Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Notre Dame prevails in 1-2 showdown
NO. 1 NOTRE DAME 82, NO. 2 LOUISVILLE 68
SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Arike Ogunbowale scored 30 points and No. 1 Notre Dame overcame 18 turnovers to beat No. 2 Louisville 82-68 on Thursday night.
Brianna Turner added 16 points and Jackie Young had 14 for the Irish (15-1, 3-0 Atlantic Coast Conference). They regained the top spot in The Associated Press poll this week and won their eighth consecutive since an 89-71 loss to Connecticut.
Asia Durr had 29 points for Louisville (14-1, 2-1), and Bionca Dunham added 10. The Cardinals cut a 10-point deficit to 2 twice in the fourth quarter, the last at 68-66 with 1:48 remaining, but Turner’s basket and Ogunbowale’s three-pointer propelled the Irish to a 14-2 finish.
Durr scored 19 points in the first half, including 12 consecutive for her team in a 3:47 span between the first and second quarter en route to a 35-33 halftime lead.
Notre Dame’s biggest lead of the half was four points, 15-11, when Turner converted a pass from Ogunbowale at 3:12 of the first quarter. Durr scored Louisville’s next 8 points to make it 19-16 before the Irish took a 20-19 lead on two free throws each by Ogunbowale and Young.
An 8-1 run by Louisville to start the second quarter gave the Cardinals a 27-21 lead and forced Coach Muffet McGraw to call a timeout. At that point, Louisville had forced eight turnovers while not committing one.
Louisville’s lead reached seven twice in the second quarter, the last time at 3528 on Dunham’s layup with 2:38 to play. Notre Dame, which hit just 2 field goals in 14 attempts (14 percent) in the quarter, closed on a 5-0 run, all from the free-throw line as Louisville forced 11 turnovers.
Ogunbowale nailed a three-pointer just before the buzzer to give the Irish a 5747 lead going into the final quarter. Louisville made just 2 of 11 shots in the quarter and had 4 turnovers to 2 by Notre Dame.
NO. 8 NORTH CAROLINA STATE 63, PITTSBURGH 34
RALEIGH, N.C. — Kiara Leslie had 16 points and 8 rebounds, and No. 8 North Carolina State beat Pittsburgh to improve to 16-0.
Leslie led the Wolfpack (3-0 Atlantic Coast Conference) in scoring, assists (five) and steals (three). The senior guard scored 14 points in the first half while N.C. State built a 35-16 halftime lead.
DD Rogers added 10 points and eight rebounds for the Wolfpack. Kauai Bradley led Pitt (9-2, 0-2) with eight points.
NO. 16 KENTUCKY 73, NO. 13 TENNESSEE 71
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Maci Morris scored 27 points before fouling out as No. 16 Kentucky withstood an injury to Taylor Murray and hung on for a victory over No. 13 Tennessee.
The Lady Volunteers (12-3, 1-2 SEC) have lost consecutive home games for the first time since December 1996.
Evina Westbrook scored 20, Rennia Davis had 12 and Mimi Collins added 11 for Tennessee. Ogechi Anyagaligbo scored 13 and Roper had 10 for Kentucky (15-2, 2-1).
NO. 21 SOUTH CAROLINA 71, FLORIDA 40
COLUMBIA, S.C. — Bianca Cuevas-Moore hit 4 three-pointers, two as South Carolina opened the game with a 19-0 run, and scored 16 points to lead the No. 21 Gamecocks over Florida in their seventh consecutive victory.
The Gamecocks (11-4, 3-0 SEC), missed their first 2 shots and then hit 8 consecutive, while the Gators (4-12, 0-3) missed their first 7 and 10 of their first 11.
Alexis Jennings had 13 points and 8 rebounds for South Carolina, and Kiara Smith led Florida with 13 points.
OHIO STATE 55, NO. 25 INDIANA 50
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Carmen Grande scored 19 points, including 4 free throws in the last 20 seconds, and Ohio State outscored No. 25 Indiana 25-14 in the fourth quarter to pull off an upset.
The Buckeyes (5-8, 1-3 Big Ten) took a 51-45 lead when Janai Crooms completed a three-point play with 1:26 to play to cap a 7-0 run. The Hoosiers (14-2, 3-1) responded with five consecutive, closing within 51-50 on Brenna Wise’s three-point play with 33.5 seconds left.
Jaelynn Penn led Indiana with 12 points.
SUN BELT WOMEN ARKANSAS STATE 77, SOUTH ALABAMA 64
Peyton Martin’s 25 points paced Arkansas State University (8-6, 3-0 Sun Belt) in its victory over South Alabama (12-2, 1-2) at Mitchell Center in Mobile, Ala.
Martin was 9 of 16 from the field and 7 of 11 at the free-throw line and was the only ASU player in double figures. She also added a game-high 10 rebounds. Jada Ford added 9 points for the Red Wolves on the strength of 3 three-pointers.
ASU led 41-30 at halftime and increased the lead to 63-45 at the end of the third quarter.
The Red Wolves outscored the Jaguars 30-9 in bench points and 22-14 in fast-break points.
TROY 71, UALR 66
The University of Arkansas at Little Rock (6-8, 2-1 Sun Belt) couldn’t make a 53-48 lead at the end of the third quarter hold up at Trojan Arena in Troy, Ala.
Trailing 34-33 at halftime, UALR outscored Troy (12-2, 3-0) 21-14 in the third to take its five-point lead into the final quarter. UALR increased the lead to 58-52 on Kyra Collier’s basket with 7:01 remaining, but Troy managed to tie the score at 59-59 just a minute later.
Troy managed to push a lead to 6762 with 2:07 remaining before UALR’s Kyra Collier reeled off four points in a row to trim the deficit to a single point with 1:48 remaining. They were the final points of the game for UALR.
UALR had four players score in double figures with Ronjanae DeGray leading the way with 15. Collier had 14, while Terrion Moore and Lasker chipped in 13 and 12 respectively.