Great Danes escape Gators’ grasp in win
SYRACUSE, N.Y.— Imani Tate and the Albany Great Danes weren’t going to have senior Shereesha Richards’ record-setting career end while she sat on the bench.
And not even an official’s scoring error that provided the Florida Gators an extra point was going to stop them.
Tate scored 28 points and Tiana-Jo Carter’s putback with eight seconds left helped seal No. 12 seed Albany’s 61-59 upset of the fifth- seeded Gators in the first round of the NCAA women’s basketball tournament Friday afternoon.
In a game that featured numerous twists, the final score wasn’t officially announced until about three hours after the game ended. The NCAA acknowledged a scorer counted a missed free throw as a point but ruled that the incorrect score will stand because it was not fixed during the game.
Though the score will stand as 61-59, the official box score will reflect the Gators ( 22-9) having scored just 58 points.
What can’t be taken away is the Great Danes ( 28- 4) earning their first tournament win in their fifth appearance, which sends them into a secondround matchup Sunday against Syracuse in the Sioux Falls Region. Albany overcame a 17- point deficit and played most of the game without top scorer Richards, who was in foul trouble.
She finished with 14 points in just 22 minutes, fouling out with 6:18 remaining.
“Rees has done so much for us every game that she plays. We just knew that we had to finally do something for her,” guard Erin Coughlin said. “We had to give her another game in a (Great Danes) uniform.”
A l ba ny ove rcame a 17- point second- quarter deficit and trailed by 11 with 7: 49 remaining. The Great Danes responded by outscoring Florida 15-2 down the stretch as the Gators unraveled. Florida was outscored 19-7 over the final quarter.
Eleanna Christinaki led Florida with 11 points. Ronnie Williams had 10 points and seven rebounds.
“We weren’t us in the second half,” Gators coach Amanda Butler said. “In these biggest moments, you’ve got to be yourselves. We didn’t do a good job.”
Syracuse 73, Army 56 SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Alexis Peterson scored 24 points to help fourth- seeded Syracuse coast to a first-round win, and Briana Day added 11 points and 12 rebounds for the host Orange (26-7), who matched a program record for victories.
The 13th- seeded Black Knights ( 29- 3) had won 19 games in a row. Senior guard Kelsey Minato, the program’s all-time leading scorer, finished with 10 points.
Ohio State 88, Buffalo 69 COLUMBUS, Ohio — Kelsey Mitchell scored 27 points to help No. 3 seed Ohio State rout 14th-seeded Buffalo in a Sioux Falls Region firstround game.
Buffalo ( 20-14), which got an automatic tournament bid by winning the Mid-American Conference tournament, struggled against the larger, sturdier Buckeyes (25-7), who face West Virginia in the second round Sunday.
Buffalo rushed out to a five- point lead but soon was swamped — Ohio State led 48-23 at halftime and held a 34- point lead during the second half.
West Virginia 75, Princeton 65 COLUMBUS, Ohio — Bria Holmes scored 26 points as No. 6 seed West Virginia overcame a sluggish start to advance in the opening round.
Princeton, which got the Ivy League’s first ever at-large bid in the tournament and was a No. 11 seed, couldn’t stay with the bigger, stronger Mountaineers (25-9) in the final period as they found their shooting touch and began to push around the scrappy Tigers (236) in the paint.
Anja Martin added 16 points and eight rebounds for the Mountaineers ( 25- 9). Annie Tarakchian paced Princeton ( 23- 6) with 20 points and 10 rebounds.