SAN ANTONIO – Texas’ sixth place came back with a 64-61 victory over runner-up in Maryland in a thriller that left the Alamodome in a resounding roar, making it the lowest in this year’s NCAA women’s basketball tournament a get to the round of 8.
Maryland had a 7-point lead at the break before Texas figured out how to get around its guards. After the teams went and came back on the scoreboard, a 3-point jump from Celeste Taylor put Texas in 2 points going into the fourth period.
Texas and Maryland continued to trade baskets, with Chloe Bibby from Maryland raising water turtles by 2 points on a second chance tray with one minute, 28 seconds remaining.
But Texas responded with a jump back from Taylor and then a tray from Kyra Lambert after an upset.
Maryland missed its next four attempts at pitching and a few trips to the free throw line gave the Longhorns a 5 point advantage. A tray lost by Ashley Owusu of sea turtles could have helped to reverse its fate, but it was too late.
Taylor had 15 points and 11 rebounds; Lambert had 10 points. Charli Collier, the Texas star center, led the Longhorns with 16 points.
Texas’s victory was not an easy one. Audrey Warren of the Longhorns hit her head on the floor with 5 minutes left and had to be helped into the locker room. Joanne Allen-Taylor, who had five assists, was knocked out and left the game for a moment, but remained rigid the rest of the way. She had 14 points.
“Offensively, we have a ton of incompatibilities,” Taylor said in an interview after the game.
Texas will play South Carolina in a regional final.
South Carolina surpassed fifth place in the Georgia Tech ranking, 76-65, with Zia Cooke attacking from the outside and others working inside, while the Yellow Jackets focused their defensive efforts on American striker Aliyah Boston. Hours later, Stanford surpassed fifth place in Missouri State in a 89-62 rout, in which a third of the points came from the bench.
With Boston fighting for South Carolina, Cooke fired from the perimeter while Laeticia Amihere, Victaria Saxton and Brea Beal battled paint congestion to keep South Carolina ahead. Cooke had 17 points; Amihere had 15 points and 7 rebounds; Beal had 8 points and 5 rebounds.
“The bank is a big part of who we are,” said Amihere in an interview after the game. “Being able to go deep on our bench is going to be very important, especially on the stretch now.”
Boston ended up figuring out how to break Georgia Tech’s defense, ending with 9 points, although she didn’t score in the first half. Still, the total was one of the lowest of the season.
South Carolina coach Dawn Staley said she needed to play Amihere from the bottom because the team was weak in position.
“Having her playing on the perimeter and on the crossbar really helped her confidence,” said Staley. “She was given the space she needed for us to see all this talent, this whole set of skills.”
South Carolina was unable to play with one of its senior guards, LeLe Grissett, who injured his right ankle in the Southeast Conference tournament and rolled on a scooter during Sunday’s game.
Amihere’s scoring performance was his best this season and 1 point from his career record. She said she was inspired by the resilience of a family friend, who was diagnosed with cancer for the fourth time in early March.
“I wrote on my shoe to play for her – she is a pillar of perseverance,” said Amihere. “Whenever I know I’m tired, I tap my shoe.”
Georgia Tech did not fall easily. He converted turnover into points when he could. But South Carolina’s defense improved in the fourth period, making it impossible for the Yellow Jackets to recover.
Georgia Tech reached 6 points with about four minutes remaining, but a rapid increase in response from the Gamecocks positioned them to simply exceed the timer for the round of 8.
Stanford’s victory was much easier – also with the squad of the team. Against Missouri State, point guard Hannah Jump led Stanford with 17 points. She hit five points – two within a minute after taking the floor at the end of the first quarter. Kiana Williams had 16 points and Anna Wilson 13.
In spite of his strong offensive production, the cardinal allowed the state of Missouri to make some accurate shots beyond the arch. Elle Ruffridge led all the game’s top scorers with 18 points.
“Tara talks about it – she didn’t recruit any of us for our defense,” Wilson said in an after-game interview, referring to Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer.
“I still don’t think we’re playing our best basketball,” she added, saying that she hopes her teammates are “peaking at the right time.”
Missouri State had a boost in the fourth quarter, at one point going in a 12-0 run, but Stanford was still spinning at the bottom of his bench and mostly kept control of the ball, setting the pace.
“We needed to recover better and make our free throws going forward,” VanDerveer said in an after-game interview, giving his players mixed reviews.
Stanford will next face second-placed Louisville, who beat sixth-placed Oregon, 60-42, in a physical game that left the Ducks with two injured players.
It was the game with the lowest score for the Ducks since January, but Oregon started off warm despite Louisville’s defensive pressure. Dana Evans, the American owner of Louisville, only managed to balance herself in the second half, when she scored 13 points. With 29 points in total, she reached a career record and scored more than 15 points for the first time since February 28.
Evans said it was a relief to hit the first basket, but that was not what she was focusing on.
“You have to play defense, that’s what wins championships,” said Evans in an after-game interview.
Oregon was 8 points behind the Cardinals in the third quarter before Nyara Sabally, the main contributor to the Ducks on Sunday, fell holding her left ankle. She had 14 of Oregon’s 33 points and seven of 31 rebounds to that point. The Ducks were already losing another starter, Maddie Scherr, due to an injury in the first quarter.
Two free throws by Oregon’s Sedona Prince at the start of the fourth period put the Ducks 6 points from Louisville. But Louisville broke up; without Sabally, the defense of the Ducks could not resist the Cardinals.
Sunday’s face-to-face crowd was much smaller than on Saturday, when Indiana, a fourth seed, won the state of North Carolina, winning her first trip to the knockout stages in the women’s tournament.
Also on Saturday, UConn passed Iowa and Caitlin Clark on the shoulders of the Huskies’ juniors, while freshman star Paige Bueckers scored 18 points without trying to dominate.