No. 2 Iowa holds off pesky Mercer 66-61
IOWA» Megan IOWA CITY,
Gustafson scored 30 points with 16 rebounds and second-seeded Iowa narrowly avoided a monumental upset, holding off No. 15 Mercer 66-61 on Friday for its first NCAA Tournament win in four years.
No 15 seed has ever won an NCAA Tournament game going 0-101 now.
Makenzie Meyer added 16 for the Hawkeyes (27-6), who survived the opening round at home despite committing 24 turnovers.
Hannah Stewart hit three consecutive baskets after Iowa got down by two with 4:19 to go, putting the Hawkeyes ahead 64-61. Stewart missed a jumper with 21 seconds left, but the ball knocked off a Mercer player.
Iowa’s Tania Davis then missed two free throws, but the Hawkeyes were bailed out of the ensuing scrum by the possession arrow.
Kathleen Doyle finally sealed it for Iowa with two free throws with 8.9 second to go.
No. 4 South Carolina 74, No. 13 Belmont 52. CHARLOTTE,
N.C.» Te’a Cooper scored 13 points, Alexis Jennings added 12 points and nine rebounds, and South Carolina shook off a sluggish start to pull away from seed Belmont. No. 5 Florida State 70, No. 12 Bucknell 67. N.C.»
CHARLOTTE, Kiah Gillespie had 17 points and 11 rebounds, and Florida State held on to beat Bucknell.
Nicki Ekhomu, Nausia Woolfork and Valencia Myers each had 15 points for the Seminoles (24-8), who advanced to play fourth-seeded South Carolina on Sunday. No. 1 Louisville 69, No. 16 Robert Morris 34. KY.»
LOUISVILLE, Asia Durr and Sam Fuehring each had 19 points, and Louisville scored 27 straight points in the first half to overwhelm Robert Morris.The absences of suspended coach Jeff Walz and injured point guard Arica Carter didn’t affect the Cardinals (30-3).
No. 2 UCONN 110, No. 15 Towson 61. STORRS, CONN.» Napheesa Collier scored 23 points and UConn, got off to its usual NCAA Tournament start with a rout of Towson. No. 8 Michigan 84, No. 9 Kansas State 54. KY.»
LOUISVILLE, Naz Hillmon scored 17 points off the bench, Nicole Munger and Kayla Robbins each added 13 and Michigan shot a season-high 56 percent to run away from Kansas State.
No. 10 Buffalo 82, No. 7 Rutgers
71. STORRS, CONN.» Summer Hemphill scored 23 points and Cierra Dillard added 20 as Buffalo upset Rutgers.
Hanna Hall and Autumn Jones each added 12 points for the Bulls (24-9).
No. 4 Texas A&M 84, No. 13 Wright State 61.
COLLEGE STATION,
TEXAS» Chennedy Carter scored 27 points in her return from injury, with 14 coming in Texas A&M’s huge first quarter, to help the No. 4 Aggies cruise to an 84-61 win over No. 13 Wright State. No. 5 Marquette 58, No. 12 Rice 54, OT.
COLLEGE STATION, TEXAS» Natisha Hiedeman scored 13 points, Allazia Blockton had 12 and Marquette overcame a ninepoint fourth quarter deficit to get a win over Rice.
No. 9 Clemson 79, No. 8 South Dakota 66. STARKVILLE,
MISS.» Simone Westbrook scored 27 points, Danielle Edwards added 25 and Clemson pulled away in the fourth quarter to beat South Dakota. No. 5 Arizona State 60, No. 12 UCF 45. FLA.»
CORAL GABLES, Courtney Ekmark scored 15 of her game-high 20 points in the second half, and fifth-seeded Arizona State beat 12th-seeded UCF 60-45 on Friday night in a Portland Region first-round game.
No. 10 Indiana 69, No. 7 Texas
65. EUGENE, ORE.» While Texas put its focus on slowing Ali Patberg, Indiana’s Jaelynn Penn had her game going from the start.
The sophomore guard had 24 points, including four 3-pointers, and 10th-seeded Indiana surprised No. 7 Texas 69-65 on Friday in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. No. 1 Mississippi St 103, No. 16 Southern 46. STARKVILLE, MISS.» Anriel Howard scored 23 points, Teaira McCowan added 22 and top-seeded Mississippi State rolled past No. 16 seed Southern 103-46 on Friday night in the NCAA Tournament.
No. 2 Oregon 78, No. 15 Portland State 40. Satou
EUGENE, ORE. » Sabally had 21 points and a career-high 16 rebounds to help Oregon to an easy victory over Portland State.
No. 4 Miami 69, No. 13 Florida Gulf Coast 62.
CORAL GABLES,
FLA.» Beatrice Mompremier scored 21 points and grabbed 10 rebounds, and Miami needed an 11-0 run in the fourth quarter to come from briefly being behind and beat Florida Gulf Coast.