LOS ANGELES (AP) — Top-seeded UCLA powered past Oklahoma State and reached the Sweet 16 of the women's NCAA Tournament again with an 87-68 win. The Bruins led from the opening tip and stopped the Cowgirls’ only real push in the third quarter. Lauren Betts scored a career-high 35 points and grabbed nine rebounds for the Bruins. UCLA opened the game with nine straight points and built a huge first-half lead. Oklahoma State cut the gap to 13 early in the third quarter, but Betts answered right away. Achol Akot scored 23 for the Cowgirls before fouling out late. UCLA moves on to face Big Ten rival Minnesota in Sacramento on Friday.
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Joyce Edwards had 23 points and 10 rebounds, Madina Okot added her 22nd double-double this season with 15 points and 15 rebounds, and top-seeded South Carolina advanced to its 12th straight Sweet 16 with a 101-61 victory over ninth-seeded Southern California in the women's NCAA Tournament. The Gamecocks opened with a 13-0 run, were ahead 51-21 at halftime and cruised to their 18th straight NCAA win home. They'll get a rematch at the Sacramento 4 regional when they face fourth-seeded Oklahoma for a spot in the Elite Eight. Londynn Jones led USC with 20 points.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Mikayla Blakes scored 25 points as No. 2 seed Vanderbilt beat seventh-seeded Illinois 75-57 to advance to the Sweet 16 in the women’s NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2009. Vanderbilt now is one off matching the 30-win seasons of the 1993 Final Four squad and the 2001-02 Commodores for most wins in program history. The Commodores will play No. 6 seed Notre Dame in the Fort Worth 1 Region on Friday in their 15th regional semifinal all-time. Blakes just missed the first triple-double of her career with 10 rebounds and nine assists. Illinois's Sweet 16 drought continues with its last berth in 1998.
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Hannah Hidalgo put together another dominant performance with 26 points, 13 rebounds and eight steals as sixth-seeded Notre Dame advanced to the Sweet 16 for the 15th straight time with a 83-73 victory over third-seeded Ohio State in the second round of the women’s NCAA Tournament. It is the second time in the second-team, AP All-American’s career she has had at least 20 points, 10 rebounds and seven steals in a game. Fellow AP All-America pick Jaloni Cambridge tied a career high with 41 points for Ohio State (27-8), the second-most points by a Buckeye player in an NCAA Tournament game. Ohio State becomes the first team in women’s tournament history to be eliminated three straight years at home.
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Nebraska coach Fred Hoiberg has turned the Cornhuskers from laughingstock to March Madness darling. The Cornhuskers were a combined 14-45 his first two seasons after he took over in 2019. He slowly turned things around, but heading into this season, Nebraska, which had never won an NCAA Tournament game, was picked to finish 14th in the 18-team Big Ten Conference. Instead, the Cornhuskers won their first 20 games and jumped into the top five of The Associated Press poll. Hoiberg was named Big Ten Coach of the Year, and now the Cornhuskers will play rival Iowa in the Sweet 16.
EAST LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Tom Izzo has turned down multiple opportunities to coach in the NBA, including with the Cleveland Cavaliers and Atlanta Hawks. When the Los Angeles Lakers were willing to give UConn coach Dan Hurley a $70 million, six-year contract in 2024, Hurley asked Izzo for advice. Izzo said Monday that he told Hurley to seriously look at it because he could see where college basketball was going and that he would hate to lose him. Izzo and third-seeded Michigan State will face Hurley and the second-seeded Huskies in Washington on Friday night in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament.
BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — It was hard to miss Michigan forward Yaxel Lendeborg on and off the court this past week. The graduate senior and Big Ten player of the year caused a stir before the NCAA Tournament opened by revealing he took a lesser offer in choosing to play for Michigan over Kentucky. And once play began, Lendeborg scored 25 points and punctuated the Wolverines' 95-72 second-round win over Saint Louis with a massive dunk. Nicknamed “Dominican LeBron," Lendeborg is one of four key offseason additions that led to Michigan already matching a school record with 33 wins. The Midwest Region's top seed advanced to play fourth-seeded Alabama in Chicago on Friday.
IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — Kymora Johnson scored 28 points as 10th-seeded Virginia became the first First Four to reach the regional semifinals after an 83-75 double-overtime win over No. 2 seed Iowa on Monday in a women’s NCAA Tournament second-round game. The Cavaliers (22-11) won three games in five days, defeating Arizona State 57-55 in Thursday’s First Four game, following that with an 82-73 overtime win over Georgia in Saturday’s first-round game, and then the Hawkeyes (27-7), who were playing in front of a sellout home crowd of 14,332. Johnson scored 14 of her points in the two overtimes. Ava Heiden led Iowa with 26 points.
