Lexington Region Round of 32 Game Breakdowns
#1 Notre Dame vs. #9 Indiana
Notre Dame had six players score in double figures as they cruised past North Carolina A&T. Brianna Turner led the way with 16 points, despite playing just 15 minutes. That was partly due to some foul trouble, but mostly due to the fact that Notre Dame had no reason to push their superstar with, potentially, five more games coming up. The Irish will play Indiana in the second round. The Hoosiers are making the most of their first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2002 and beat Georgia 62-58. Sophomore Tyra Buss had a big game, scoring 23 points and adding seven rebounds and five assists.
Indiana will need big performances from more than just Buss if they want to get past Notre Dame. Even Buss needs to play better after making just one of her six attempts from beyond the arc. But Alexis Gassion needs to find her shot and Amanda Cahill needs to continue to be a stretch four threat, while also playing great defense. And it will be Indiana’s defense that has to play well in order for them to hang around with Notre Dame. The Irish just have way too many though and the Irish are not going to wait until now to lose at home.
#4 Stanford vs. #12 South Dakota State
South Dakota State pulled off the second 12 over 5 upset in the last two days. The amazing thing is the Jackrabbits committed 22 turnovers and shot just 16-of-27 from the free-throw line in their 74-71 win over Miami. But freshman Madison Guebert knocked down five three-pointers and scored 19 points. It was that outside shooting that was the difference for the Jackrabbits. They will move on to face host Stanford in the second round. The Cardinal crushed San Francisco and got another big game out of Erica McCall.
South Dakota State proved that they can beat big conference teams by making shots. Miami tried to feed their forwards, but freshman reserve Emese Hof was the only one who was able to take advantage of the South Dakota State frontcourt. In fact, it was Ellie Thompson and Clarissa Ober who were taking advantage of the Miami frontcourt. Stanford has a tough frontcourt with McCall and Kaylee Johnson. Johnson is usually not much of a scorer, averaging just 5.7 points per game heading into the tournament, but she was a consistent offensive force against San Francisco. South Dakota State is going to have a much tougher time dissecting the Stanford defense, especially in the paint. The Jackrabbits will likely have to rely even more on their outside shooting if they are going to pull off another huge upset.
Kentucky hit 50.0 percent of their shots from the floor and 50.0 percent of their three-point attempts. Even if Kentucky was not shooting so well, they would have beaten UNC-Asheville, but with the Wildcats hitting so many shots, it was never even a game. It was a great start to the tournament for Kentucky. As expected, Oklahoma had to battle against 11th seeded Purdue. The Sooners were led by Peyton Little with 20 points and Madde Manning with a dozen. Yet, it was the combination of poor shooting from the Boilermakers and solid defense by OU that led to the 61-45 victory.
Oklahoma allowed Purdue to shoot just 28.1 percent from the floor. Purdue took 64 shots, yet ended up with just 45 points. Oklahoma deserves a lot of the credit, but Purdue shot 38.5 percent from the line and OU did not have much to do with that. Coming off of Kentucky’s hot shooting first round, it will be very interesting to see how the Sooners defense does against Kentucky. And it will be interesting to see how the Kentucky offense does against the Oklahoma defense. Kentucky does not need to shoot 50.0 percent from the floor to beat Oklahoma, but they do need to do better than Purdue did against the Oklahoma defense.
#2 Maryland vs. #7 Washington
Maryland took care of 15th seeded Iona on Saturday by a score of 74-58. It was not the dominating play that most expected, but the Terps were knocking down shots and hitting their free-throws. The problem was the 19 turnovers and that kept the Gaels in the game. Washington, meanwhile, beat Penn 65-53 behind Kelsey Plum’s 24 points. UW and Plum got off to a slow start and Plum hit just one three-pointer in eight attempts.
Both Maryland and Washington need to play better if they are going to advance to the Sweet 16. Maryland, with their home court advantage, are the clear favorites in this one, but do not overlook a potentially explosive Washington team. Guard Alexus Atchley and forward Talia Walton stepped up and turned into the Huskies outside shooting threats while Plum was doing most of her damage inside the arc. If Maryland lets Washington stick around like they let Iona, then Plum can make them pay if she starts getting hot and knocking down shots.
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