Texas-arlington women take Sun Belt title
PENSACOLA, Fla. — Starr Jacobs scored 28 points for the third straight game and No. 2 seed UT Arlington beat and top-seeded Troy 76-61 on Monday to clinch its first Sun Belt Conference tournament championship.
UT Arlington (20-7), which joined the Sun Belt in 2014-15, won its first league tournament since being a member of the Southland Conference in 2007. It will be UTA’S third NCAA Tournament appearance before returning to the Western Athletic Conference later this summer.
Jacobs, the Sun Belt player of the year and tournament MVP, was 10 of 21 from the field and 8 of 11 at the stripe against defending champion Troy for her league-leading 15th 20-point game of the season. She also grabbed 11 rebounds.
Felmas Koranga had 13 points and 11 rebounds, and Tina Stephens added 10 points, 14 rebounds and five steals for Troy (24-8). Tiyah Johnson scored 11 points.
WEST COAST SEMIFINALS
Shaylee Gonzales scored 20 points, Paisley Harding added 14 and No. 15 BYU beat fourthseeded Portland 59-52 on Monday at Las Vegas.
Top-seeded BYU (26-2) avenged its only conference loss this season, falling 75-64 at Portland on Feb. 3, to earn a chance
at its first WCC tournament championship since 2019 on Tuesday night.
Maria Albiero capped BYU’S 10-0 run with a 3-pointer from the corner for a 52-46 lead. The Cougars turned it over on their next possession and Lucy Cochrane sank a jumper at the free-throw line to get Portland within 52-50.
Harding made two free throws at 46.7 to rebuild BYU’S twopossession lead and after Maisie Burnham went 1 of 2 at the stripe, Gonzales added two more free throws at 29.1.
Tegan Graham had 11 points, 11 rebounds and six assists, and Lauren Gustin grabbed 10 rebounds for BYU. Gonzales, the WCC player of the year, was 8 of
17 from the field, including 0 for 5 from distance.
Burnham scored 12 of her 17 points in the first half and Alex Fowler had 13 points, 11 rebounds and six assists for Portland (1910). Cochrane had 12 points and eight blocks.
HORIZON SEMIFINALS
Cleveland State defeated Green Bay 69-42 at Indianapolis to advance to the tournament final against top-seeded IUPUI.
Isabelle Gradwell and Nadia Dumas scored 12 points apiece and Gabriella Smith added 11 for the No. 4 seed Vikings.
Macee Williams had 27 points and 15 rebounds as IUPUI (234,18-2 Horizon) routed Oakland 63 (15-15,11-9) 86-63.
SUMMIT SEMIFINALS
Top seed South Dakota State is back in the tournament championship game for the 11th time in school history after dispatching Oral Roberts 72-53 at Sioux Falls, S.D.
The Jackrabbits led by as many as 29 and will face South Dakota in the championship game.
No. 2 South Dakota advanced via an 81-67 victory over Missouri-kansas City.
BIG SKY QUARTERFINALS
Allie Downing scored 14 points and Kurstyn Harden had 13 points and 13 rebounds as Northern Colorado cruised past Eastern Washington 64-45 at Boise, Idaho.
SOUTH CAROLINA, GONZAGA RETAIN TOP SPOTS IN POLLS
South Carolina women remained No. 1 in the Associated Press women’s basketball poll Monday despite suffering its second loss of the season.
The Gamecocks (29-2) fell to Kentucky in the Southeastern Conference Tournament title game Sunday, but stayed atop the poll, edging No. 2 Stanford.
North Carolina State, Baylor and Louisville completed the top five. Uconn was sixth, with Texas, Iowa, LSU and Iowa State rounding out the top 10.
While Gonzaga, Arizona and reigning national champion Baylor remained atop Monday’s men’s poll, Rick Barnes’ Tennessee
squad tied Purdue for No. 9 to crack the top 10 for the first time this season. That came after the Volunteers (23-7, 14-4 SEC) closed the regular-season schedule by beating No. 15 Arkansas. No. 18 Houston fell four spots after losing to Memphis in its regular-season finale.
OKLAHOMA STATE, LITTELL AGREE TO PART WAYS
Oklahoma State will mutually part ways with women’s basketball coach Jim Littell at the end of this season, the school announced Monday.
Littell enters Thursday’s Big 12 Tournament game against Texas Tech with a 203-139 record at Oklahoma State.
He was Big 12 Coach of the Year in 2016 and 2021, and has led the Cowgirls to six NCAA Tournament appearances, highlighted by a Sweet 16 berth in 2014.
The Cowgirls are 8-19 and lost their last five games.
WAKE FOREST SIGNS FORBES TO LONG-TERM EXTENSION
Wake Forest says second-year coach Steve Forbes has signed a “long-term” contract extension as he leads a rapid rise for the long-struggling Demon Deacons program.
The school announced the deal Monday, the same day the Atlantic Coast Conference picked Forbes as coach of the year.
The private university didn’t release terms of the extension.