Ducks back in Sweet 16
Sedona Prince scored 22 points, Nyara Sabally took over late and No. 6 seed Oregon beat No. 3 Georgia 57-50 on Wednesday at the women’s NCAA Tournament in San Antonio to advance to its fourth straight Sweet 16.
Sabally scored six straight points — including a putback of her own missed shot — to break open a tie game and give the Ducks a 54-48 lead with less than a minute to go. She finished with 15 points, including 10 in the second half, and nine rebounds.
Oregon (15-8) is in the tournament for the 16th time overall, but this Ducks team came in less heralded than those led by Sabrina Ionescu, who missed out on her final chance at a national title last year because of the pandemic.
Jenna Staiti had 18 points and nine rebounds for Georgia (21-7), which was looking to reach its first Sweet 16 since 2013.
After Sabally put the Ducks ahead to stay on a layup with 2:20 left, Georgia appeared to have tied the game with a jumper, but the officials said a foul was called before the shot. The foul call didn’t stop play because the referee lost her whistle in her mask.
Georgia opened the fourth quarter with an 8-2 run to get within 42-41 with about six minutes to go, and it was back and forth from there until Sabally came through for Oregon.
Poor long-range shooting hurt Georgia, which went 1 of 13 from 3-point range.
Terps offense torrid: Maryland and its offensive juggernaut are rolling fast and easy into the Sweet 16, getting 19 points from Angel Reese and overwhelming Alabama 100-64.
The second-seeded Terrapins (27-2) came into the tournament with the nation’s highest-scoring offense and have yet to take their foot off the gas. The Terps are averaging 99 points in their two tournament wins after scoring 91.3 per game in the regular season.
Maryland hit the 100-point mark for the seventh time this season. The Terps also played aggressive, suffocating defense against the seventh-seeded Crimson Tide.
Jasmine Walker led Alabama (17-10) with 23 points.
The Terps ran out to a 30-9 lead after the first quarter, shot 68% over the first half and scored in every possible way. Mimi Collins scored her team’s first nine points.
Layups: Elle Ruffridge had a career-high 20 points with five 3-pointers, Jasmine Franklin had a double-double and No. 5 seed Missouri State is going to its second consecutive Sweet 16 after knocking off No. 13 Wright State 64-39 in matchup of mid-major teams. The Lady Bears (23-2) pulled away in the second half when Ruffridge had 17 of her points. Franklin had 11 points and 11 rebounds. Ruffridge and Franklin are among nine current Lady Bears who were also part of the Sweet 16 team two years ago that lost to Stanford, the same team they will play in the Alamo Region semifinal Sunday . ... Aari McDonald had 17 points with 11 rebounds and Arizona outlasted BYU 52-46, advancing to the Sweet 16 for the first time since coach Adia Barnes was a player for the Wildcats in 1998. The third-seeded Wildcats (18-5) finally went ahead to stay on a 3-by Sam Thomas with 3:47 left, not long after McDonald’s 3 cut their deficit to one. No. 11 seed BYU (19-6) may have been the last team put in the 64-team field after a last-second loss to Gonzaga in the West Coast Conference Tournament championship game. The Cougars opened the NCAA tourney with a 69-66 upset of Rutgers . ... Hall of Fame coach Geno Auriemma joined No. 1 seed UConn in San Antonio after spending 10 days quarantining in Connecticut due to a positive COVID-19 test. Longtime associate head coach Chris Dailey guided the Huskies to first- and second-round wins.