NCAA Tournament Tennessee wins in dramatic OT fashion
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SPOKANE, Wash. — Cierra Burdick scored 22, including four late free throws for the winning points, as Tennessee beat Gonzaga 73-69 in overtime on Saturday to advance to the Spokane Regional final of the NCAA Tournament.
Burdick added 15 rebounds and Ariel Massengale scored 16 points for Tennessee (30-5), which overcome poor shooting and a 17-point deficit for the win.
Sunny Greinacher scored 24 points and Keani Albanez, 20 for surprising Gonzaga (26-8), which upset third-seeded Oregon State last weekend to advance to the round of 16. That was its record eighth win as a double-digit seed in the NCAA Tournament.
Tennessee will play top-seeded Maryland (33-2) on Monday for a trip to the Final Four in Tampa, Florida.
The game at the Spokane Arena wasn’t on Gonzaga’s home court, but its campus is only about a mile away and most of the crowd was rooting for the Bulldogs.
UConn 105, Texas 54
ALBANY, N.Y. — Geno Auriemma reached another milestone in record fashion.
The Hall of Famer became the second coach to achieve 100 victories in the NCAA Tournament as his UConn Huskies pulled off a record rout of Texas, 105-54, on Saturday in the Sweet 16. Auriemma joined Pat Summitt, who finished with 112 victories in her career, as the only two coaches in men’s or women’s basketball to reach that milestone.
“That’s lots of wins, 100 wins in the NCAA tournament,” Auriemma said. “Some people don’t get to play in the NCAA tournament ever or play a couple games. We’ve been pretty fortunate. We didn’t win anything in the NCAA in our first couple years.”
The Huskies stand three victories away from a third straight national championship and 10th overall.
Breanna Stewart was a key reason why the Huskies set the NCAA record for margin of victory in the regionals and beyond. The junior star had 31 points, 12 rebounds and seven assists.
“(Today) was a lot of fun,” Stewart said. “Right from the start shots were going in and we were being aggressive. ... Texas has a big presence inside, big post players. We knew if we got them moving a little bit, we could get any shot we wanted.”
The Huskies shot a blistering 56 percent from the field and became the eighth team to put up more than 100 points in the regionals.
“Like I said to the coaching staff at Texas, when you shoot the ball as well as we did, we’re a really hard team to play against,” Auriemma said.
Dayton 82, Louisville 66
ALBANY, N.Y. — Andrea Hoover scored 26 points and seventh-seeded Dayton continued its improbable run in the NCAA Tournament with a win over third-seeded Louisville in the regional semifinals.
Amber Deane added 15 points and Jodie Cornelie-Sigmundova had 12 and 11 rebounds for the Flyers, who won for the 11th time in the last 12 games.
The Flyers become just the fourth No. 7 seed to advance to a regional final since the field expanded to 64 teams in 1994 and the first since Mississippi in 2007.
Myisha Hines-Allen scored all 14 of her points in the second half to lead Louisville, which finishes its season at 27-7.
Dayton led by a point at the half. But a 3-pointer from Deane capped an 11-2 run early in the second half that pushed the lead to double digits, and the Flyers never trailed after intermission.
Dayton will face No. 1 UConn, which routed Texas 105-54, on Monday night. The Flyers shot 51 percent from the floor and made 26 of their 30 free throws. Hoover was 15 of 15 from the line, becoming the first player with a minimum of 12 attempts to shoot 100 percent from the line.
Maryland 65, Duke 55
SPOKANE, Wash. — Brenda Frese sat down at the dais and immediately gave a little jab at Maryland’s former foes from its days in the ACC.
“I don’t know what it is, but I think we just love being able to beat Duke in the NCAA Tournament,” Maryland’s head coach said.
Duke may have controlled its rivalry with the Terrapins before Maryland departed for the Big Ten. But the Terps are now 2-0 against Duke in the NCAA Tournament and about to play for another trip to the Final Four.
Shatori Walker-Kimbrough scored 18 of her 24 points in the second half, Laurin Mincy scored all 15 of her points in the first half, and top-seeded Maryland advanced to the Spokane Regional final with a 65-55 victory over the No. 4 seed on Saturday.
Walker-Kimbrough took over the scoring load carried by Mincy in the first half as the Terrapins (33-2) reached the Elite Eight for the sixth time under Frese. The Terrapins had lost eight of their previous 10 games against Duke.
“Very relieving,” Mincy said. “Like you said, we haven’t been able to beat Duke since our sophomore year, so it’s just very fitting that we come in here and beat them in the Sweet 16.”
