Westbeld leads Irish to rout of Mississippi
Maddy Westbeld scored a game high 20 points as No. 2 seed Notre Dame defeated No. 7 seed Ole Miss 71-56 to punch its ticket to the Sweet 16 in Women’s NCAA Tournament Albany Region 1 play in South Bend, Ind. It’s the third consecutive season that Notre Dame (28-6) has made the Sweet 16 under fourthyear coach Niele Ivey.
The Fighting Irish never trailed and dominated from the start, taking a 21-9 lead after the first period on the way to a 43-26 halftime advantage. Notre Dame will meet No. 3 Oregon State in a regional semifinal later this week in Albany, N.Y.
Sonia Citron added 17 points and game highs of 10 rebounds and six assists, and Hannah Hidalgo contributed 19 points, four rebounds, four assists and four steals.
Kennedy Todd-Williams and Madison Scott each scored 15 for Ole Miss (24-9).
Ole Miss outrebounded Notre Dame 33-27 and got 12 points off the bench, compared to two for the Irish. But Notre Dame shot 50 percent from the field, including 4 of 9 from 3point range, while the Bulldogs hit just 22 of their 57 shot attempts (38.6 percent).
UConn 72, Syracuse 64
Pagie Bueckers scored 32 points and grabbed 11 rebounds, Ashlynn Shade shot 5of-9 from 3-point range en route to 19 points and No. 3 seed Connecticut clinched its 30th consecutive Sweet 16 with a home defeat of No. 6 seed Syracuse in the Women’s NCAA Tournament Portland 3 Region in Storrs, Conn.
UConn (31-5) led by as many as 11 points in the fourth quarter and held a 10-point advantage on Shade’s jumper with 3:16 remaining in regulation. But back-to-back 3-pointers by Dyaisha Fair and Sophie Burrows and an Alyssa Latham basket over a torrid 64 seconds pulled Syracuse to within two points.
Both Burrows’ 3-pointer and Latham’s jumturnovers. per came after Syracuse steals, part of the 20 points Syracuse (24-8) scored off 17 UConn Bueckers ended the drought to push the
Huskies’ lead to four points, and after a steal by Shade, freshman KK Arnold rolled in a 3-pointer with 29 seconds remaining that effectively put the game away.
Arnold made both of her attempts from beyond the arc on the night on the way to 10 points. The win-sealing 3-pointer came off the last of Bueckers’ six assists.
Bueckers also made a game-high four steals. Aaliyah Edwards posted 11 points and 11 rebounds in the win.
Fair led Syracuse with 20 points, dished six assists and made three steals. Burrows and Georgia Woolley each netted 18 points.
UConn advances to face No. 7 Duke, which beat No. 2 seed Ohio State on Sunday.
N.C. State 79, Tennessee 72
Aziaha James poured in 22 points as thirdseeded N.C. State outlasted sixth-seeded Tennessee in a Women’s NCAA Tournament Portland 4 second-round game in Raleigh, N.C. Saniya Rivers added 20 points for N.C. State while Zoe Brooks hit for 16 and River Baldwin scored 11.
The Wolfpack (29-6) advanced to the Sweet 16 and will face second-seeded Stanford on Friday in Portland, Ore.
N.C. State was up by 18 points at halftime and by 10 after three quarters before the Lady Volunteers rallied to within 65-63 on a layup by Tamari Key with 4:16 remaining. James made a jumper and then a 3-pointer, the latter with 2:48 left, to stoke the Wolfpack’s advantage back to seven points.
Tennessee (20-13) pared the deficit to four points after Jewel Spear’s 3-pointer with 46 seconds, but the Wolfpack responded with a pair of free throws from James and had enough to hang on.
Rickea Jackson racked up a season-high 33 points and took 10 rebounds for Tennessee in the loss. Jasmine Powell added 13 points and Key had 11 for the Lady Vols.