Texas advances to Sweet 16

Big 12 player of the year Brooke McCarty scored 23 points and No. 3-seed Texas rallied from an eight-point deficit to win 84-80 over No. 6 N.C. State, earning the Longhorns a trip to their third straight Sweet 16.

Brooke McCarty scored 23 points and No. 3-seed Texas got a putback basket from Joyner Holmes with 4 seconds left to the send the Longhorns to the Sweet 16 for the third year in a row with an 84-80 win Sunday over No. 6 North Carolina State in Austin, Texas.

Lashann Higgs had given Texas a two-point lead when she made one free throw with 8 seconds left but missed the second. Holmes grabbed the rebound, missed her first shot, grabbed the rebound then made the second to seal the win. Holmes finished with 16 points and nine rebounds.

Texas (25-8) had to overcome a 31-point effort by Wolfpack senior guard Miah Spencer, who fouled out with 1:03 to play when she tangled with McCarty, the Big 12 player of the year, away from the ball.

Dominique Wilson added 27 points for the No. 6 Wolfpack but a go-ahead basket with 8 seconds left was waived off with an offensive foul when she charged Higgs.

North Carolina State (239) missed going to its first Sweet 16 since 2007.

Mississippi State 92, DePaul 71: Blair Schaefer scored 18 points and Jazzmun Holmes added 14 for the Bulldogs (31-4), who opened a big lead on the Blue Demons in Starkville, Miss., by scoring 14 unanswered points in the third quarter.

Second-seeded Mississippi State furthered its advantage by scoring the first eight points of the fourth quarter to put the game out of reach.

No. 7 DePaul (27-8) was led by Jessica January, who scored 18 points. Brooke Schulte added 16.

Mississippi State advances to the Sweet 16 in Oklahoma City. It is the school’s second straight trip to that round of the tournament.

Maryland 83, West Virginia 56: Destiny Slocum nailed a 70-foot shot to cap a pivotal second quarter in which the third-seeded Terrapins (32-3) outscored the No. 6 Mountaineers 26-8 in College Park, Md.

Maryland carried the momentum into the third quarter, using a 12-1 spurt to build the margin to 23 points. Not long after that, the Big Ten champions celebrated a victory that thrust them into the Sweet 16 for the fifth time in six years.

“On a scale of 1 to 100, today was 100,” Maryland coach Brenda Frese said.

Teana Muldrow led West Virginia (24-11) with 16 points. Leading scorer Tynice Martin was held to 10 points.

Brionna Jones had 22 points and 11 rebounds, Slocum scored 21 and Shatori Walker-Kimbrough added 19 for third-seeded Maryland (32-3), which will next face the winner of today’s game between No. 2 seed Duke and Oregon.

Ohio State 82, Kentucky 68: Tori McCoy scored six straight points midway through the fourth quarter to help the Buckeyes withstand Kentucky’s furious rally from a 19-point second-half deficit in Lexington.

“Coming down the stretch and scoring those six points was a huge thing for me,” the freshman forward said after making all six shots for 14 points along with a teamhigh 12 rebounds.

Shayla Cooper scored eight of Ohio State’s final nine points and the Buckeyes (28-6) held on from there to earn their second straight Sweet 16 appearance in the Lexington Regional. Kentucky finished 22-11.

OSU junior reserve guard Linnae Harper had perhaps the most complete line facing her former team for the first time: 12 points, 10 rebounds and a team-high 8 assists in 27 minutes. Then again, she knew the place well from two years with the Wildcats.