NEW ORLEANS REGIONAL : Humphrey’s late shot sends Georgia into second round
Posted on Monday, March 24, 2008
NORFOLK, Va. — Tasha Humphrey made a go-ahead turnaround jumper with 58 seconds left and Ashley Houts hit eight free throws in the final 41 seconds as Georgia outlasted Iowa 67-61 on Sunday in the first round of the New Orleans regional.
The Bulldogs (23-9 ) will be seeking their sixth consecutive trip to the regional semifinals Tuesday when they play the region’s top seed, North Carolina. The top-seeded Tar Heels defeated 16 th-seeded Bucknell 85-50 earlier Sunday.
Angel Robinson led the eighth-seeded Bulldogs with 17 points and 11 rebounds, and Houts and Megan Darrah scored 13 each. Houts, who also had 12 assists, was 9 for 9 at the line.
“When you hit the first couple, it helps your confidence more than missing the first two,” said Houts, who also had four rebounds and only two turnovers. “After you make the first two, you have the confidence to just knock them down.” Humphrey finished with 12 points and 11 rebounds.
“I thought we did a really nice job on Tasha, and then she had a big basket, obviously, in crunch time,” Iowa Coach Lisa Bluder said.
The shot was the rare fadeaway that Coach Andy Landers liked seeing her take.
“Sometimes I think players resort to that shot when they’re desperate, but that wasn’t desperate,” said Landers, in his 29 th season with the Bulldogs. “That decision was driven by the will to win. I knew it was in when it left her hand.” Kristi Smith led Iowa (21-11 ) with 17 points and Wendy Ausdemore had 16, but the Hawkeyes ran out of steam in a back-andforth game. There were 11 lead changes in the second half. NORTH CAROLINA 85, BUCKNELL 50 NORFOLK, Va. — Beginning their pursuit of a third consecutive trip to the Final Four, the No. 1 seed Tar Heels (31-2 ) opened the game with a 21-2 run then sloppily coasted to victory over No. 16 seed Bucknell (16-16 ).
LaToya Pringle had 19 points and Erlana Larkins and Rashanda McCants had 15 each as the Tar Heels — a No. 1 seed for the fourth year in a row — won their 14 th consecutive game. They will play Georgia in the second round Tuesday night.
The Bison, making their second appearance in the tournament, missed 15 of their first 16 shots, trailed 48-25 at halftime and never got any closer, even with North Carolina Coach Sylvia Hatchell substituting liberally in the second half.
Lauren Schober led the Bison with 13 points but missed 12 of 16 shots. KANSAS STATE 69, CHATTANOOGA 59 BRIDGEPORT, Conn. — Little-used reserve Kelsey Nelson scored a career-high 20 points to help fifth-seeded Kansas State (22-9 ) snap No. 12 Chattanooga’s 24-game streak in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
Shalee Lehning added 12 points, 8 rebounds, and 7 assists for Kansas State, which will play Louisville on Tuesday night in the second round.
Laura Hall scored 19 points and Brooke Hand added 15, hitting five three-pointers for Chattanooga (29-4 ). The Lady Mocs last lost Dec. 1 to Alabama A&M. Chattanooga’s only other losses this season were to Tennessee and Louisville.
Kansas State shut down Alex Anderson, the Southern Conference Player of the Year. She scored just nine points, nearly eight fewer than her average, and was only 3 of 14 from the field. LOUISVILLE 81, MIAMI (OHIO ) 67 BRIDGEPORT, Conn. — Angel McCoughtry scored 20 points as Louisville (25-9 ) beat Miami of Ohio (23-11 ).
McCoughtry, the Big East’s leading scorer at almost 24 points a game, came in averaging only 13 points in three NCAA Tournament contests. She had 16 by halftime in this one.
Chauntise Wright led Louisville with 21 and 7 rebounds, and Patrika Barlow had 11 assists and 7 rebounds.
The fourth-seeded Cardinals are 12-2 since Jan. 30, and their only losses have come to West Virginia and top-ranked Connecticut in the Big East championship game.
Amanda Jackson led 13 th-seeded Miami with 22 points, 16 in the second half.
Louisville led by as many as 15 in the first half, but Miami cut it to 49-41 just over five minutes into the second half. A three-pointer from Jackson made it 58-49 with just over 9 minutes left.
But Brandie Radde answered with two three-pointers and Candyce Bingham added a three-point play to stretch the lead back to 67-49, and the Cardinals were never again threatened.
McCoughtry had 12 of the Cardinals first 18 points and helped Louisville to an early 24-11 lead.
The RedHawks responded with an 8-0 run, but Miami had no real answer for 6-3 Chauntise Wright, who used her size to get position inside on the smaller Hawks. She had 10 first-half points and McCoughtry had 16 as the Cardinals went into halftime leading 41-28.
SPOKANE REGIONAL NEBRASKA 61, XAVIER 58 COLLEGE PARK, Md. — The Cornhuskers (21-11 ) led the entire game and by 15 in the second half, then held off a furious comeback bid by Xavier (24-9 ) for the school’s first NCAA Tournament victory in 10 seasons. Kelsey Griffin scored a season-high tying 26 points for the eighth-seeded Cornhuskers. Tay Hester had 13 points and Cory Montgomery 12 to help Nebraska earn a matchup with top-seeded Maryland.
Jerri Taylor scored 19 points for Xavier, the Atlantic 10 champions. It was the third consecutive one-and-out NCAA Tournament appearance for the Musketeers since they reached the final of the Mideast Regional in 2001. MARYLAND 80, COPPIN STATE 66 COLLEGE PARK, Md. — Crystal Langhorne had 25 points and 12 rebounds as No. 1 seed Maryland (31-3 ) turned in an uninspired performance at home against unheralded Coppin State.
Marissa Coleman scored 17 and Laura Harper 14 for the Terrapins, who will face No. 8 seed Nebraska in the second round.
Coppin State made more field goals (27-24 ) than the Terrapins, had fewer turnovers (16-15 ) and played with far more fervor. Were it not for a 28-10 advantage at the free-throw line and a 42-26 rebounding edge, Maryland might have joined the 1998 Stanford squad as the only top seed to get bounced from the tournament by a No. 16.
Rashida Suber scored 25 points and Shalamar Oakley had 20 for Coppin State, the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference champions. The Eagles are 0-12 against in-state rival Maryland, but they didn’t hang their heads after this one.
Everything seemed to be going according to form in the opening minutes, when Coleman and Langhorne dominated the paint to stake the Terps to a 15-6 lead. The Eagles had already burned a timeout in an effort to blunt the onslaught, even though it appeared to be a futile gesture.
Then everything went askew. Suber scored on a layup, then Oakley made two free throws and a jumper. By the time those two were finished, they had combined for 14 consecutive points to put Coppin State ahead 20-15.
After Maryland pulled even, Oakley answered with a three-point play. The Terrapins went ahead 34-27, but Coppin responded by holding Maryland without a field goal for the final three minutes of the half.
Trailing 40-35 at the break, Coppin came out strong in the second half. A runner in the lane by Oakley pulled the Eagles within 45-41, but Harper made two free throws, Kristi Toliver hit a three-pointer, Langhorne made a layup and Ashleigh Newman capped a 10-0 run with jumper from beyond the arc for a 55-41 lead.
OKLAHOMA CITY REGIONAL TENNESSEE 94, ORAL ROBERTS 55 WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Freshman Angie Bjorklund hit four three-pointers and finished with 16 points to lead the Lady Volunteers (31-2 ) to a first-round rout over the 16 th-seeded Golden Eagles (19-14 ). Tennessee All-American Candace Parker had 14 points, 4 rebounds, 4 steals and 2 blocks in just 18 minutes and went to the bench for good with her fourth foul with 14: 04 left in the game. Truth was, top-seeded Tennessee didn’t need Parker much Sunday. The Lady Vols hit seven three-pointers in the first half and made 12 three-pointers in the game, their second-highest total of the season. Jenny Hardin had 16 points to lead Oral Roberts in its most-lopsided loss of the season. Tennessee will meet ninth-seeded Purdue on Tuesday night in the Boilermakers’ home arena. OKLAHOMA 69, ILLINOIS STATE 61 WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Fourth-seeded Oklahoma (22-8 ) started the second half with a 13-0 run, then held off a late rally to beat No. 13 seed Illinois State (26-7 ) in the first round of the Oklahoma City Regional.
Courtney Paris had 12 points and 12 rebounds for the Sooners to extend her streak of games with at least 10 points and 10 rebounds to 91 games. Ashley Paris scored 13 points for Oklahoma, which escaped the upset bid to end a three-game losing streak.
Kristi Cirone led Illinois State with 22 points. The Redbirds had won four consecutive, including three to win the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament. Oklahoma advanced to play Notre Dame on Tuesday.
Illinois State dropped to 1-5 in NCAA Tournament play. ARIZONA STATE 61, TEMPLE 54 COLLEGE PARK, Md. — Arizona State (22-10 ) followed an uncharacteristic poor first half with 5 1 / 2 minutes of brilliant basketball, and that was enough to defeat upset-minded Temple (21-13 ).
Lauren Lacey opened the second half with two consecutive baskets to ignite a 13-point run, and the Sun Devils advanced to the second round where they will face No. 3 seed Duke.
Lacey scored 14 points and Jill Noe 12 for the Sun Devils, who have won 6 of 7 and are 16-5 after a 6-5 start.
Ashley Morris led Temple with 21 points, and Lady Comfort had 11. NOTRE DAME 75, SMU 62 WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Ashley Barlow had 20 points, a career-high 12 rebounds, 4 steals and 3 assists, leading Notre Dame (24-8 ) past SMU (24-9 ).
It was only Notre Dame’s second victory ever on Purdue’s home court — both coming this season — after eight consecutive losses dating to 1985.
The surprise wasn’t that the Irish won. It was how they did it. They overcame 40. 6 percent shooting from the floor with a 49-26 advantage on the glass, pulling down nearly as many offensive rebounds (24 ) as defensive.
SMU, the Conference USA Tournament champion, rallied several times but eventually wore down inside. Janielle Dodds and Jillian Samuels had 15 points each to lead the 12 th-seeded Mustangs, but it wasn’t enough to extend their first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2000 to a second game.
If the Mustangs needed an explanation for what went wrong, it was clear — the rebounding differential.
And it was never more obvious than in the game’s decisive flurry. With Notre Dame leading 61-57 with 2: 29 to go, Charel Allen scored on a putback, drew a foul, then missed the free throw. Barlow grabbed the rebound, drew another foul and made the free throw to complete the five-point play.
That made it 66-57, and the Mustangs never challenged again.
Becca Bruszewski came off the bench to score 16 points for Notre Dame and Allen had 14 points and 11 rebounds. PURDUE 66, UTAH 59 WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Kalika France and FahKara Malone scored 17 points each as ninth-seeded Purdue (19-14 ) beat No. 8 Utah (27-5 ) in the first round of the Oklahoma City regional.
Danielle Campbell added 14 points for the Boilermakers.
Leilani Mitchell had 14 points, 9 assists and 6 rebounds for Utah, but also had 7 turnovers. Morgan Warburton led the Utes with 18 points, and Kalee Whipple added 14 points and 9 rebounds. DUKE 78, MURRAY STATE 58 COLLEGE PARK, Md. — Third-seeded Duke (24-9 ) never trailed and cruised past Murray State (24-8 ) to advance to the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
Duke has been to the NCAA Tournament 15 times, including 14 consecutive, without losing its opening game.
Wanisha Smith scored 16 points and Chante Black had 14 for Duke, which finished with a 48-29 rebounding advantage. After allowing Murray State to cut a 15-point deficit to 37-32, the Blue Devils used a 17-3 run to make it 54-34 with 12: 21 to go.
That ended any hope 14 th-seeded Murray State had of pulling off a huge upset in its first trip to the NCAA Tournament. Ashley Hayes scored 24 for the Racers, champions of the Ohio Valley Conference.
GREENSBORO REGIONAL CONNECTICUT 89, CORNELL 47 BRIDGEPORT, Conn. — Maya Moore scored 17 points to lead a balanced offense as top-ranked Connecticut (33-1 ) beat No. 16 seed Cornell (20-9 ). UConn hasn’t won a first-round game by fewer than 23 points since 1995, the year the Huskies won the first of their five national titles. Charde Houston added 14 points, Brittany Hunter had 11 and Renee Montgomery 10 as Connecticut shot 54 percent from the field. The victory served as a birthday present to Geno Auriemma, who turned 54 on Sunday. Allie Fedorowicz and Gretchen Gregg scored eight points each to lead Cornell. Cornell hung with UConn until the first media timeout, trailing 7-5. The Huskies then went on a 22-2 run over the next 5: 30 to put away the game. UConn held Cornell without a field goal for nearly 11 minutes to extend its lead to 41-16. OLD DOMINION 82, LIBERTY 62 NORFOLK, Va. — Shahida Williams scored 20 points on 10-for-11 shooting and Old Dominion (30-4 ) ended its six-game losing streak in the NCAA Tournament with a victory against Liberty (28-4 ).
The fifth-seeded Lady Monarchs, winners of an NCAA-record 17 consecutive Colonial Athletic Association titles, had lost five firstround games in a row, including two in their own Constant Convocation Center.
But Williams dominated inside and Jazzmin Walters hit 3 three-pointers, the last to spark a 15-0 first-half run that the undermanned Lady Flames couldn’t answer.
Walters finished with 12 points and nine assists for the Lady Monarchs and Jessica Canady scored 14, all in the second half. Megan Pym had seven blocked shots.
Megan Frazee led Liberty with 19 points. TEXAS 72, MINNESOTA 55 BRIDGEPORT, Conn. — Texas made an emphatic statement in its first game back in the NCAA Tournament since 2005 as Brittainy Raven scored 19 points to lead the eighth-seeded Longhorns (22-12 ) over No. 9 seed Minnesota (20-12 ).
Erneisha Bailey added 16 for Texas, which will play top-ranked Connecticut in the second round Tuesday.
Emily Fox led Minnesota with 23 points, six more than her season average, and Leslie Knight added 12. VIRGINIA 86, UC SANTA BARBARA 52 NORFOLK, Va. — Lyndra Littles scored 17 points and the Cavaliers (24-9 ) used a 16-0 run early in the second half to break open their first-round game against UC Santa Barbara (23-8 ).
The victory sets the Cavaliers up for a showdown with Old Dominion for state bragging rights Tuesday night.
Aisha Mohammed added 15 points and Sharnee Zoll had 13 for Virginia.
The Cavaliers outscored UC Santa Barbara 31-12 from the line and had a 47-31 rebounding edge.
The Gauchos, who won the Big West tournament for the 10 th time in the past 12 years, lost for just the second time in 21 games.
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