Women’s March Madness Roundup: Kansas State snaps 23-year drought

LEXINGTON, Ky. — Temira Poindexter hit a corner three-pointer with 56 seconds left in overtime — her eighth 3 of the game — and fifth-seeded Kansas State dodged four misses by No. 4 seed Kentucky in the closing seconds to beat the host Wildcats 80-79 in the second round of the women’s NCAA Tournament on Sunday.

Kentucky star Georgia Amoore missed a jumper with 21 seconds left, a three-pointer with 16 seconds remaining and then a baseline layup at the buzzer. Amelia Haslett also missed a 3 that would have put Kentucky ahead at Rupp Arena.

Poindexter missed her first six shots but finished 8 of 15 beyond the arc to score 24 points. Serena Sundell added 19 points, including a turnaround jumper with 8 seconds left to force overtime, and Ayoka Lee scored 16.

Kansas State (28-7) advanced to face either JuJu Watkins and top-seeded Southern California or No. 9 seed Mississippi State in the Sweet 16 in Spokane, Washington.

BIRMINGHAM REGIONAL 2

DUKE 59, OREGON 53

DURHAM, N.C. — Ashlon Jackson scored 14 of her 20 points in the third quarter to power No. 2 seed Duke to a victory over 10th-seeded Oregon.

Duke (28-7) played without leading scorer Toby Fournier, the Atlantic Coast Conference rookie of the year who averages 13.4 points and 5.2 rebounds per game.

The 6-foot-2 Canadian forward was dealing with an illness, ESPN reported.

Jackson shot 5 of 9 on three-pointers and had four rebounds. Reigan Richardson added 13 points while Delaney Thomas scored 12.

In her eighth career game against Duke, former North Carolina guard Deja Kelly finished with 20 points on 8-of-18 shooting for the Ducks (20-12). Phillipina Kyei had 14 points and 13 rebounds.

SOUTH CAROLINA 64, INDIANA 53

COLUMBIA, S.C. — Bree Hall had 11 points and Chloe Kitts scored all her 10 points in the second half as top seed South Carolina pulled away after trailing at halftime to beat ninth-seeded Indiana and reach the Sweet 16 for the 11th straight time.

Kitts added 10 rebounds for the Gamecocks (32-3), who will take on either fourth-seeded Maryland or fifth-seeded Alabama in the Birmingham 2 Regional next week. Those teams play Monday night.

Not that anyone at Colonial Life Arena was locking South Carolina into that game after a dreadful first-half performance where they shot just 10 of 29 and trailed the Hoosiers 26-25 at the break. But the Gamecocks came out on fire in the third quarter, hitting nine of their first 10 shots for a 20-7 run to take control.

When Hall’s third three-pointer closed the surge, the Gamecocks had the game in hand and improved to 18-1 in their past four NCAA Tournaments.

Indiana couldn’t get closer than seven points the rest of the way.

BIRMINGHAM REGIONAL 3

NOTRE DAME 76, MICHIGAN 55

SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Hannah Hidalgo scored 21 points and No. 3 seed Notre Dame routed No. 6 seed Michigan.

Notre Dame advanced to the Sweet 16 for the fourth consecutive season. The Irish will have a rematch in Birmingham against either TCU or Louisville. The Horned Frogs defeated Notre Dame in the Cayman Islands in November. The Fighting Irish swept Louisville in two ACC regular-season games.

Olivia Miles, who suffered an ankle injury in Notre Dame’s 106-54 victory against Stephen F. Austin in the first round, started for the Fighting Irish. She had eight points, five assists and four rebounds.

Liatu King turned in a double-double with 18 points and 15 rebounds. Sonia Citron scored 16 points for Notre Dame.

TCU 85, LOUISVILLE 70

FORT WORTH, Texas — Agnes Emma-Nnopu scored 23 points with four three-pointers, Hailey Van Lith had a double-double against her former team and second-seeded TCU advanced to its first NCAA Sweet 16 in the women’s NCAA Tournament with a win over seventh-seeded Louisville.

Van Lith had 16 points and 10 assists after going to a Final Four and two other Elite Eight games with Louisville from 2021-23. She played in her 19th tourney game, the most among active players, after going to another Elite Eight with LSU last season.

Sedona Prince had 19 points and Donovyn Hunter 18, including three three-pointers in a 17-0 run that put the Horned Frogs (33-3) ahead to stay.

Jayda Curry had a career-high 41 points for the Cardinals (22-11). She already had 15 of those when when she made a jumper that put them up 17-13 with 2:57 left in the first quarter. before TCU’s game-turning run when Van Lith made the go-ahead basket.

Before winning twice at home when hosting for the first time, the Big 12 champion Horned Frogs hadn’t even made the NCAA field in 15 years — and last won a tourney game since 2006. They were 1-17 in conference games two years ago before Mark Campbell became their coach and has since brought in 11 transfers, most with NCAA experience.

TENNESSEE 82, OHIO STATE 67

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Talaysia Cooper had 19 points, eight rebounds, seven steals and five assists and Zee Spearman added 17 points and five rebounds as fifth-seeded Tennessee beat fourth-seeded Ohio State.

Ruby Whitehorn added 14 points and five rebounds and Samara Spencer had 10 points for Tennessee (24-9).

The Lady Vols advanced to play either No. 1 seed Texas or No. 8 seed Illinois in Birmingham, Alabama, on Saturday.

Jaloni Cambridge had 19 points and five rebounds and Cotie McMahon had 17 points and five rebounds for Ohio State (26-7).

SPOKANE REGIONAL 1

MISSISSIPPI 69, BAYLOR 63

WACO, Texas — Madison Scott scored 14 points, including a tiebreaking jumper in the final minute, and Mississippi advanced to the Sweet 16 of the women’s NCAA Tournament with a victory over Baylor on the Bears’ home court.

Sira Thienou, playing with gauze stuffed into one of her nostrils, scored 16 points as the Rebels (22-10) won twice in Waco three years after a first-round loss that was the first tournament victory for South Dakota.

Aaronette Vonleh scored 16 points for the Bears (28-8), who failed to advance to the Sweet 16 from their arena for the second time in four seasons under coach Nicki Collen. They had done so eight consecutive times under Kim Mulkey, who won three national championships at Baylor.

Ole Miss, which had the resume to be an early-round host, settled for the No. 5 seed, its highest since 1994, and moved on to the Spokane 1 Regional.

UCLA 84, RICHMOND 67

LOS ANGELES — Lauren Betts had 30 points and 14 rebounds and overall No. 1 seed UCLA defeated Richmond to reach the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament.

The Bruins (32-2) broke open a close game in the third quarter after the eighth-seeded Spiders (28-7) scored the last seven points before halftime to pull into a 36-36 tie.

The teams traded three-pointers to open the third. After that, UCLA poured it on, hitting four more three-pointers and outscoring the Spiders 29-7 to lead 65-43 going into the fourth.

UCLA stepped up its defense, too, forcing the Spiders into missing 12 of 15 shots and going 5 1/2 minutes without scoring. They had no answer for the 6-foot-7 Betts, who scored 10 points and finished 14 of 17 from the floor.