Baylor blowout sets tourney record
WACO, Texas — By doing the things their coach had been emphasizing since a rare Big 12 Tournament loss, Baylor opened the NCAA women’s basketball tournament with an overwhelming record-setting performance.
It also helped that the Lady Bears, with three post players at least 6-foot-4, were much bigger than tourney first-timer Texas Southern.
Beatrice Mompremier had 22 points with 11 rebounds, Kalani Brown scored 21 points and freshman post Lauren Cox had 17 as the Lady Bears beat Texas Southern 11930 Saturday night in the most lopsided NCAA women’s tournament game ever.
“That work we’ve put in since the tournament championship game, I think you saw it today,” said Baylor coach Kim Mulkey, whose team lost in the Big 12 championship for the first time in seven years.
“You saw post players feeding each other better than they have all year. I think you saw production from people immediately when they came in the game. It’s just been an emphasis to continue to work on your defense.”
The Lady Bears (31-3), the Oklahoma City Regional’s No. 1 seed, went ahead 22-0 when Alexis Jones, on her first shot in her first game since Feb. 20, hit a 3-pointer just more than six minutes into the game.
The 89-point margin shattered the previous record 74-point win by Tennessee over North Carolina A&T (111-37) in 1994. Baylor’s 119 points were the third-most in tournament history and the most in regulation, surpassing the 116 first set by Ohio State in 1998 and twice matched by Connecticut, including earlier Saturday.
“Definitely, it’s an honor,” Brown said of the record-setting victory. “We all worked hard. It was a team effort. Everyone contributed.”
But this wasn’t even Baylor’s most lopsided victory of the season. The Lady Bears beat Winthrop 140-32 on Dec. 15.
All 12 Baylor players who got in Saturday’s game scored, six of them in double figures. Nina Davis added 13 points, while Kristy Wallace and Natalie Chou each had 12. All 12 players had a rebound, and only one of them didn’t have an assist.
“Without a doubt, I thought the group that started the game was as intense as they’ve probably been all year. Their intensity, their focus, was just so much better than the last game,” Mulkey said. “We did score a lot of points, but the thing I’m most proud of is how few points we gave up.”
Joyce Kennerson had 19 points for 16th-seeded Texas Southern (23-10), the Southwestern Athletic Conference champion.
› Oklahoma 75, Gonzaga 62: In Seattle, Vionise Pierre-Louis had 17 points, nine rebounds and nine blocked shots to lead Oklahoma City Regional No. 6 seed Oklahoma (23-9), which used its early hot shooting to hold off 11th-seeded Gonzaga (26-7).
Pierre-Louis controlled the interior throughout, making sure the Sooners’ torrid shooting from behind the 3-point line in the first quarter withstood all of Gonzaga’s charges. The Sooners led by 15 at one point but watched Gonzaga trim the deficit to five in the fourth quarter before holding on in the final minutes.
Oklahoma hit six 3-pointers and scored 29 points in the first quarter, a season high in points for the opening 10 minutes.
Laura Stockton led Gonzaga with 14 points, and Jill Barta added 13.
› UConn 116, Albany 55: In Storrs, Conn., Napheesa Collier and Kia Nurse each scored 24 points as overall No. 1 seed UConn (33-0) routed 16th-seeded Albany (21-12) in a Bridgeport Regional opener. It was the program’s 108th straight win and 25th straight in the NCAA tournament.
Gabby Williams added 20 points, and she and Collier each pulled down 10 rebounds for the Huskies, who are going for their fifth consecutive national title. They haven’t lost in the first round since 1993.
Imani Tate had 19 points and Jessica Fequiere scored 16 to lead Albany, which upset Florida in the opening round of last year’s tournament.
UConn opened each of the first three quarters with 9-0 runs, hit 62 percent of its shots and outscored Albany 52-18 in the paint.
› Syracuse 85, Iowa State 65: In Storrs, Conn., Brittney Sykes scored 28 points and Alexis Peterson added 25 to lead Bridgeport Regional No. 8 seed Syracuse (2210) past ninth-seeded Iowa State (18-13).
Freshman Gabby Cooper added a season-high 24 points, all from 3-point range, for the Orange, who will face top-seeded UConn on Monday in a rematch of last year’s national championship game.
Seanna Johnson hit seven of her 10 shots and had 21 points for Iowa State, which outscored Syracuse 57-52 over the final three quarters.
› Oregon 71, Temple 70: In Durham, N.C., Ruthy Hebard hit a jumper with 5.5 seconds remaining to lift Bridgeport Regional No. 10 seed Oregon (21-13) past seventh-seeded Temple (24-8).
Hebard finished with 23 points and Sabrina Ionescu added 16 to help the Ducks win a wild game that had three lead changes in the final 30 seconds. Alliya Butts scored 28 points and Feyonda Fitzgerald added 16 for the Owls.
Fitzgerald put Temple up 70-69 with a jumper with 14.3 seconds remaining, but Oregon called a timeout and worked the ball in to Hebard, who hit the go-ahead jumper from the edge of the lane. Fitzgerald then raced coast-to-coast, but Hebard got a piece of her lastgasp layup attempt at the buzzer.
› UCLA 83, Boise State 56: In Los Angeles, Monique Billings scored 19 points and Jordin Canada had 15 with 16 assists to help Bridgeport Regional No. 4 seed UCLA (248) roll past 13th-seeded Boise State (25-8).
Kennedy Burke and Nicole Kornet each added 14 points for the Bruins, who opened the game with a 15-0 run and were never seriously threatened the rest of the way.
Riley Lupfer and Brooke Pahukoa each scored 13 points for Boise State, which had won 10 straight games.
› Stanford 72, New Mexico State 64: In Manhattan, Kan., Alanna Smith had 19 points and 11 rebounds, and Karlie Samuelson hit five 3-pointers and finished with 17 points as Lexington Regional No. 2 seed Stanford (29-5) survived a spirited upset bid to beat No. 15 seed New Mexico State (24-7).
Playing nearly 1,800 miles from home due to a scheduling conflict at Maples Pavilion, the Cardinal looked lost most of the afternoon and trailed the Aggies by nine early.
Smith finally gave them their first lead midway through the third quarter, and Brittany McPhee gave Stanford the lead for good when she began pouring in baskets midway through the fourth. The Cardinal avoided becoming the first No. 2 seed to lose in the opening round.
› Kansas State 67, Drake 54: In Manhattan, Kan., Breanna Lewis had 23 points and 11 rebounds, and Kindred Wesemann added 16 points as Lexington Regional No. 7 seed Kansas State (23-10) never trailed No. 10 seed Drake (28-5), which nonetheless never made things easy.
Lizzy Wendell scored 17 for Drake, which carried the nation’s second-longest winning streak, at 22 games, into the tournament. Becca Hittner added 13 points and Sammie Bachrodt had 10.
› Quinnipiac 68, Marquette 65: In Coral Gables, Fla., Jennifer Fay scored 20 points as Stockton Regional No. 12 seed Quinnipiac (28-6) held on in a frantic final minute to upset fifth-seeded Marquette (25-8), the Big East tournament champion that had won eight straight games.
Paula Strautmane scored seven of her 15 points in the fourth quarter for the Bobcats, who opened on an 18-4 run and were up 52-33 midway through the third quarter before Marquette roared back and got within two. But Strautmane made a pair of free throws with 17.6 seconds left to give Quinnipiac a 67-63 lead, added another with 2.8 seconds left and the Bobcats — who never trailed — escaped when Natisha Hiedeman’s 3-pointer rimmed out as time expired.
Erika Davenport scored a gamehigh 21 points for Marquette (258), Allazia Blockton scored 14 and Heideman finished with 13.
› Miami 62, Florida Gulf Coast 60: In Coral Gables, Fla., Keyona Hayes scored 16 points, including the go-ahead basket inside with 1.5 seconds remaining, and Stockton Regional No. 4 seed Miami (24-8) rallied to beat 13th-seeded Florida Gulf Coast (26-9).
Hayes added 10 rebounds and Emese Hoff had 14 points for the Hurricanes, who wasted a 13-point lead and found themselves trailing twice in the final two minutes before rallying.
Taylor Gradinjan’s 3-pointer for the Eagles with 8.6 seconds left tied the game at 60. Miami advanced the ball out of a timeout, and the ball went to Hayes — who bulled her way in and scored on a post-up play.
Florida Gulf Coast set up a play and threw an inbounds pass toward the basket, but Miami’s Keyanna Harris knocked the ball away as time expired. The Eagles argued there was contact, but no foul was called and Miami advanced.