William lifts Mississippi St. (34-1)

Mississippi State guard Morgan William (2) scored 17 points to lead Mississippi State to a 71-56 victory over Oklahoma State in the second round of the women’s NCAA Tournament in Starkville, Miss. on Monday night.
Mississippi State guard Morgan William (2) scored 17 points to lead Mississippi State to a 71-56 victory over Oklahoma State in the second round of the women’s NCAA Tournament in Starkville, Miss. on Monday night.

KANSAS CITY REGION

MISSISSIPPI STATE 71, OKLAHOMA STATE 56

STARKVILLE, Miss. -- The Morgan William of March has arrived. That makes Mississippi State a pretty tough basketball team during the season's most important stretch.

William scored 17 points -- hitting several clutch shots and playing lockdown perimeter defense -- to help lead top-seed Mississippi State over Oklahoma State 71-56 in the second round of the NCAA Tournament on Monday night.

"I thought Morgan dictated the whole game," Mississippi State Coach Vic Schaefer said. "She controlled the pace. She ran when we wanted to run and she kept them from running."

Victoria Vivians led the Bulldogs (34-1) with 23 points and Teaira McCowan had a big game with 21 points and 18 rebounds. Those two things were expected -- but William's emergence as an offensive threat helped Mississippi State separate from the Cowgirls during an intense game.

"I was just trying to be another threat on the court," William said. "I was playing hard on the defensive end and I felt like I could reward myself a little by shooting."

The Bulldogs advanced to the Sweet 16 for a third consecutive season.

William was the darling of last year's NCAA Tournament, hitting the game-winning jumper at the buzzer to beat Connecticut in the Final Four. She also scored 41 points in the Elite Eight against Baylor.

The 5-foot-5 senior guard's numbers have been a little down throughout most of this season, though that's more because of the emergence of other players than anything she's doing wrong. She's averaging less than eight points per game.

But on Monday night, William was one of the most important people on the court, playing with boundless energy on both ends.

"She's the energizer," Vivians said. "If she's out there giving us energy then we feed off them and want to give that energy back. We play behind them. I feel her coming out amped like that just gave us the mojo to do something good."

Oklahoma State (21-11) was led by Kaylee Jensen's 18 points. Loryn Goodwin added 14 points, nine rebounds and eight assists.

"We got beat by a really good basketball team," Oklahoma State Coach Jim Littell said. "We got worn down a little bit. They hurt us on the glass."

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.

NO. 2 TEXAS 85, NO. 7 ARIZONA STATE 65

AUSTIN, Texas -- Lashann Higgs scored 19 points and Brooke McCarty scored 15 points as Texas booked its fourth consecutive trip to the Sweet 16 with a victory 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, led by Coach Karen Aston (Bryant, University of Arkansas at Little Rock) to a big lead and never let the Sun Devils recover. McCarty had two three-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.

Kianna Ibis scored 27 to lead Arizona State (22-13).

NO. 3 UCLA 86, NO. 11 CREIGHTON 64

LOS ANGELES -- Jordin Canada scored 21 points and Japreece Dean added 16 points to lead UCLA to a victory over 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.

ALBANY REGION

UConn to 25th Sweet 16

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, leading 33-18 at halftime.

Jen Fay had 12 points to lead the ninth-seeded Bobcats (28-6), who saw their school-record 23-game winning streak snapped.

NO. 5 DUKE 66, NO. 4 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.

Caliya Robinson led Georgia with 11 points and 12 rebounds. No other Georgia player had more than five points.

NO. 11 BUFFALO 86, NO. 3 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.

Buffalo (29-5), which was 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.

Shakayla Thomas led Florida State (26-7) with 25 points in her final game.

SPOKANE REGION

Ohio State upset

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.

Central Michigan (30-4) had won its 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.

All-American guard Kelsey Mitchell led Ohio State (28-7) with 28 points but hit just 11 of her 29 shots from the floor.

LEXINGTON REGION

Stanford tops FGCU

STANFORD, Calif. -- Alanna Smith scored 28 points with four 3-pointers, Brittany McPhee added 17 points and nine rebounds and Stanford beat 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 consecutive season.

China Dow scored 23 points all in the second half to lead Florida Gulf Coast (31-5).

Sports on 03/20/2018

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