The women’s NCAA tournament continued Saturday with 16 first-round games.
Top seeds Iowa and USC hosted games Saturday afternoon, with Caitlin Clark and the Hawkeyes advancing with a 91-65 win over Holy Cross. JuJu Watkins and Southern California prevailed 87-55 over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. Elsewhere, Hannah Hidalgo and No. 2 Notre Dame defeated Kent State, 81-67, and Paige Bueckers and No. 3 UConn won vs. Jackson State, 85-64. In a late game, No. 2 UCLA put on a defensive clinic against Cal Baptist, holding them to 29% shooting for the game in an 84-55 win, while No. 5 Utah survived a second-quarter scare against South Dakota State for a 68-54 win.
NCAA women’s basketball tournament schedule
Sunday, March 24 — Second round
(2) Ohio State vs. (7) Duke | 12 p.m.
(1) South Carolina vs. (8) North Carolina | 1 p.m.
(4) Kansas State vs. (5) Colorado | 2 p.m.
(3) LSU vs. (11) Middle Tennessee | 3 p.m.
(3) Oregon State vs. (6) Nebraska | 4 p.m.
(1) Texas vs. (8) Alabama | 6 p.m.
(4) Virginia Tech vs. (5) Baylor | 8 p.m.
(2) Stanford vs. (7) Iowa State | 10 p.m.
March Madness : Utah survives second-quarter scare, knocks out SD State
There’s not much you can do when Alissa Pili is striking like this.
Pili led Utah, who overcame a scare from South Dakota State in the second quarter to win 68-54 and move on to the second round of the NCAA Tournament, with 26 points on 11 of 20 shooting and seven rebounds.
The only players in double figures for the Utes were Pili and Kennady McQueen (17 points each). Ten rebounds were contributed by Jenna Johnson.
The Jackrabbits trailed by just three points at halftime after virtually eliminating a 20-point deficit in the second quarter. But in the third quarter, Pili shot 4 of 7 and South Dakota State was unable to keep up.
Apart from Tori Nelson, the Jackrabbits suffered immensely off the field, which didn’t help. Nelson ranked fourth out of seven the game but the rest of the Jackrabbits were 12 of 42.
