Connecticut, Baylor take momentum to Round 2
Women’s No. 1 seeds come off easy wins
The Connecticut women come into Monday’s game against Syracuse as heavy favorites and seemingly invincible after winning their opening NCAA game against Albany by 61 points.
The top-seeded Huskies play Syracuse, an eighth seed, in Storrs, Conn., in a rematch (6:30 p.m. ET, ESPN2) of last season’s championship game. Of course, UConn won the 2016 championship 82-51, claiming the school’s fourth consecutive national title. It was the 11th national title for coach Geno Auriemma.
Syracuse advanced to Monday’s game with an 85-65 victory against Iowa State in which freshman Gabby Cooper hit five three-pointers in the first seven minutes. The Orange obviously have a tough assignment, with the Huskies owning a winning streak that stretches to 25 NCAA games and 108 overall.
It’s the earliest rematch of the title participants in NCAA tourney history, and the crowd will lean heavily toward the Huskies. The school announced Sunday that it was giving away free tickets to students.
With 110 wins in the NCAA tournament, Auriemma needs two more to tie Pat Summitt for the most all time. He’ll have lots of firepower, as is usually the case for the Huskies. Napheesa Collier and Kia Nurse each had 24 points Saturday.
In other second-round games, Baylor plays California and Tennessee takes on Louisville.
The Lady Bears set a record for margin of victory, routing Texas Southern 119-30 on Saturday. But it won’t be hard for Baylor, the No. 1 seed in the Oklahoma City Region, to move on from an excellent opening game, senior guard Nina Davis said Sunday.
“It was a great showing. I think everyone on the team scored,” Davis said in a news conference. “It allowed a lot of us to get rest and the young players to get out there and get comfortable in their first NCAA tournament game. We’re expected to win, and we expected to win that game, so you move on from that. You just look forward to the next game. You don’t look too far ahead, and you don’t look in the past.”
The Lady Vols, a fifth seed, will take on host Louisville. The Cardinals, seeded fourth, got 27 points from sophomore guard Asia Durr in their firstround win against Chattanooga. She needs 10 more to reach 1,000 in her career.
Tennessee has never lost an NCAA second-round game (28-0) but qualified for this year’s tournament as an atlarge team, finishing fifth in the Southeastern Conference for the regular season. In the last meeting between the teams, the Cardinals won an Elite Eight game in 2013.
The Cardinals seek a trip to the Sweet 16 for the seventh time in school history, all under coach Jeff Walz.