Late putback lifts South Carolina
A’ja Wilson scored 21 points, including the putback that gave South Carolina the lead for good and the free throws that sealed it, to help the No. 1 seed Gamecocks beat No. 8 seed Arizona State 71-68 in the second round of the NCAA Tournament on Sunday night in Columbia, S.C.
Sophie Bruner missed a heavily contested 3-pointer at the buzzer that would have tied it.
Arizona State (20-13) scored 11 straight points to take a 68-67 lead with two minutes to go, but Wilson put back her own miss with 46.8 seconds to go that gave South Carolina (29-4) a 69-68 advantage.
Kaela Davis had a steal on the Sun Devils’ next-to-last possession and Wilson converted the two free throws.
South Carolina, which was already playing without Alaina Coates, may have more injuries to worry about. Starting guard Allisha Gray had to be carried off the court after hurting her knee late in the game.
Texa s 8 4 , N.C . S t a t e 8 0: Brooke McCarty scored 23 points and No. 3-seed Texas got a putback basket from Joyner Holmes with 4 seconds left to the send the Longhorns to the Sweet 16 for the third year in a row.
Lashann Higgs had given Texas a two-point lead when she made one free throw with 8 seconds left but missed the second. Holmes grabbed the rebound, missed her first shot, grabbed the rebound then made the second to seal the win. Holmes finished with 16 points and nine rebounds.
Texas (25-8) had to overcome a 31-point effort by Wolfpack senior guard Miah Spencer, who fouled out with 1:03 to play when she tangled with McCarty.
Dominique Wilson added 27 points for the No. 6 Wolfpack (23-9) but a go-ahead basket with 8 seconds left was waived off with an offensive foul when she charged Higgs.
Mississippi State 92, DePaul 71: Blair Schaefer scored 18 points and Jazzmun Holmes added 14 for the Bulldogs (31-4), who opened a big lead on the Blue Demons in Starkville, Miss., by scoring 14 unanswered points in the third quarter.
Second-seeded Mississippi State furthered its advantage by scoring the first eight points of the fourth quarter.
No. 7 DePaul (27-8) was led by Jessica January, who scored 18 points. Brooke Schulte added 16.
Maryland 83, West Virginia 5 6 : Dest i ny S l oc um nai l e d a 70-foot shot to cap a pivotal second quarter in which the thirdseeded Terrapins (32-3) outscored the No. 6 Mountaineers 26-8 in College Park, Md.
Maryland carried the momentum into the third quarter, using a 12-1 spurt to build the margin to 23 points.
Not long after that, the Big Ten champions celebrated a victory that put them in the Sweet 16 for the fifth time in six years.
“On a scale of 1 to 100, today was 100,” Maryland coach Brenda Frese said.
Teana Muldrow led West Virginia (24-11) with 16 points. Brionna Jones had 22 points and 11 rebounds, Slocum scored 21 and Shatori Walker-Kimbrough added 19 for Maryland (32-3).
Ohio State 82, Kentucky 68: Tori McCoy scored six straight points midway through the fourth quarter to help the No. 5 Buckeyes (28-6) withstand a furious rally by No. 4 Kentucky (22-11) from a 19-point second-half deficit in Lexington.
The Wildcats trailed 50-31 early in the third but closed to 65-64 with 6:04 remaining.
The Buckeyes answered with eight straight points behind McCoy to lead 73-64 with 3:35 left.