Iowa handles Holy Cross
Caitlin Clark struggled to make shots early, but finished with 27 points and 10 assists as Iowa defeated Holy Cross, 91-65, in a women’s NCAA Tournament first-round game Saturday in Iowa City, Iowa.
Kate Martin also had a double-double with 15 points and 14 rebounds for the Hawkeyes (30-4), the top seed in the Albany 2 Regional. Iowa advanced to Monday’s second round to face eighth-seeded West Virginia, a 63-53 winner over No. 9 seed Princeton.
Bronagh Power-Cassidy had 19 points for Holy Cross (21-13) and
Janelle Allen had 18, but the Crusaders missed their first 10 shots of the fourth quarter and shot just 32.4 percent from the field.
Holy Cross made 12 3-pointers in Thursday’s 72-45 First Four win over UT-Martin, but were just 7 of 34 on 3pointers in this game, with only three in the second half.
Clark, a unanimous Associated Press All-American, was just 8 of 19 from the field, 3 of 9 on 3-pointers.
Auriemma’s gift: a win
All-American Paige Bueckers and her teammates had a special gift for UConn coach Geno Auriemma on his 70th birthday — a 30th consecutive first-round win in the NCAA Tournament.
Bueckers scored 28 points with 11 rebounds and 7 assists, freshman Ashlynn Shade added 26 points, and the No. 3-seeded Huskies beat Jackson State, 86-64, in Storrs, Conn.
“Happy birthday, Grandpa,” Bueckers said at the postgame news conference, as her coach flicked water from his drinking cup in her direction.
Aaliyah Edwards, wearing a mask after missing two games with a broken nose, had 20 points and 10 rebounds for the Huskies (30-5), who took control of the game early and led by as many as 28 points.
Kansas survives in OT
Zakiyah Franklin scored 22 points, including a tying 3-pointer that bounced on the rim and dropped with 12 seconds left in regulation, and Kansas beat Michigan, 81-72, in overtime in Los Angeles. The eighth-seeded Jayhawks (20-12) advanced to a secondround game against No. 1 seed Southern California. Wyvette Mayberry and
S’Mya Nichols added 15 points each and Taiyanna Jackson had 14 points and eight rebounds.
Oklahoma squeaks by
Skylar Vann scored 24 points and fifth-seeded Oklahoma held off No. 12 seed Florida Gulf Coast, 73-70, in Bloomington, Ill. Oklahoma (23-9) will face No. 4 seed Indiana (25-5) in the second round Monday night.
Payton Verhulst gave the Sooners a 72-70 lead on a turnaround jumper in the paint with 48 seconds left. After a Eagles’ turnover, Vann hit one of two free throws with 15 seconds left to push the Sooners’ lead to 73-70.
Dolly Cairns’s 3-pointer was blocked by Vann with three seconds left. Uju Ezeudu missed a 3-pointer at the buzzer.
NCAA pulls official at half
The NCAA changed one of the officials at the half of N.C. State’s 64-45 win over Chattagnooga in Raleigh, N.C., because of a background conflict.
Tommi Paris was removed from the first-round game and replaced by Angelica Suffren, who had worked the first contest at the site.
“It was learned after the game had started that Umpire 2 Tommi Paris had a background conflict that, if known, would prevent her from working that assigned game,” the NCAA said in a statement.
An online profile for Paris says that she received a master’s degree from Chattanooga. The NCAA asks all officials to disclose school affiliations to avoid potential conflicts. In this case, it wasn’t disclosed.
Referee hurt in USC win
JuJu Watkins scored 23 points in her NCAA Tournament debut, leading topseeded Southern California to an 87-55 blowout of Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in Los Angeles.
During the game, referee Michael Price was injured and forced to leave the court early in the second quarter after falling. He got up and clutched at the back of his upper left thigh. He walked around the court in obvious pain and a USC trainer checked on him during a timeout. He was replaced by standby Demoya Pugh.
Mulkey peeved by Post
LSU coach Kim Mulkey lashed out at and threatened legal action against the Washington Post, saying the paper has spent two years pursuing a “hit piece” about her and that it gave her a deadline to answer questions this past week while the defending national champion Tigers were preparing for the NCAA Tournament.
“The lengths he has gone to try to put a hit piece together,” Mulkey said of award-winning Post reporter Kent Babb, whom she did not mention by name. “After two years of trying to get me to sit with him for an interview, he contacts LSU on Tuesday as we were getting ready for the first-round game of this tournament with more than a dozen questions, demanding a response by Thursday, right before we’re scheduled to tip off. Are you kidding me?
“This was a ridiculous deadline that LSU and I could not possibly meet, and the reporter knew it. It was just an attempt to prevent me from commenting and an attempt to distract us from this tournament. It ain’t going to work.”
Babb, a 14-year veteran of the Post, confirmed to the Associated Press that he is working on a profile of Mulkey, but declined further comment.