UConn rolls to 13th straight Elite Eight
Napheesa Collier had 16 points and 11 rebounds to help top-seed UConn beat Duke 72-59 on Saturday and advance to the Elite Eight for the 13th consecutive season.
UConn (35-0) will face defending national champion South Carolina on Monday night in trying to reach an 11th straight Final Four.
The Huskies scored the first seven points of the game beginning with a banked-in 3-pointer from Kia Nurse and they were off and running.
Duke had only given up an average of 49 points in its first two games of the tournament. UConn had that by the end of the third quarter, much to the delight of the partisan crowd of 10,658 that took in the Albany Regional.
Fifth-seed Duke (24-9) was only down seven early in the second quarter when the Blue Devils went cold from the field, going scoreless over the next 5½ minutes. UConn extended its advantage to 30-16.
The Blue Devils cut their deficit to 12, but UConn scored the final eight points of the half, including a pullup by Gabby Williams just before the halftime buzzer to give UConn a 40-20 lead.
Duke closed its gap to 44-31 midway through the third quarter, but didn’t score for the rest of the period and UConn rebuilt the 20-point advantage.
The game also featured Huskies center Azura Stevens going against her former team. She transferred to UConn after her sophomore season. Stevens had eight points and 12 rebounds.
Katie Lou Samuelson and Williams each had 15 points for the Huskies.
Duke was led by sophomore Leaonna Odom, who has been dominant in the tournament, averaging 20.5 points and 6.5 rebounds while shooting 60 percent from the field in wins over Belmont and Georgia. She had 22 on Saturday.
(2) South Carolina 79, (11) Buffalo 63
ALBANY, N.Y. » Alexis Jennings scored 20 points, A’ja Wilson added 20 points and 13 rebounds, and South Carolina beat Buffalo to keep alive its quest to defend its title.
Second-seeded South Carolina (29-6), whose only losses this year have come against ranked teams, will face the winner of the other Sweet 16 matchup in the Albany Region between top-seeded and unbeaten UConn and Duke, who played later Saturday.
Upstart Buffalo (29-6), just the third Mid-American Conference school to reach the Sweet 16, was among the final four teams to earn an at-large berth. It was the program’s second tournament appearance after a first-round exit two years ago.
The Gamecocks, who have won six straight, defeated North Carolina A&T and Virginia by double digits in the first two rounds, holding both to under 60 points as they stayed on track to make a third Final Four in four seasons. But those performances had flaws — 19 turnovers in one — that coach Dawn Staley focused on correcting. They didn’t on Saturday — South Carolina had 26 turnovers — but in the end it didn’t matter.
Cierra Dillard led Buffalo with 29 points, the only player in double figures. SPOKANE REGION
(1) Notre Dame 90, (4) Texas A&M 84
SPOKANE, WASH. » Arike Ogunbowale scored 27 points and Marina Mabrey added 25, hitting a careerhigh seven 3-pointers, to help top-seed Notre Dame beat Texas A&M in the Spokane Regional semifinals.
The Fighting Irish (32-3) rallied from a 13-point firsthalf deficit and are back in their familiar spot of playing for a trip to the Final Four.
It took a fantastic shooting performance from Mabrey and some key contributions late from Ogunbowale and Jackie Young for Notre Dame to hold off Chennedy Carter and the Aggies. Young had three key baskets in the final five minutes and finished with 15 points. Mabrey was 7 of 11 on 3-pointers and the Irish made 10 of 18 shots from behind the arc. She had all of her points in the first three quarters.
Notre Dame led 79-70 with 5 minutes left after Young scored, but had to hold on after Kennedy and Anriel Howard hit a trio of 3-pointers. Texas A&M was within 85-82 with 1:40 left, but Notre Dame’s Kathryn Westbeld hit a 15-footer with 1:15 remaining to push the lead back to five.
Carter, the dynamic freshman for the Aggies, finished with 31 points and seven assists. Howard added a career-high 26 points and 14 rebounds, but the Aggies (26-10) have advanced to the Elite Eight just once since winning the title in 2011.
(2) Oregon 83, (11) C. Michigan 69
SPOKANE, WASH. » Ruthy Hebard had 23 points and 14 rebounds, Sabrina Ionescu just missed another triple-double with 16 points, 10 assists and nine rebounds, and secondseeded Oregon beat No. 11 seed Central Michigan in the Spokane Region semifinal of the women’s NCAA Tournament.
Lexi Bando added 14 points for Oregon (33-4), which earned a second consecutive trip to the Elite Eight with its 12th win in a row.
The Ducks will play topseeded Notre Dame in the regional final on Monday.
Tinara Moore had 23 points and 14 rebounds for Central Michigan (305), which won its first two NCAA Tournament games in program history this year. Presley Hudson added 15 points on 6-of-21 shooting.
The Chippewas were doomed by poor shooting, making just 36 percent of their shots to 49 percent for Oregon.
Oregon led 24-12 after a first quarter in which the Ducks shot 55 percent while holding Central Michigan to 29 percent.