Gonzaga on track toward sixth straight title
UConn women pummel Cincinnati
LAS VEGAS — Killian Tillie scored 26 points on 10-of-11 shooting, including connecting on all five 3-pointers, to lead No. 7 Gonzaga past San Francisco 88-60 on Monday night in the West Coast Conference Tournament semifinal game.
Tillie has made all 10 3-point attempts at the tournament and is 19-of-23 from the field.
Top-seeded Gonzaga will be going for their sixth consecutive WCC Tournament title on Tuesday night. They await the winner of the Saint Mary’s-BYU game.
Also for the top-seeded Bulldogs (29-4), Rui Hachimura had 17 points and Zach Norvell Jr. added 14. Johnathan Williams had 10 points and 10 rebounds for Gonzaga, which won its 13th straight, and 16th at the WCC Tournament.
Nate Renfro led the fourthseeded Dons (18-15) with 15 points. Frankie Ferrari and Souley Boum each added nine points for San Francisco, which lost its 14 straight to Gonzaga.
The Bulldogs played a nearly flawless first half, shooting 18-of28 (64 percent), including 8-of-14 (57 percent) from 3-point range.
Women
No. 3 BAYLOR 77, No. 7 TEXAS
69: In Oklahoma City, Kalani Brown scored 20 points to help Baylor beat Texas in the Big 12 championship game.
Brown, a 6-foot-7 center, was named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player after averaging 24.7 points in three games.
Freshman point guard Alexis Morris scored 19 points for Baylor. She stepped in as a starter after senior point guard Kristy Wallace, an all-conference selection, tore her right ACL in the regular-season finale. Lauren Cox had 13 points and 12 rebounds and Dekeiya Cohen added eight points and 12 rebounds for the Lady Bears (311), who won their 28th straight game.
Baylor had won six straight tournament titles before losing
last year’s championship game to West Virginia. No. 1 UCONN 75, CINCINNATI 21: In Uncasville, Conn., Azura Stevens scored 21 points and pulled down 13 rebounds to lead UConn to a rout of Cincinnati in the semifinals of the American Athletic Conference Tournament.
Napheesa Collier added 13 points for the Huskies (31-0), who have now won 100 games against AAC opponents without a loss since the league began play in 2013.
UConn led from the start and used a 38-0 run that stretched from the first quarter into the third to put the game away.
Andeija Puckett had five points for Cincinnati, which fell to 19-12.
The Huskies played without All-American forward Gabby Williams, who tweaked a longstanding hip injury in the Huskies’ quarterfinal win over Tulane.
In Uncasville, Conn., Kitija Laksa scored 20 points and Laura Ferreira added 17 to lead South Florida to a win over rival UCF in the semifinals of the American Athletic Conference Tournament.
Maria Jespersen chipped in with 12 for the Bulls (26-6), who advanced to the conference final for the fourth straight season. Their three previous trips have ended in losses to UConn, who faced Cincinnati in the other semifinal.
Zakiya Saunders had 20 points to lead UCF (21-10).
South Florida, which put five players in double figures, led by three points at the half and began the second half with three 3-pointers, one from Jespersen and a pair from Laksa, to open up a 42-30 lead. No. 22 GREEN BAY 66,
YOUNGSTOWN STATE 45: In Detroit, Jessica Lindstrom scored 17 points and set a program Division I record with 1,000 career rebounds and Green Bay reached the Horizon League championship game for the eighth-straight season with a victory over Youngstown State.
Youngstown State led by two points at the break but Karly Murphy scored six straight points to cap a second-half opening 8-0 run for Green Bay. After YSU scored its first basket of the second half at the 3:31 mark, Lindstrom opened and closed a 13-2 run with 3-pointers to make it 47-33 entering the fourth quarter. A 7-0 run to start the final frame made it a 21-point lead.
Allie Leclaire added 16 points, Jen Wellnitz, the league’s defensive player of the year, chipped in a season-high 14 points for topseeded Green Bay (28-3).