Ole Miss muddles Marquette’s rally
SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Madison Scott scored 20 points and No. 7-seed Mississippi used a late run to beat 10th-seeded Marquette 67-55 on Saturday in the first round of the women’s NCAA Tournament.
Ole Miss (24-8) takes on the host No. 2 Seed Fighting Irish (27-6) on Monday.
Kennedy Todd-Williams added 15 points and seven rebounds for the Rebels. Tyia Singleton had 12 points and Kharyssa Richardson scored 10.
Liza Karlen led Marquette (23-9) with 19 points while grabbing 14 rebounds. Rose Nkumu scored 18 points, and Mackenzie Hare had 10 points.
Ole Miss reeled off a 12-2 run after Marquette closed to 55-50 and had a chance to narrow the deficit even more.
“That is dictate and disrupt,” Ole Miss Coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin said of her team taking control. “That is what it should look like. That is where we’re most comfortable, when we hunker down and we get an incredible competitive swagger about ourselves and we decide you’re not scoring. When we’re like that, we’re pretty tough to beat.”
Ole Miss forged an eightpoint lead at 55-47 on a driving lay-up by Scott with 7:22 left in the game. She played a critical role offensively and defensively in the decisive Ole Miss run.
“Just doing whatever my team needs me to do, scoring, rebounding, just leading,” Scott said of igniting the Rebels’ late charge. “Anything for us to be successful, I’m going to do that.”
Marquette’s Hare made a three-pointer off a fastbreak to make it 55-50, and an Ole Miss turnover put the ball right back in Marquette’s hands.
That’s when the Ole Miss sudden-strike defense kicked in as the Rebels unleashed their defensive intensity. Singleton stole the ball and drove in for an Ole Miss basket, and seconds later, a Todd-Williams steal led to her scoring on a putback, and the 12-2 run was on to move Ole Miss into the second round.
Ole Miss and Marquette waged a tight battle in an intense first half. The Rebels held a 36-33 halftime lead thanks to a 22-17 edge in the second quarter.
The first half featured six lead changes and two ties.
NOTRE DAME 81, KENT STATE 67
SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Sonia Citron scored 29 points and Hannah Hidalgo added 14 points and 11 assists to help No. 2-seed Notre Dame beat 15th-seeded Kent State.
Citron was 13 of 20 from the floor while Hidalgo added six steals for the Irish (27-6).
Katie Shumate led Kent State (21-11) with 20 points while Janae Tyler scored 18.
A relentless defensive effort in the first quarter set a dominating tone for Notre Dame. The Fighting Irish used an 18-0 run on the way to building a 22-5 lead, harassing Kent State into a stretch of 0-for-13 shooting.
INDIANA 89, FAIRFIELD 56
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Sara Scalia scored 27 points to lead fourth-seeded Indiana to a victory over No. 13 Fairfield.
Scalia sank five of the Hoosiers’ 10 three-pointers. Yarden Garzon, Chloe Moore-McNeil and Mackenzie Holmes each scored 13 points for the Hoosiers.
The Hoosiers (25-5) will face No. 5 seed Oklahoma on Monday night.
Fairfield (31-2) saw its 29-game winning streak come to an end. Janelle Brown led the Stags, who earned the first Top 25 ranking in school history earlier this month, with 19 points.
OKLAHOMA 73, FLORIDA GULF COAST 70
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Skylar Vann scored 24 points and fifth-seeded Oklahoma held off No. 12 seed Florida Gulf Coast.
Payton Verhulst gave the Sooners (239) a 72-70 lead on a turnaround jumper in the paint with 48 seconds left. After a Eagles’ turnover, Vann hit one of two free throws with 15 seconds left to push the Sooners’ lead to 73-70.
Dolly Cairns three-point shot was blocked by Vann with 3 seconds left. The Eagles got the rebound with a second left. Uju Ezeudu missed a three-pointer at the buzzer that would have tied it.