UConn routs St. John’s in quarterfinal
No. 1 UConn 77, St. John’s 41: Freshman Paige Bueckers scored 17 points host UConn (22-1) opened its postseason with a rout of St. John’s (8-15) in the Big East quarterfinals on Saturday.
Christyn Williams added 14 points for the Huskies. Olivia Nelson-Ododa collected each of her 11 points and 10 rebounds in the first half.
The biggest trouble for UConn occurred in the third quarter, when freshman guard Nika Muhl (five points, four rebounds) twisted her left ankle while making a pass. She had to be helped to the locker room and came back to the bench a few minutes later on crutches.
UConn put the game away early. The Huskies’ first four baskets were layups, and they were ahead 18-6 after 10 minutes.
No. 16 Georgia 74, No. 2 Texas A&M 68: Mikayla Coombs scored a seasonhigh 14 points, including the go-ahead basket in the fourth quarter, and Georgia (20-5) reached its first SEC tournament final in 17 years with a victory over Texas A&M (23-2) in Greensville, S.C.
Maya Caldwell had 17 points, and Jenna Staiti had 13 points, 12 rebounds and six blocks to deny the SEC regularseason champion Aggies a sweep of league titles.
Coombs, the UConn transfer who sat out last season, scored six points in the final quarter to ignite the Bulldogs.
No. 3 North Carolina State 66, Georgia Tech 61: Elissa Cunane had 23 points and nine rebounds, and North Carolina State (19-2) stormed back from a 10-point fourth-quarter deficit to beat Georgia Tech (15-8) and advance to the ACC tournament championship game in Greensboro, N.C.
Kayla Jones added 12 points and eight rebounds for the Wolfpack, which will look to repeat as ACC champions when they meet No. 5 Louisville on Sunday.
No. 5 Louisville 72, Syracuse 59: Dana Evans scored 13 points, Olivia Cochran added 10 points and 10 rebounds and Louisville (23-2) advanced to the ACC tournament championship game with a win over Syracuse (14-8) in Greensboro, N.C.
Louisville, the tournament’s top seed, got 11 points from Kianna Smith on 5-of-7 shooting and 10 points off the bench from Norika Konno in the win. The Cardinals were 16 of 17 from the free
throw line.
No. 6 Baylor 93, Kansas 67: Nalyssa Smith had 21 points and 12 rebounds, Dijonai Carrington added 20 points and Baylor (21-2, 16-1 Big 12) beat host Kansas (7-17, 3-15).
The Lady Bears have already clinched their 11th straight regular-season title – the fifth-longest streak in NCAA women’s Division I history. Baylor has won 13 straight games, and 14 in a row against the Jayhawks, dating to 2014.
No. 7 South Carolina 67, No. 17 Tennessee 52: Zia Cooke scored 17 points, Aliyah Boston had 15 points and 11 rebounds and South Carolina (21-4) beat Tennessee (16-7) to reach the Southeastern Conference Tournament title
game for the sixth time in seven years.
The defending champion Gamecocks will seek their sixth tournament crown since 2015 on Sunday against No. 16 Georgia,
No. 8 Maryland 88, Penn State 61: Chloe Bibby had 15 points and nine rebounds, and host Maryland (21-2, 17-1) clinched the Big Ten regular-season championship with a victory over Penn State (9-14, 6-13) .
The Terrapins have won the title in six of their seven years in the conference. Maryland was outright champions in 2015, 2016 and 2019, with shared titles in 2017 and 2020.
No. 10 Indiana 74, Purdue 59: Mackenzie Jones scored 11 of her 26 points in the fourth quarter as host Indiana (18-4) pulled away from pesky in-state rival Purdue (7-15) for a Big Ten win that made program history.
The Hoosiers set a school record for most conference wins in a season with their ninth consecutive victory. Their previous mark of 15 Big Ten wins was set in 1982-83.
No. 12 Michigan 63, Northwestern 58: Naz Hillmon scored 19 points and grabbed 13 rebounds, Akienreh Johnson added 19 points and nine boards, and host Michigan (14-4, 9-4 Big Ten) beat Northwestern (13-7, 11-7) to snap a twogame losing streak.
Northwestern got within 55-51 with six minutes left but didn’t score again until the 2:04 mark on a 3-pointer by Jordan Hamilton with the shot clock winding down to make it 60-54.
Omaha 52, No. 21 South Dakota State 40: Josie Filer scored 19 points and grabbed 12 rebounds, and Omaha (6-12) became the first No. 8 seed to defeat the top seed in the Summit League women’s tournament, shutting down South Dakota State (21-3) in Sioux Falls, S.D.
To get their first-ever win over a ranked team, the Mavericks limited SDSU to 22.4% shooting and forced 20 turnovers, ending the Jackrabbits’ 18game winning streak.
No. 23 Missouri State 85, Evansville 4: Brice Calip scored 14 points and Missouri State (20-2, 16-0 Missouri Valley) routed Evansville (6-16, 2-15) to finish undefeated in the Missouri Valley Conference regular season.
The Bears have won 16 straight games and completed their first unbeaten conference season in school history. It’s also their longest winning streak since an 18-game stretch in 2003-04.
Villanova 78, No. 25 DePaul 72 (OT): Madison Siegrist scored 10 of her 30 points in overtime to lead Villanova (15-5) to a win over DePaul (14-8) in Uncasville, Conn., and into the Big East tournament semifinals for the first time since 2015.
Fifth-seeded Villanova now has the daunting task of taking on top-ranked Connecticut in a Sunday matchup.
Belmont 83, UT Martin 75: Freshman Destinee Wells scored a careerhigh 32 points and Belmont (20-5) earned the first bid to the NCAA Tournament with a win over Tennessee Martin (20-5) in the Ohio Valley Conference tournament championship game in Evansville, Ind.
Grand Canyon lost its chance at capturing its first Western Athletic Conference regular-season championship outright Friday night by making too many turnovers, getting beat on the boards and losing its outside shooting touch.
Utah Valley seized the moment with a 59-55 victory over the Antelopes before 900 Havocs at GCU Arena.
The best GCU (14-6, 8-3) can do is tie for the WAC title by beating Utah Valley (11-9, 9-3) on Saturday night.
“We need to be able to get to the free throw line more than three times,” coach Bryce Drew said. “Two of them were for flagrant fouls. We have to get to the line (Saturday) to win.” GCU shot just 39% from the field. It also got beat on the boards, an area it has prided itself on all season.
Utah Valley had 45 rebounds to the Antelopes’ 32. Fardaws Aimaq, the nation’s leading rebounder with 15.4 a game, grabbed 15 boards for Utah Valley. The Wolverines had 15 offensive rebounds.
Sophomore point guard Jovan Blacksher Jr., had nine assists and no turnovers. But the Antelopes made 11 of their 13 turnovers in the first half, showing tightness and uncertainty on the offense end on a night when four seniors — Asbjorn Midtgaard, Alessandro Lever, Mikey Dixon and Oscar Frayer — were honored.
Midtgaard, who came into the game with five consecutive double-doubles, was held to just eight points and six rebounds. The Wolverines put a body on him and when he got the ball inside, he got double-teamed.
“When he is open, you have to make that pass at the right time at the right place,” Drew said. “We struggled with that tonight. We’ve showed we could do it in Seattle.”
LAS VEGAS – Kyle Larson was out of NASCAR long enough to wonder if he’d still feel comfortable in a Cup car. He raced in nearly 100 events last year, just not in 3,400-pound stock cars.
Would it feel the same as he remembered?
Had his familiarity with the interior faded?
His instincts slipped? Larson, who won 42 of 83 openwheel races during his NASCAR suspension for using a racial slur, has fallen right back into the old routine.
“I thought there would be cobwebs and rust. But maybe because I raced so much last year in sprint cars and open wheel cars … I felt as fresh as ever,” Larson said. “When I got in the car and put my head-and-neck restraint on and buckled up, everything just felt normal. It didn’t feel like I had been out of the car a long time.
“Even shifting gears and coming down pit road and stopping on my pit sign and stuff like that, like it’s all come natural so far.”
Larson, fired by Chip Ganassi Racing after using a racial slur during an iRacing event in April, was hired by Hendrick Motorsports when his ban was lifted at the end of last season. His official return was last month at Daytona International Speedway, where he opened his second chance in NASCAR with a 10th-place finish in the Daytona 500.
He was running in the top three with seven laps remaining a week later on the Daytona road course when Larson, in a moment of admitted over-aggressiveness, spun his Chevrolet and fell to a 30th-place finish. Last week at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Larson led five laps and finished fourth, marking backto-back weeks he believed he had a shot to win.
Next up is Sunday’s race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
It’s the fourth race of the season and falls one day short of his fourth and final Cup race a year ago.
The season was paused for the pandemic, Larson was suspended during the shutdown and missed the final 32 races of the year.
Despite his layoff and the move to a new organization, he’s already fitting in well at Hendrick Motorsports. The team got its first win of the season last week from William Byron, a playoff driver who typically hovers around the cutoff mark but is now automatically qualified.
Alex Bowman had one of the fastest cars at the Daytona 500, and reigning series champion Chase Elliott could have won both the Daytona 500 and the road course race a week later.
Chad Knaus, vice president of competition, believes Hendrick drivers could have swept the first three races of the season and Larson could get a victory soon.
Coming off the suspension, Larson has made a strong off-track impression on Hendrick, too.
He has been a welcome addition to the driver debriefs, which no longer include seven-time champion Jimmie Johnson downloading information for the first time in nearly two decades.
“I’ve been really impressed with Kyle. Having him here, he’s been very open, very forthcoming with information from what he’s feeling,” Knaus said. “He’s an open book. He’s been great and we could not be more pleased with his performance.”
He’s also noticed a patience in Larson, particularly at Homestead last week when Larson could have been too aggressive with his preferred style of riding up against the wall.
“Everybody also had the thought of Kyle, fast but he crashes. Or fast but he hits the wall, fast but does a lot of those things,” Knaus said. “Homestead would have been a great opportunity to compromise the car and he didn’t do it. He ran top-five all day long, didn’t think he had more than that and didn’t want to push it.
“That’s a high level of maturity that I did not know he had.”