Oregon State knocks off ND

Timea Gardiner scored 21 points, Raegan Beers added 18 points and 13 rebounds and Oregon State frustrated Notre Dame star Hannah Hidalgo to beat the Irish 70-65 on Friday and advance to their first regional final in eight years.

Donovyn Hunter added 11 points for the thirdseeded Beavers (27-7), who will face either overall top-seed South Carolina or Indiana on Sunday.

Sonia Citron scored 22 points and Maddy Westbeld added 19 for secondseeded Notre Dame, which finishes the season at 28-7. Hidalgo, who came in averaging 22.9 points, was held to just 10 points on 4 of 17 shooting, matching a season low in scoring.

She also missed about four minutes at the start of the second quarter after officials ordered her to remove a stud from her nose.

Oregon State led by a point at halftime, but opened the second half on and 11-2 run, capped by a layup from Gardiner that forced an Irish timeout.

The Irish came back, taking a 59-57 lead on a pull-up jumper from Anna DeWolfe with just over 4 minutes left in the game.

But a 3-pointer from Donovan put Oregon State back in front for good.

Hidalgo’s off-balance shot with a minute made it 65-63, before Gardiner found Beers underneath with 26 seconds left to stretch it to four.

Talia von Oelhoffen blocked a 3-point attempt from Westbeld and sank two foul shots on the other end.

Notre Dame has been using a six-player rotation since losing 6-foot-4 forward Kylee Watson, who tore an ACL in the semifinals of the ACC Tournament.

Oregon State capitalized on their height advantage early, throwing the ball into the paint. The 6-2 Beers and 6-3 Gardiner combined for 14 of the Beaver’s 17 first-quarter points and Oregon State led by three after 10 minutes.

The short-handed Irish also dealt with early foul trouble. DeWolfe picked up two in the first quarter and Westbeld had three by halftime.

Citron took over for the Irish, scoring nine second-quarter points, but Oregon led 32-31 at the break.

Clark says she heard about the Big3 offer on social media but focus is on Iowa: Caitlin Clark said she found out about the Big3’s offer to play for the 3-on-3 men’s basketball league over social media.

A social media account for Ice Cube, who founded the league of former NBA players, said the organization had made an offer to the NCAA’s Division I all-time leading scorer that reportedly is for $5 million. The Big3 season runs in the summer so it would conflict with the WNBA season where Clark is expected to play as the No. 1 pick of the Indiana Fever.

“I found about the Big3 thing at the exact time you all did, and my main focus is just on playing basketball,” Clark said Friday as she and her Iowa teammates prepared for a Sweet 16 game against Colorado on Saturday. “I think that’s the biggest thing.”

Iowa lost in the national championship game to the Tigers last year.

“My focus is on winning these two games, and that’s exactly how it should be,” Clark said.