NCAA BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT

WOMEN’S ROUNDUP Notre Dame 90, Texas A&M 84

Marina Mabrey scored 25 points, hitting a career-high seven 3-pointers, and Arike Ogunbowale also had 25 points to help top-seed Notre Dame Texas A&M 90-84 on Saturday in the Spokane Regional semifinals. The Fighting Irish (32-3) rallied from a 13-point first-half deficit and are back in their familiar spot of playing for a trip to the Final Four. It took a fantastic shooting performance from Mabrey and some key contributions late from Ogunbowale and Jackie Young for Notre Dame to hold off Chennedy Carter and the Aggies. Young had three key baskets in the final five minutes and scored eight of her 17 points in the fourth quarter. Mabrey was 7 of 11 on 3-pointers and the Irish made 10 of 18 shots from behind the arc. She had all 25 of her points in the first three quarters. Notre Dame led 79-70 with 5 minutes left after Young scored, but had to hold on after Kennedy and Anriel Howard hit a trio of 3-pointers. Texas A&M was within 85-82 with 1:40 left, but Notre Dame’s Kathryn Westbeld hit a 15-footer with 1:15 remaining to push the lead back to five. Carter, the dynamic freshman for the Aggies, finished with 31 points and seven assists. Howard added a career-high 26 points and 14 rebounds, but the Aggies (26-10) have advanced to the Elite Eight just once since winning the title in 2011.

Oregon 83, Central Michigan 69

Ruthy Hebard had 23 points and 14 rebounds, Sabrina Ionescu just missed another triple-double with 16 points, 10 assists and nine rebounds, and second-seeded Oregon beat No. 11 seed Central Michigan in the Spokane Region semifinal. Lexi Bando added 14 points for Oregon (33-4), which earned a second consecutive trip to the Elite Eight with its 12th win in a row. The Ducks will play top-seeded Notre Dame in the regional final on Monday. Tinara Moore had 23 points and 14 rebounds for Central Michigan (30-5), which won its first two NCAA Tournament games in program history this year. Presley Hudson added 15 points on 6-of-21 shooting. The Chippewas were doomed by poor shooting, making just 36 percent of their shots to 49 percent for Oregon. Oregon led 24-12 after a first quarter in which the Ducks shot 55 percent while holding Central Michigan to 29 percent.

Late Friday Louisville 86, Stanford 59

Asia Durr had 24 points, Myisha Hines-Allen added 17 and top-seeded Louisville rolled past No. 4 seed Stanford in the Lexington Region semifinal. Arica Carter had 13 points and Jazmine Jones 10 for the Cardinals (35-2), who trailed for just 53 seconds to win their 10th consecutive game and advance to their first regional final since 2014. Louisville thrived offensively, shooting 52 percent and building a lead that reached 27 points with 1:24 remaining to finish their third consecutive NCAA Tournament rout. Hines made 8 of 15 baskets and surpassed 2,000 career points. The senior forward also grabbed five rebounds. Brittany McPhee had 15 points and Dijonai Carrington 14 for Stanford, which hoped to upset a tournament top seed for the third straight March in Lexington after knocking out Notre Dame the previous two years. The Cardinal’s bench outscored Louisville 23-13, but Stanford committed 19 turnovers.

UCLA 84, Texas 75

Jordin Canada scored 22 points, putting second-seeded UCLA on her back in the fourth quarter, and the Bruins beat Texas in the Kansas City Reginal to avenge a Sweet 16 loss to the Longhorns two years ago. Monique Billings added 17 points and Kennedy Burke had 15 for the Bruins (27-7). They finally made it to the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament after falling a game short the past two seasons. They’ll face top-seeded Mississippi State on tonight for their first Final Four trip. Ariel Atkins had 20 points and Jatarie White had 17 for the No. 3 seed Longhorns (28-7), who kept falling into deep holes, slowly digging their way out and then letting UCLA pull away once more. Texas made one last charge when it got back-toback 3-pointers from Atkins and Alecia Sutton to close within 76-72 with less than 2 minutes left. But Burke answered with a layup for UCLA, and Canada’s jumper with just under a minute to go helped put the game away.