the floor en route to its 26th straight victory.
Kayla Goth scored 24 points for Kansas State (16-15).
No. 4 LOUISVILLE 64, No. 23 N.C. STATE 59:
In Greensboro, N.C., Sam Fuehring scored 15 points and Louisville held off North Carolina State in the Atlantic Coast Conference semifinals. The topseeded Cardinals (31-2) will face No. 5 Notre Dame in the final.
No. 5 NOTRE DAME 90, No. 11 FLORIDA STATE 80:
In Greensboro, N.C., Marina Mabrey scored a season-high 27 points in Notre Dame’s comeback victory in the other ACC semifinal. The secondseeded Fighting Irish (29-2) rallied from eight down in the third quarter in their pursuit of a record-tying fifth straight tournament title.
No. 6 OREGON 65, No. 9 UCLA 62: In
Seattle, Sabrina Ionescu had 17 points and Oregon (29-4) scored the final 10 points to rally past UCLA (24-7) in the Pac-12 semifinals. Oregon (29-4) advanced to the title game against the winner of the late game between No. 16 Stanford and Arizona State.
Jordin Canada had 19 points for the Bruins (24-7).
No. 7 TEXAS 81, IOWA STATE 69:
In Oklahoma City, Ariel Atkins scored 25 points and Texas beat Iowa State in the Big 12 quarterfinals.
Atkins, an All-Big 12 pick, made 10 of 15 field goal tries and was 5-for-6 on 3-pointers. Jatarie White had 18 points and 12 rebounds to help the Longhorns (25-5) advanced to play West Virginia.
No. 8 SOUTH CAROLINA 71, No. 19 GEORGIA 49:
In Nashville, Tenn., A’ja Wilson had 21 points and 11 rebounds to help South Carolina rout Georgia and reach the Southeastern Conference tournament championship for the fourth straight year.
No. 13 OHIO STATE 90, MINNESOTA 88:
In Indianapolis, Kelsey Mitchell scored 30 points, and Stephanie Mavunga had 26 points, a Big Ten Conference Tournament record 21 rebounds and seven blocks as Ohio State used a late run to edge fourth-seeded Minnesota in a semifinal game.
Ohio State (26-6) faces second-seeded Maryland tonight.
No. 17 MARYLAND 66, NEBRASKA 53:
In Indianapolis, Brianna Fraser scored 18 points on 6-of-7 shooting and Eleanna Christinaki had 14 points and a careerhigh 16 rebounds to help Maryland.
No. 21 GREEN BAY 62, NORTHERN KENTUCKY 49:
In Detroit, Allie LeClaire scored 17 of her 21 points in the second half and Green Bay pulled away in the Horizon League quarterfinals.
NMSU 72, UT RIO GRANDE VALLEY 56:
in Las Cruces, Brooke Salas scored 24 points, Monique Mills added 20 and New Mexico State (17-11, 11-3) got help from Grand Canyon to secure its fourth consecutive regular-season Western Athletic Conference title. UTRGV fell to 14-15, 4-10.
The Aggies came into Saturday, the final day of the regular season, tied with CSU Bakersfield for the league lead. Then Grand Canyon defeated Bakersfield 77-76 in two overtimes to help NMSU win sole possession of the title and gain the No. 1 seed for this week’s league tournament.