No. 13 Wright State buried two points of 3 points in the final minute to deliver the NCAA women’s basketball tournament its first major defeat in the first round in nine years. The Raiders won a 66-62 win against Arkansas No. 4 on Monday in the Alamo region, in their third appearance in the tournament.
Seeds # 13 were 6-100 of all time against Seeds 4 before Wright State’s victory, according to the ESPN broadcast. The last 13-4 turn was in 2012, when Marist took Georgia down. Only one team below 13th won the women’s tournament.
Wright State Upsets Arkansas
The Razorbacks played unusual basketball after surviving a regular SEC season schedule. They turned it over, failed to collect on the boards and were below 30%, shooting for much of the game. Arkansas only stayed there late because it hit the free-throw line and capitalized on the second half.
Arkansas reduced its 12-point deficit in the range by hitting 9 of 12 of the line on the third. Amber Ramirez and Chelsea Dungee added 3 points on the board. But six consecutive points by Wright State’s Angel Baker to close the quarter pushed the deficit back to eight in 49-41.
The Dungee brought Arkansas back into a game of possession after a steal resulting from a technical foul. She drained all three Marquesha Davis hit a jumper to enter, 54-53, at the four-minute mark.
Arkansas took the lead behind a 3-point dungee and free throw, but it was brief when Stover hit his 3. Jada Roberson made both free throws in a two-point game to seal with eight seconds on the clock.
Chelsea Dungee ends career in Arkansas
Wright State kept Arkansas at 29 points in the first half, the lowest production of the season’s Razorbacks, and controlled the stock exchanges by 44-30. Baker had the team’s record of 26 points and 12 rebounds, with four steals and two assists. Emani Jefferson had 13 points and six rebounds.
They calmed the Arkansas attack, which averaged 83.1 points and 44 percent shots in the regular season. Razorbacks hit 34 percent and hit 7 out of 22 in the 3-point range. They scored a third of the total points with a 21 to 28 mark on the free-throw line.
Dungee, the sensational senior who played against UConn in Arkansas’s big win, scored 27 points. She hit 5 out of 15 overall, but hit three out of six in depth and hit 14 out of 18 free throws.
How does Wright’s state rank in turbulent history?
Horizon League champion Wright State joins a small group of female winners. Marist has done this twice, with the most recent against Georgia. He also defeated Ohio State by four in the first round of the 2007 tournament.
Texas A&M had its first turn against Florida. He won by two points in 1994.
Rice defeated UC Santa Barbara in 2000 and Middle Tennessee defeated North Carolina in 2004. Liberty defeated Penn State in 2005. Each defeat was eight points or less.
The story of taller seeds being disturbed in the first round is even shorter. No team ranked 14th or 15th won in the first round of the tournament, which was first performed by the NCAA in 1982 and expanded to 64 teams in 1994.
There was a team # 16 that won the first round match. Harvard defeated Stanford No. 1, 71-67, in the 1998 tournament. Crimson was the first team to do so in NCAA history and was followed by UMBC defeating No. 1 Virginia in the 2018 men’s tournament.
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