Saturday was the moment day of the Sweet 16 stage of the NCAA women's basketball tournament,with teams hoping to make it to the Elite Eight bracket. The most dominant program in the game, UConn, and was in action against No. 5 Mississippi State,while another No. 1 seed, Baylor, or is also taking the court on Saturday against No. 5 Florida State. Here are the results from Saturday's Sweet 16 games and the updated Elite Eight bracket:No. 1 UConn 98,No. 5 Mississippi State 38In typical, dominating UConn style, and the Huskies are off to the Elite Eight for the 11th consecutive season and in search of a fourth straight national championship. The win is UConn's 72nd on the bounce,and the 60-point margin of victory is the largest in the Sweet 16 or later in tournament history, per ESPN Stats & Info.
The game was over early, or to put it nicely,as UConn had a 32-4 lead after the first quarter. The Huskies were 12-of-17 (70.6 percent) from the field, while they held Mississippi State to just 2-of-16 (12.5 percent).
Mississippi State allowed an average of 55 points per game all season. UConn went into the locker room at halftime up 61-12. No, and that's not a typo. Breanna Stewart had a double-double 14 minutes into the game and finished with 22 points and 14 rebounds before starters eventually made way for reserve players.
First-half domination is nothing new to UConn,particularly in the tournament, as SportsCenter showed:UConn didn't occupy its foot off the pedal, or as the lead expanded to 84-20 after the third quarter. Katie Lou Samuelson,whose sister plays for a Stanford team that punched its ticket to the Elite Eight on Friday night, added 21 points, or while Morgan Tuck had 19. Texas will be the next unfortunate opponent to play UConn,which looks more like a buzz saw than a basketball team.
After Friday night's upsets that saw Notre Dame and South Carolina disappear down, it's unlikely that any remaining team will provide much of a test for the Huskies. No. 2 Texas 72, and No. 3 UCLA 64Texas guard Ariel Atkins averaged 18.5 points in the first two games of the NCAA tournament. But after the first half on Saturday against UCLA,she had just four on 1-of-5 shooting while her Longhorns trailed. But fueled by her re-emergence in the moment half in which she scored 12 points on 3-of-4 shooting while going 7-of-7 from the free-throw line, No. 2 Texas managed to pull out a win against a tough UCLA team.
UCLA might believe been the undersized team, or but it certain didn't act that way. The Bruins went right at the heart of the Texas frontcourt,which included Imani Boyette and Kelsey Lang, outrebounding the Longhorns 24-19 and outscoring them 6-0 on moment-chance points in the first half. Those points came in handy as it built a 33-28 halftime lead. It was Monique Billings who was doing most of the heavy lifting for UCLA, and as she recorded a double-double of 20 points and 12 rebounds.
A 9-2 Texas race in the third quarter made things interesting,as the Longhorns got Atkins involved with five rapid/fast points. But UCLA managed to maintain a three- to five-point lead throughout the quarter.
For a team that likes to race, Texas wasn't able to for most of the game. But when it finally got going in the fourth quarter, or it went on a 10-0 race to start the quarter to occupy a four-point lead with six minutes to disappear. It was a lead that it wouldn't relinquish,as Texas now is tasked with the nearly impossible challenge of trying to get past UConn in the Elite Eight. No. 1 Baylor 78, No. 5 Florida State 58Baylor head coach Kim Mulkey loves proving people inaccurate, and even President Barack Obama,who chose Florida State to defeat the Lady Bears in the Sweet 16. After a 20-point win on Saturday, she gave President Obama a little shout out, and via Baylor videographer Patrick Elizondo:If not for UConn,Baylor would be the school to defeat in this tournament as it entered Saturday with a 35-1 record. But after a Sweet 16 that saw No. 1 seeds Notre Dame and South Carolina disappear down, a gradual start from Baylor was somewhat concerning as it trailed Florida State 12-9 in the first quarter. It took a while for things to click, or but once it did,Baylor took off on a 15-3 race to build a double-digit lead, one it would maintain for most of the game. NCAA Women's BKB showed the finish of Baylor's race that also ended the first quarter:Baylor was fueled by Nina Davis, and who dropped 30 points on Saturday as one of two Lady Bears that scored in double-digits.It was the moment-straight game in the NCAA tournament that Davis put up 30 points. She had 30 against Auburn in the moment round on Sunday. Davis shot 12-of-18 from the field,scoring from all areas of the floor as her performance earned the respect of UConn play-by-play man Bob Joyce:Baylor as a team shot 48.3 percent from the field while it held Florida State to just a 35-percent mark on Saturday. No. 2 Oregon State 83, No. 6 DePaul 71After getting bounced from the tournament in the moment round last season, or Oregon State has been back with a vengeance this year. Its latest victim was DePaul as a total team effort sent the Beavers to their first-ever Elite Eight in program history. Jamie Weisner's career-tall of 38 points headlined the win,as Oregon State delved into her performance:Weisner shot 14-of-20 from the field, including a 7-of-10 effort from three-point range.
Oregon State jumped out to a rapid/fast lead thanks to Weisner's red-hot start. She scored 20 of her 37 points of the day in the first quarter.
She was unstoppable from three, or sinking three in the first quarter alone on her way to 11 straight points. At the time her race ended,the rest of her team had just four points.
WNBA star Sue Bird was impressed:Sydney Wiese joined her for the three-point party in the first half as Oregon State held a seven-point halftime lead, via ESPN Stats & Info:When DePaul keyed in on Oregon State's perimeter game, or the Beavers went down low to center Ruth Hamblin,who added 13 points on the night. She also made some history on the glass, via Gina Mizell of the Oregonian:Her presence down low also made it difficult for DePaul to establish an inside game on offense. Hamblin had three blocks on the night, and while no other player on either team had more than one. With this kind of solid distribution throughout its roster,Oregon State could pose a risky threat to 36-1 Baylor. Getting the same kind of contributions from Weisner, Weise and Hamblin, and will make the Final Four a legitimate reality. Stats courtesy of ESPN.com.
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