Evans has 29 to push Louisville to victory
Dana Evans scored 29 points and No. 2 seed Louisville advanced to the Elite Eight of the women’s NCAA Tournament with a 60-42 win over sixth-seeded Oregon on Sunday night.
The Cardinals will face top seed Stanford on Tuesday night in the Alamo Region final in San Antonio, Texas.
Louisville (26-3) continued its stellar defensive play, holding Oregon (15-9) to 14 points in the first half.
Evans provided the offense. After going scoreless in the first quarter, the AllAmerica guard started to heat up. Oregon had freshman Maddie Scherr guarding her in the opening period before she hurt her ankle and had to come out of the game. Evans responded by scoring 13 points in the second and ended the period with a nifty drive and dish right before the buzzer to give Louisville a 29-14 advantage at the break.
Oregon rallied in the second half, cutting its deficit to 10 after three quarters. The Ducks were down 41-33 with 50 seconds left in the third after two free throws by Nyara Sabally. But she went down with a left ankle injury 20 seconds later when she stepped on a teammate’s foot. Sabally had to be helped off the court. She didn’t return and finished with 14 points.
Evans capped her night with a fast-break layup off a spectacular behind-the- back pass from Mykasa Robinson, who stole the ball with a minute left. Oregon was trying to get to its fourth straight Elite Eight and second consecutive Final Four.
Evans also struggled late in the season and hadn’t played well in the first two games of the tournament. She hadn’t scored more than 15 points in any of the five ACC or NCAA Tournament games before Sunday.
Hemisfair Region SOUTH CAROLINA 76, GEORGIA TECH 65 >>
Zia Cooke and her South Carolina teammates were hot from the outside and rode that solid shooting to reach the Elite Eight.
Cooke scored 17 points, hitting five of six 3-point attempts, to lead top-seed South Carolina to a win over fifth-seeded Georgia Tech.
“Our offense carried us today with our ability to hit layups and stretch the floor and hit some 3s,” Gamecocks coach Dawn Staley said. “Hope it continues to get better. You got some great programs here that can put a lot of points on the scoreboard.”
It’s the third time in the past four women’s NCAA Tournaments that the Gamecocks (25-4) have at least reached the regional finals. South Carolina won the national championship in 2017.
Lotta-Maj Lahtinen scored 20 points to lead Georgia Tech (17-9).
WNIT championship
RICE 71, MISSISSIPPI 58 >> Nancy Mulkey had 19 points, 12 rebounds and seven blocks, Lauren Schwartz also scored 19 points and added five assists, and Rice beat Mississippi 71-58 on Sunday in the championship game of the WNIT in Memphis, Tenn.
Rice (23-4), which won the 2017 WBI, won its first WNIT title.
Mulkey, the back-to-backto-back Conference USA defensive player of the year, made 9 of 11 from the field. Jasmine Smith added 11 points, nine rebounds and four steals for the Owls.
Donetta Johnson made a layup that gave Ole Miss (15-12) its first lead with 6:12 left in the first quarter but Schwartz answered with a layup on the other end just 18 seconds later and Rice led the rest of the way.
Shakira Austin, the only Rebels player to score in double figures, finished with 25 points.