Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Louisville routs Oregon St.; Mississippi St. defeats UCLA
LEXINGTON, Ky. — Louisville players proudly strutted around the court in championship T-shirts and hats, some adorned with a little piece of the net.
Cardinals coach Jeff Walz brushed off confetti dumped on him during an interview to climb the ladder and clip the rest of the nylon, happily twirling it to celebrate his top-seeded team’s dominant run through the NCAA Tournament Lexington regional.
“It’s a great feeling,” Walz said. “I’m going to go home, and my 4 and my 2 (daughters), all they’re going to talk about is the confetti on the floor. That’s all they care about. To them, if we win, there’s confetti on the floor that I get to play on.”
Louisville’s next quest is collecting another net and more confetti in next weekend’s women’s Final Four in Columbus, Ohio.
Asia Durr scored 18 points, Myisha Hines-Allen added 16 and Louisville earned its first Final Four berth since 2013 with a 76-43 rout of No. 6 seed Oregon State on Sunday in the Lexington Region final.
Playing its first regional final in four years and for the first time in school history as an NCAA No. 1 seed, the Cardinals (36-2) thoroughly ran the table while playing close to home. They never trailed in rolling to their 11th consecutive victory.
They outscored the Beavers 28-12 in the third quarter to break the game open and complete their fourgame run through the regional by an average margin of victory of 27.5 points. Louisville controlled the paint 32-18 and scored 24 points off 17 turnovers against an Oregon State squad that succeeded with precise passing.
“If we were able to get stops and go in transition, we were going to be confident,” Hines-Allen said. “Our shots were falling in the second half, and it all came down to defense. If we wanted to win, we had to stop them.”
Even more impressive for Louisville: the Cardinals committed just three turnovers to tie an NCAA Tournament record. This, despite playing a frenetic pace for much of the game. It worked in getting good shots that fell for the final three quarters.
“That was huge,” said Durr, who made 4 of 9 3-pointers and 7 of 14 overall. “We love to sprint the ball up the floor, pass the ball up the floor, so that’s pretty much what we try to do.”
Mississippi St. 89, UCLA 73:
Teaira McCowan had 23 points and 21 rebounds, Victoria Vivans added 24 points and topseeded Mississippi State beat relentless UCLA in Kansas City to reach its second straight Final Four.
Morgan William added 17 points, and Roshunda Johnson had 12 for the Bulldogs (36-1), who blew a good chunk of an 18-point second-half lead before hanging on to extend their school record for wins in a season — and lock up a trip to the national semifinals in Columbus, Ohio.
They'll meet another No. 1 seed in Louisville on Friday night.
Jordin Canada led the third-seeded Bruins (27-8) with 23 points, eight rebounds and five assists. Japreece Dean finished with 16 points, and Monique Billings and Kennedy Burke had 12 apiece, most of it coming when the Bruins were trying to rally from a 50-32 hole.
They closed within 74-68 on Dean's 3-pointer with 2:53 left, but they couldn't get a stop on the defensive end. Instead, they traded basket-for-basket down the stretch, and Mississippi State managed to clinch the win from the foul line in the final minute.