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.”

Jenna Staiti had 18 points and nine rebounds for Georgia (21-7), which was looking to reach its first Sweet 16 since 2013.

Staiti was encouraged by the step forward the Lady Bulldogs took this season.

“This is the standard,” she said. “This group of seniors and this team put Georgia back where it needs to be.”

After Sabally put the Ducks ahead to stay on a layup with 2:20 left, Georgia appeared to have tied the game with a jumper, but the officials said a foul was called before the shot. The foul call didn’t stop play because the referee lost her whistle in her mask.

“Any time you take points off the board, does it change momentum? Sure it does,” Georgia coach Joni Taylor said. “It’s a tie ballgame at that time and then it turns into a fourpoint swing for them.”

Georgia opened the fourth quarter with an 8-2 run to get within 42-41 with about six minutes to go, and it was back and forth from there until Sabally came through for Oregon.

The Ducks relied on their starters, and only four players scored. Taylor Mikesell had 11 points and Erin Boley finished with nine.

Poor long-range shooting hurt Georgia, which went 1 of 13 from 3point range.

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.

The Wildcats (16-9) closed to 53-50 on Jordan Hamilton’s 3-pointer with 3:26 left. They had a chance to move closer, but Veronica Burton missed two free throws 30 seconds later.

Louisville didn’t miss from the line in the final two minutes as the Cardinals converted nine of 10 free throws to seal the game.

Northwestern blitzed Louisville right from the start, scoring the game’s first seven points and opening a 13-2 lead, leading to a timeout by the Cardinals. It didn’t get much better with the Wildcats going 4 for 4 from 3-point range on their way to a 25-10 lead after one quarter.

The Wildcats cooled off in the second quarter and didn’t score a point for the first 5:22 of the period. A fastbreak layup by Courtney Shaw ended the drought and sparked a 7-0 run for Northwestern — the only points the team would score in the period. Louisville closed to 32-20 at the half.

The loss potentially ended the brilliant career of Pulliam. She had a game to forget thanks to Louisville’s stellar defense. The senior guard was 1 for 11 from the field for just four points.

Hamilton scored 17 points for Northwestern.

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 fifth-seeded Missouri State is going to its second consecutive Sweet 16 in the Women’s NCAA Tournament after knocking off Wright State in matchup of mid-major 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.

Angel Baker and Shamarre Hale each had 10 points for the 13th-seeded Raiders (19-8), who got outscored 40-20 after halftime. They had gotten their first-ever Women’s NCAA Tournament victory in the opening round against Arkansas on Monday.

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 highestscoring 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.