STORRS, Conn. -- Napheesa Collier scored 23 points and top-seeded Connecticut beat in-state neighbor Quinnipiac 71-46 on Monday night to advance to a 25th consecutive Sweet 16.
Azura Stevens added 14 points and Kia Nurse chipped in with 13 points for the Huskies (34-0), who found themselves in a much slower-paced game than their 140-52 first-round rout of Saint Francis (Pa.).
But Connecticut was not threatened in this one either. They opened with a 9-2 run and never trailed.
Jen Fay had 12 points to lead the ninth-seeded Bobcats (28-6), who saw their school-record 23-game winning streak snapped.
Quinnipiac got plenty of open looks, but hit just four of 24 shots from three-point range, including just one of 12 from in the first half.
UConn shot 59 percent, held Quinnipiac to just 17 baskets on 56 shots (30 percent), and led 33-18 at halftime.
Two free throws by Stevens gave the Huskies their first 20-point lead late in the third quarter and it was 54-31 going into the fourth.
The Huskies were too big for the Bobcats, who had no player on the court over 6-foot tall.
They outrebounded Quinnipiac 33-21 and outscored them 28-14 in the paint.
It was just the second meeting between the two programs. The first, a 117-20 UConn victory, came almost 20 years ago after Quinnipiac made the jump from Division II.
DUKE 66, GEORGIA 40
ATHENS, Ga. — Leaonna Odom scored 16 points and Duke’s defense was dominant, holding Georgia to two second-quarter points.
Lexie Brown and Erin Mathias each had 14 points for Duke (24-8), which will play UConn in the Albany Regional on Saturday.
Georgia (26-7) made only 1 of 19 shots in the second period. The Lady Bulldogs set season lows for fewest points in a period and game and lowest field-goal percentage (24.0) in a game. The Lady Bulldogs missed their first 13 three-pointers before Simone Costa sank a three-pointer midway through the final period.
The shooting woes even carried over to the free-throw line, where the Lady Bulldogs made only 7 of 14 shots.
While Georgia struggled, Duke shot 50 percent from the field to overcome 21 turnovers.
Caliya Robinson led Georgia with 11 points and 12 rebounds. No other Georgia player had more than five points.
BUFFALO 86,
FLORIDA STATE 65
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Cierra Dillard scored 22 points and Buffalo shocked Florida State to advance to the Sweet 16 for the first time in school history. The Bulls, who were one of the last four to earn an at-large berth in the 64-team field, shot 47.4 percent from the field and went 24 of 26 from the foul line. They also held the Seminoles to 3 of 25 on three-pointers and 33.8 percent from the field.
Buffalo (29-5) won’t have far to go for the regional semifinal as it will face defending champion and second-seeded South Carolina on Saturday in Albany, N.Y.
It is the first time that in eight games that Florida State (26-7) has dropped an NCAA Tournament contest when it has been the host.
Shakayla Thomas led Florida State with 25 points in her final game.
SPOKANE REGION
CENTRAL MICHIGAN 95,
OHIO STATE 78
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Presley Hudson scored 28 points and Central Michigan stunned Ohio State 95-78 to earn the school’s first ever trip to the Sweet 16.
Cassie Breen threw the ball high in the air as the clock wound down and the joyous Central Michigan players jumped, screamed and hugged as they celebrated the biggest victory in school history.
The Chippewas had won their first tournament game in Saturday’s first-round upset of No. 6 LSU. With the upset of Ohio State, they advance to face No. 2 Oregon in Spokane, Wash., on Saturday.
Central Michigan (30-4) outrebounded and outhustled Ohio State, played solid defense, hit a season-high 14 three-pointers and kept the Buckeyes at bay late in the game.
The Chippewas got plenty of help in the upset from the unusually error-prone Buckeyes, who got behind in the first half and then were run over by momentum and couldn’t climb back in. Central Michigan led by as much as 23 points in the second half as Ohio State struggled to put together a run that would shift the tide.
All-American guard Kelsey Mitchell led Ohio State (28-7) with 28 points but hit just 11 of her 29 shots from the floor.
KANSAS CITY REGION
TEXAS 85, ARIZONA STATE 65
AUSTIN, Texas — Lashann Higgs scored 19 points and Brooke McCarty scored 15 as Texas booked its fourth consecutive trip to the Sweet 16 with an 85-65 win over Arizona State.
Higgs scored 15 in the first half, and McCarty took over in the third quarter with 10 points in a 14-2 run that pushed the Longhorns to a big lead and never let the Sun Devils recover. McCarty had a pair of 3-pointers in the run and her nifty drives and assists made sure the No. 2-seed Longhorns (28-6) avoided the same kind of home court upsets that hit several host teams earlier in the evening.
The No. 7-seed Sun Devils had played eventual national champion South Carolina within a minute of a huge upset in the second round last season, but saw any hopes of catching the Longhorns disappear in the decisive third quarter.
McCarty, even at just 5-foot-4 and the smallest player on the court, had a game-high 10 rebounds, often using them to kick-start Texas in transition. The Longhorns are one of the top rebounding teams in the country and dominated the Sun Devils on the boards 40-19 in a physical matchup.
Kianna Ibis scored 27 to lead Arizona State (22-13), an effort that kept the Sun Devils within 40-35 at halftime, but scored just eight over the final two quarters.
Texas hosted the first two rounds of the NCAA tournament for the third consecutive year. The Longhorns are 48-6 at the Frank Erwin Center over the last three seasons, including six wins in the tournament.
The Longhorns’ fourth year in the Sweet 16 continues a resurgence for a program for a program that produced the women’s tournament’s first undefeated national champion in 1985. Texas hasn’t been back to the Final Four since 2003.
MISSISSIPPI ST 71,
OKLAHOMA ST 56
STARKVILLE, Miss. — Victoria Vivi-ans scored 23 points, Teaira McCowan added 21 points and 18 rebounds and Mississippi State earned a hard-fought 71-56 win over Oklahoma State.
Top-seeded Mississippi State (34-1) also got 17 points from Morgan William, who hit several crucial baskets throughout the game. McCowan scored 17 of her 21 points in the second half and shot 8 of 12 from the field.
Oklahoma State (21-11) was hurt when starting guard Loryn Goodwin picked up her fourth foul with 4:39 remaining in the third quarter. She stayed in the game, but her defensive presence was limited and that was around the time that Mississippi State went on a 10-2 lead to open up a 51-43 advantage. William made a jumper a few seconds before the third-quarter buzzer to give the Bulldogs their biggest lead in the game at 55-45 and they slowly pulled away.
Oklahoma State, the No. 9 seed, was led by Kaylee Jensen’s 18 points. Goodwin added 14 points, nine rebounds and eight assists.
Oklahoma State pushed to an early 20-12 lead late in the first quarter, but Mississippi State rallied and the rest of the first half was extremely close. The Bulldogs took a 35-34 advantage into halftime.
UCLA 86, CREIGHTON 64
LOS ANGELES — Jordin Canada scored 21 points and Japreece Dean added 16 points to lead third-seeded UCLA to an 86-64 victory over No. 11 seed Creighton.
UCLA (26-7) reaches the Sweet 16 for the third consecutive year and advances to the Kansas City Regional and will face Texas on Friday.
Canada, made six of seven shots and dished out eight assists to lead the Bruins. The senior guard, the Pac 12 defensive Player of the Year and three-time All-Conference guard, has scored 20 or more points in six of her last eight games.
Monique Billings scored 15 points and Kennedy Burke added 11 points for UCLA.
Audrey Faber led Creighton with 20 points and Olivia Elger added 13 for the Bluejays.
The Bruins scored on eight of their first nine possessions to jump to an early double-digit lead. Dean’s 3-pointer at the 4:12 mark of the opening quarter gave UCLA an 18-7 lead. The Bruins kept the defensive pressure on the Blue-jays and led 26-15 after the first quarter. UCLA continued to use its speed and quickness in the second quarter and forced 10 first half turnovers while upping its lead to 49-32 at the break, following a pair of free throws by Billings down the stretch. Billings led the Bruins with 13 points in the first half. Creighton never got closer than 17 points in the second half.
Faber made 4-of-6 three pointer attempts and led the Bluejays with 16 points in the opening half.
Both teams shot over 50 percent in the first half and UCLA held a slim 15-12 advantage on the glass.
Monday was only the second meeting all-time between Creighton and UCLA. The Bruins won the first meeting earlier this year, 72-63, at the South Point Thanksgiving Shootout on Nov. 25, 2017 in Las Vegas.
The Bruins improved to 14-3 at home this season. Jaclyn Agnew and Sydney Lamberty, who combined to score 44 points in Creighton’s win over Iowa on Saturday, made only 3 of 13 shots and scored nine points.
LEXINGTON REGION
STANFORD 90,
FLORIDA GULF COAST 70
STANFORD, Calif. — Alanna Smith scored 28 points with four 3-pointers, Brittany McPhee added 17 points and nine rebounds and No. 4 seed Stanford is headed back to the Lexington Regional for a third straight March after beating scrappy 12th-seeded Florida Gulf Coast 90-70.
Freshman Kiana Williams shined on the big stage for the second time in three days with 12 points and six assists for the Cardinal (24-10), on to the Sweet 16 for the 11th straight season. Florida Gulf Coast (31-5) set the single-season 3-point record with 431, breaking Sacramento State’s mark of 424 from 2014-15, but didn’t have the depth or talent to keep up against a taller Stanford team that made it hard for the Eagles to do their signature move: drive and dish.
Stanford will take on No. 1 Louisville — the first matchup between the power programs — on Friday in the regional semifinals. Playing previously in Lexington, the Cardinal lost to Washington in the 2016 Elite Eight then advanced to the Final Four from that regional last season.
China Dow found her shooting touch following intermission and hit the tying and breaking 3s in the third quarter as FGCU set the 3-point mark after the Eagles made nine in the first half.
Dow finished with 23 points all in the second half and six 3-pointers as the Eagles ran up their remarkable 3-point total for the season.
Yet do-everything Dow didn’t have the kind of steady game she produced in a first-round win against fifth-seeded Missouri. She missed her first five field-goal tries, and four 3s, before she connected from deep with 7:39 left in the third for her first points of the night. She hit again from 3 at the 6:16 mark of the third for the single-season record. The Eagles, without a single 6-footer on the roster, won 11 of their final 12 games and 21 of 23.
Stanford shot 12 for 17 in the first quarter to take a 33-17 lead but went 3 of 11 for only 10 points in the second as their halftime lead was cut to 43-35.
Sports on 03/20/2018