Oregon knocks off Georgia to reach Sweet 16
SAN ANTONIO — Sedona Prince scored 22 points, Nyara Sabally took over late and sixth-seeded Oregon beat No. 3 Georgia 57-50 on Wednesday in the Women’s NCAA Tournament 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.
“Ny and I talked before the fourth quarter and we were like: ‘We’re going to go to the Sweet 16,’ ” Prince said.
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.
“Everybody knows what we had and the opportunity and capability of doing in this tournament last year and it was taken away from us … and the expectations weighed heavily on them,” coach Kelly Graves said. “And then when you start losing a few games and people start to question your program and then your own players sometimes maybe question themselves, (this) is great redemption.”
Louisville 62, Northwestern 53: AT SAN ANTONIO — Kianna Smith scored 16 points and No. 2 seed Louisville advanced to the Sweet 16 by rallying from an early 18-point deficit to beat seventh-seeded Northwestern.
The Cardinals (25-3) got off to another rough start, trailing 25-7 late in the first quarter. Louisville slowly started to chip away on offense and played stellar defense. The deficit was 40-28 midway through the third quarter before the Cardinals scored 17 straight points.
The game was tied at 40-40 heading into the fourth, and Louisville increased its first lead to 45-40 before Lindsay Pulliam — Northwestern’s third-ever 2,000-point scorer — got her only basket of the game.
Missouri State 64, Wright State 39: AT SAN ANTONIO — Elle Ruffridge had a career-high 20 points with five 3-pointers, Jasmine Franklin had a double-double and fifthseeded Missouri State is going to its second consecutive Sweet 16 in the Women’s NCAA Tournament after knocking off Wright State in matchup of midmajor 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.
Maryland 100, Alabama 64: AT SAN ANTONIO — Maryland and its offensive juggernaut are rolling fast and easy into the Sweet 16, getting 19 points from Angel Reese and overwhelming Alabama.
The second-seeded Terrapins (27-2) came into the Women’s NCAA 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.
Indiana 70, Belmont 48:
AT SAN ANTONIO — Grace Berger scored 17 points and Indiana used another suffocating defensive effort to beat Belmont, sending the fourth-seeded Hoosiers to the program’s first Sweet 16 in the Women’s NCAA Tournament.
Belmont was the first Ohio Valley Conference team to win a tournament game since 1990, but its chances of becoming the fifth No. 12 seed to advance to the regional semifinals were smothered by the Hoosiers’ defense and the Bruins’ own dismal 3-point shooting through the first three quarters.
— Tania Z.