After a slow start, NC State No. 1 once again dominated an opponent with fewer seeds in the second half, winning his third consecutive trip to Sweet 16.
Wolfpack fell 1 to 8 in South Florida in the interval on Tuesday, but ended up winning by 79-65. His attack did not change much, but his defense did, and Wolfpack was able to hold the Bulls with just 28 percent in the second half.
The South Florida 36-35 lead came after hitting six 3-point kicks in the first half. Three of them were made by sophomore student Elena Tsineke, who has extensive experience in representing Greece, her native country, in international games. She was cold in the second half, however, hitting just 1 out of 6 points out of 3 for a team that trusted them with no alternative when it wasn’t batting.
The driving force for the NC State third quarter race, during which he led by up to 14 points, was Jada Boyd, the sixth player of the year at the Atlantic Coast Conference. She had 7 points and – most importantly – five rebounds in the period. Boyd usually leaves the bench, but in this match she started in place of striker Kayla Jones, who injured a knee on the team’s debut in the tournament.
Boyd finished with a double-double with 18 points and 10 rebounds. Five different NC State players ended up with at least 10 points, a testament to their balance – which, so far in the tournament, has taken a few quarters of play to really shine.
In the first round, Wolfpack used a big third quarter to beat North Carolina’s number 16 A&T 79-58.
North Carolina’s No. 1 seed beats South Florida’s No. 8 seed, 79-67.
NC State retreated in the third quarter, beating South Florida 24-11.
Paying spectators are not yet allowed at games in San Antonio, so Alamodome, where South Florida is beating NC State by one point in the break, is strangely quiet for such a tough game. Each person within the team’s travel groups can have up to six guests at a time. The bleachers are completely empty behind the rims; and the only side of the court with bleachers has about 30 guests.
Caitlin Clark’s 11 points in the first quarter are 5th in Iowa, ahead of 4th in Kentucky, 23-11, at the end of a quarter. Clark is 4 out of 7 in the field.
If South Florida remains so, NC State could be the first No. 1 seed eliminated from the tournament. The teams fight for the lead, hitting the Bulls a point at the break in a jump by Cristina Bermejo. NC State’s Elissa Cunane missed a 3-point basket with two seconds remaining that could have changed the lead. 36-35, South Florida.
The tournament matches will be broadcast on ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU and can be streamed on the ESPN app. This is the schedule for Tuesday and Wednesday (all eastern time):
Tuesday
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3 pm – No. 1 seed from the State of North Carolina vs. No. 8 South Florida seed, ESPN2
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3:30 pm – No. 4 seed Kentucky vs. No. 5 seed Iowa, ESPNU
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5 pm – No. 3 Tennessee vs. seed No. 6 seed Michigan, ESPN2
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5:30 pm – No. 4 seed West Virginia vs. No. 5 seed Georgia Tech, ESPNU
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19h – No. 1 seed South Carolina vs. No. 8 seed Oregon State, ESPN
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19h – No. 2 seed Baylor vs. No. 7 seed Virginia Tech, ESPN2
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9 pm – No. 1 seed vs. Connecticut No. 8 seed Syracuse, ESPN
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9 pm – Stanford vs. No. 1 seed Oklahoma State seed, ESPN2
Wednesday
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1 pm – No. 2 seed Maryland vs. No. 7 Alabama seed, ESPN2
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3 pm – No. 3 seed Georgia vs. No. 6 seed Oregon, ESPN2
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3 pm – No. 5 seed Missouri State vs. No. 13 seed Wright State, ESPNU
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5 pm – No. 2 seed Louisville vs. No. 7 Northwestern seed, ESPN 2
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5 pm – No. 4 seed Indiana vs. No. 12 seed Belmont, ESPNU
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19h – No. 2 seed Texas A&M vs. No. 7 seed Iowa State, ESPN2
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19h – No. 3 seed Arizona vs. No. 11 seed Brigham Young University, ESPNU
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9 pm – No. 3 seed UCLA vs. No. 6 seed Texas, ESPN2
Mark Emmert went to San Antonio. After facing criticism from players and coaches about the disparities between the facilities, coronavirus testing and marketing of the men’s and women’s tournaments, the NCAA president is in the first game of the second round of the women’s tournament – which becomes the first part of the competition that does not occur in parallel to the games on the male side.
South Florida is holding on to NC State, which lost one point after the first quarter thanks to a 3-point shot from Maria Alvarez with 11 seconds left.
Caitlin Clark and Iowa will face Kentucky in the second round. The prize? The winner will likely face the best UConn choice next.
“Sweet 16 is something you dream about as a basketball player,” said Clark, who led the nation’s scoring this season. “It is a great opportunity. We have nothing to lose. “
Iowa won seven out of nine, driven by the well-documented success of Clark, his star freshman. His score – 26.7 points per game this season – draws the most attention, but his 3-point passing skill and shooting range also helped to unlock defenses.
Kentucky can offer a more difficult challenge. The Wildcats and the Hawkeyes have an opponent in common this season in Indiana; Kentucky beat the Hoosiers, 72-68, while Iowa fell to them twice in the Big Ten game.
Kentucky used their rebound advantage – had 16 offensive rebounds – to hold the state of Idaho in the first round, when senior Chasity Patterson and junior star Rhyne Howard each scored 14 points.
But the Hawkeyes will enter their second round confrontation with something different: a chip on their shoulder.
“At the beginning of the year, people were saying, ‘Ah, if they could make it to the NCAA tournament,’” Iowa coach Lisa Bluder said of her team, adding, “So it was, ‘Ah, if they could just win a game. ‘”
After rolling in the first round, Stanford’s No. 1 will face Natasha Mack and Oklahoma State’s eighth place on Tuesday.
The Cowgirls have a doubly difficult task ahead of them in a top seed and their own dark history: they are 3-11 when they play as the low seed in the tournament. But they also have the 1.80 m Mack, an intriguing pitch and rebound blocker who may be one of the most overlooked players in the country.
In the rare prospect of the WNBA with two years of basketball at community colleges under his belt, Mack was once one of the best high school recruits before following a tortuous path for the big 12. Angelina College in her hometown of Lufkin, Texas, where she became a fully American junior college.
Now she is one of the four finalists for the Naismith Defensive Player of the Year Award, after leading the country with 4.1 blocks per game. She also came in third in the country, with 9.3 defensive rebounds per game.
Mack had 27 points and 15 rebounds in Cowgirls’ first round win over Wake Forest and 4 assists. Oklahoma coach Jim Littell praised the aggressive nature of her performance – “She was sometimes very selfless,” he said later – but Mack acknowledged that she and her team would have to be even better against Stanford.
“It feels so good,” said Mack. “It’s like the spotlight is on you.”
“We have to bring the same energy,” she added. “It just gets harder from here.”
All of the top four in the women’s tournament can advance to the second weekend of the tournament with wins on Tuesday. In addition to Stanford, UConn faces Syracuse; South Carolina with the best seedbed to deal with the eighth position, Oregon State, which seeks to advance to its fifth consecutive round of 16; and NC State will play in South Florida.
Wolfpack handled some scary moments at the start of the first round against No. 16 North Carolina A&T before retiring with a strong second half. Part of that may have been attributed to rust, said NC technician Wes Moore; his team had not played since March 7.
“I felt we needed more urgency,” said Moore of the quick turnaround for another opponent. “We’ve been sitting for two weeks now and we have to find our mojo, so to speak, and get some energy and urgency at the defensive end of the court.”
UConn took first place, as expected, in the opening victory against High Point, with 24 points from first-year star Paige Bueckers, but UConn’s degree of difficulty is increasing rapidly.
Then, the Huskies will face a Syracuse team that had a strong performance against the state of South Dakota in the first round. And while UConn was already missing hall-of-fame trainer Geno Auriemma, who tested positive for the coronavirus before the tournament, it could now be without guard Nika Muhl, who sprained his right ankle on Sunday.
Muhl, a Croat, was on crutches when UConn ended his victory against High Point. She is questionable for the game against Syracuse, but interim Huskies coach Chris Dailey was not ready to dismiss her on Monday.
“If there is any way that Nika will be on the court,” said Dailey, “she will be on the court.”
Sunday’s win was UConn’s 27th consecutive victory in the first round. But perhaps it was more satisfying (and comforting) for the team’s coaches because Bueckers – who also had nine rebounds, six assists, four steals and two blocks in 36 minutes – and several other freshman squad members would be making their debut at the event. Another freshman, Aaliyah Edwards, made a double-double, with 17 points and 12 rebounds.
Syracuse, seed # 8, occupied the state of South Dakota for 72 to 55, with a strong second half. Emily Engstlerr’s 18 points led to a balanced attack – all five Syracuse holders scored double digits – and Orange set a 14-block program record.
Guard Tiana Mangakahia may be the player the Huskies will want to contain: she leads the country with 7.47 assists per game.