Triumph in Sweet 16 is a first for Arizona
Aari Mcdonald scored 31 points to lead Mercadoregion No. 3-seeded Arizona to a 74-59 win over second-seeded Texas A&M on Saturday night in the Sweet 16 and send the Wildcats to the regional final for the first time in program history.
The Wildcats had only made one previous trip to the regional semifinals, when coach Adia Barnes was a player in 1998. This time they rode their Pac-12 player of the year and 13 3-pointers to the school’s biggest victory yet. Mcdonald was 6-of-12 shooting from long range.
She did it on both ends of the court. The Pac-12’s player of the year shut down Aggies guard Jordan Nixon, whose late-game heroics had pulled Texas A&M through the first two rounds. Nixon had just three points after scoring 35 in the second round.
Arizona advances to Monday’s regional final against No. 5 Indiana.
Mcdonald came in averaging 19.6 points and scored 19 by halftime in carrying Arizona to a 35- 32 lead. The Wildcats (19-5) stretched the lead to 13 by the end of the third quarter as they made four 3-pointers, two by Mcdonald, in the period.
Texas A&M had won its first two games by a total of six points and now had to make a desperate bid to rally in front of a small but boisterous Aggies crowd in the Alamodome, just a threehour drive from campus.
The Aggies (25-3) cut the lead to 59-48 on Ciera Johnson’s layup to start the fourth. But three straight Texas A&M turnovers and consecutive 3-pointers from Sam Thomas and Cate Reese had the Wildcats in total control with 4:41 to play.
Aaliyah Wilson scored 17 points to lead Texas A&M. INDIANA 73, NORTH CAROLINA STATE 70 >> Ali Patberg scored 17 points to help the fourth-seeded Hoosiers beat the No. 1-seeded Wolfpack to reach the regional final for the first time in school history.
Indiana (21-5) had been in the Sweet 16 just once before, back in 1983 before the women’s NCAA Tournament became a 64-team field.
The Wolfpack (22-3), trailing 70-68, had a chance to tie it, but star Elissa Cunane missed a contested layup with 30 seconds left.
Nicole Cardano-hillary then made two free throws with 21.1 seconds left.
Jada Boyd scored points for N.C. State.
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UCONN 92, IOWA 72 >> Christyn Williams scored 27 points and Paige Bueckers added 18 to lead the No. 1-seeded Huskies
over the fifth-seeded Hawkeyes (20-10).
The game featured a matchup of two extremely talented freshmen in Bueckers and Iowa’s Caitlyn Clark. The friends had taken the women’s basketball world by storm this season.
Bueckers became the third freshman to earn All-america honors. Clark led the nation in scoring and came into the regional semifinals averaging 29 points in the tournament.
They didn’t disappoint. Bueckers also had nine rebounds and eight assists for Uconn (27-1). She had a lot more help from her teammates as Evina Westbrook just missed the 18th triple-double in NCAA women’s tournament history, with 17 points, nine rebounds and 10 assists.
Clark, shadowed on defense by Williams on almost every possession, finished with 21 points — below her nearly 27-point a game average. She was just 7-for-21 from the field.
The game marked the return of Uconn coach Geno Auriemma, who missed the opening two rounds because he was recovering from the coronavirus. Auriemma arrived in San Antonio on Wednesday. BAYLOR 78, MICHIGAN 75, OT >> Nalyssa Smith scored 24 points on a perfect shooting game and Queen Egbo made two big plays in the final seconds of overtime, helping the second-seeded Lady Bears beat the No. 6 seed Wolverines.
Egbo gave Baylor a 78-75 lead with a foul shot with 19 seconds left. After Leigha Brown scored for Michigan, Egbo picked up an assist on Moon Ursin’s wideopen layup.
Smith was 11 for 11 from the floor. Ursin had 20 points for Baylor (28-2), and Dijonai Carrington scored six of her 19 in overtime.
The Lady Bears have won 20 consecutive games.
Brown scored 23 for Michigan (16-6), which had never before advanced this far in the tournament.