Daybreak Staley, Virginia Tech amongst NCAA ladies’s event Day 3 winners
The Insanity has come to the ladies’s event.
It’s not a 16 seed upsetting a No. 1, or a little-known faculty knocking off a powerhouse. It’s shut, nonetheless, and it speaks volumes concerning the rising depth of the ladies’s sport.
For simply the fifth time since 1994, and first time since 2009, a No. 1 seed was knocked out earlier than the Candy 16. Eighth-seeded Ole Miss additionally despatched top-seeded Stanford to its earliest exit from the event since 2007.
“Simply an unbelievable quantity of gratitude,” Ole Miss coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin stated after her crew’s 54-49 win. “We’ve been ready for a giant one. … For our crew to do that, I’m simply filled with gratitude.”
There was debate whether Stanford should have been a No. 1 seed after dropping its regular-season finale after which dropping within the semifinals of the Pac-12 event. Ole Miss additionally was in all probability underseeded, having taken South Carolina to OT through the common season.
Observe the insanity: Latest Women’s NCAA Tournament College Basketball Scores and Schedules
Nonetheless, to see the Rebels beat Stanford – on the Cardinal’s house court docket, no much less – reveals how deep the ladies’s sport has turn out to be. The times of the early rounds being gimmes for the highest seeds are over.
Even Stanford followers must admit that’s a superb factor.
Right here’s a take a look at the winners and losers from Day 3 of the NCAA ladies’s event:
SUNDAY’S HIGHLIGHTS: All the action from the women’s and men’s tournaments
WOMEN’S TOURNAMENT: Scores and schedules of all the games
Winners
Energy forwards
It was a giant day for the bigs.
There would possibly as effectively have been a “This house belongs to” label on the paint for as monstrous because the performances by LSU’s Angel Reese, Utah’s Alissa Pili and Virginia Tech’s Elizabeth Kitley had been. Stanford’s loss would have been way more lopsided if not for Cameron Brink’s spectacular effort.
Brink had 13 rebounds and 7 blocks — three on only one play! — and he or she virtually single-handedly received Stanford again right into a sport it trailed by 13 halfway by the third quarter. However Brink did not get sufficient assist offensively or, fairly frankly, from Stanford’s teaching workers.
LSU had a 32-20 benefit within the paint over Michigan, and it was largely due to Reese. She had a whopping 24 rebounds, 14 of which had been on the offensive glass, and 6 blocked pictures. She scored a team-high 25 factors, too within the Tigers’ 66-42 romp.
Of Pili’s 10 rebounds, none had been greater than those she had on Princeton’s subsequent two possessions after paring what had been a 13-point Utah result in two. With Pili prowling within the paint, the Tigers couldn’t get beauty to tie or take the lead, permitting the Utes to carry of for a 63-56 win.
Kitley had a double-double – the fifty fifth of her profession, matching Virginia Tech’s all-time report. Although South Dakota State had an 8-point benefit within the paint, 38-26, it had solely eight second-chance factors. Of Kitley’s 14 boards, 9 had been on the defensive glass, serving to the Hokies surge to a 72-60 win.
Lauren Ebo
Regardless of taking part in at house for the primary two rounds, many thought Notre Dame can be ripe for an upset given the lack of level guard Olivia Miles. Senior middle Lauren Ebo had different concepts.
Ebo turned in a spectacular efficiency within the Irish’s 53-48 win over Eleventh-seeded Mississippi State, ending with 10 factors, 18 rebounds and 5 blocks in 31 minutes. 5 of her 18 rebounds had been offensive, none greater than her board and putback with 4:38 to go that gave Notre Dame the lead once more. And her free throw with 35 seconds to play gave the Irish a 49-45 lead and made it a two possession sport.
Virginia Tech
Welcome again to the Candy 16, Hokies. It’s been some time.
Virginia Tech reached the second weekend of the NCAA event for simply the second time in program historical past, and first since 1999, with its victory over South Dakota State.
“To have the ability to get this group, this program to this degree could be very, very particular,” Hokies coach Kenny Brooks stated. “It’s very gratifying to have the ability to get up to now.”
It’s already been a historic season for the Hokies. The win over South Dakota State was Virginia Tech’s twenty ninth this yr, most in crew historical past. The Hokies received their first ACC event title – of their first look within the sport, no much less – and had been rewarded with a No. 1 seed, their greatest ever within the NCAA event.
“It means quite a bit to be part of it as a result of Hokie Nation could be very particular,” Brooks stated. “Fantastic folks have come by right here in all completely different sports activities and to have the ability to contribute to it means quite a bit.
“We’ve got so many fantastic applications,” he added. “Once we can come out and do our half, it’s very gratifying.”
Cheyney State
Daybreak Staley by no means misses a chance to teach.
The South Carolina coach wore a Cheyney State jersey Sunday, a sartorial shoutout to the one HBCU crew to make a Division I Last 4. Regardless of being Division II on the time, Cheyney State performed within the inaugural NCAA ladies’s event in 1982 and made all of it the way in which to the championship sport earlier than dropping to Louisiana Tech.
That crew was coached by Corridor of Famer C. Vivian Stringer, who Staley has usually praised for each her influence on the sport and for opening the door for different Black coaches.
“Cheyney State was the one HBCU to make it to a Last 4 and for them to be led by Coach Stringer, who opened doorways that now I stroll by, it was really an honor to put on this jersey and to characterize them,” Staley stated after the sport.
The No. 44 jersey belonged to Yolanda Laney – “not this jersey,” Staley clarified – who can be from Philadelphia. In truth, one of many basketball league’s Staley performed in rising up was began by Laney.
A good friend despatched Staley the jersey, she stated.
“I just like the jersey, I like what it stands for, I like that it is Coach Stringer,” Staley stated.
Cheyney State has extra that means for Staley as a result of it’s the place John Chaney started his faculty teaching profession. Chaney was Temple’s males’s coach when Staley was employed by the Owls and he served as a mentor.
Losers
Georgia ball dealing with
Should you come on the queen, you greatest not throw away the ball.
Georgia gave Caitlin Clark and Iowa all it might deal with on the Hawkeyes’ house flooring, and had Iowa teetering on the brink with 2:17 to play after UGA hit a 3 to get inside two, 68-66. Iowa missed its subsequent shot and UGA had an opportunity to tie or take the lead — however then the Bulldogs turned it over on back-to-back-to-back possessions.
4 turnovers within the remaining 3:38, together with these three in a row, straight correlated to UGA’s scoring drought the final 2:17 of the sport and finally, Iowa’s 74-66 win. The second turnover in that string was the worst, as Clark turned it into two factors for the Hawkeyes. Georgia completed with 18 turnovers, which Iowa changed into 17 factors.
Dwelling-court benefit
It is comprehensible why the NCAA continues taking part in the primary two rounds at campus websites. The gang at Cassell Coliseum was so raucous, Virginia Tech gamers stated they might really feel the constructing shake. The decibel degree at Carver-Hawkeye Area needed to have registered on a seismograph machine. The arenas at LSU and South Carolina had been packed.
However is it truthful within the NCAA event, when it is lose and your season is over?
You may make the argument that Georgia would have beat Iowa if that sport was performed on a impartial court docket. Princeton may need had a greater shot late towards Utah if taking part in wherever else. And there isn’t any approach Stanford would have been inside 10 factors of Ole Miss had the sport not been on the Cardinal’s house flooring.
The ladies’s sport has grown sufficient that the NCAA wants to think about impartial courts for all three weekends of the event.
