The second round of the NCAA March Madness women’s tournament came to a close on Monday, and now the field for the Sweet 16 is set.
All four No.1 seeds are still alive, while two ten-seeds, South Dakota and Creighton, are making their first-ever appearances in the Sweet 16 round.
The Texas Longhorns survived as the No.2 seed in the Spokane region. They will face No.6 Ohio State in a regional semifinal on Friday.
Texas earned a No.2 seed after winning the Big 12 Conference tournament. In the first round, they overpowered 15-seed Fairfield in a 70-52 win. Texas led the entire game as they raced out to a 39-18 halftime lead.
Texas was matched up against No.7 Utah in the second round and again won comfortably, 78-56. The Longhorns made 71% of their shot attempts before halftime. After holding a 14-point lead at the break, Texas extended it to as many as 26 points in the second half.
Utah was coming off a dominant 92-69 first-round win over ten-seed Arkansas, in which they made 15 three-pointers. Against Texas, they made just 6-of-20.
Two freshmen are leading the Longhorns. Aaliyah Moore had 18 points and ten rebounds against Fairfield. She then led the team with 21 points against Utah.
The Big 12 Freshman Player of the Year, Rori Harmon, scored 10 points and had 11 assists against Fairfield. She followed that up with 11 points and eight assists versus Utah.
If the Longhorns get past No.6 Ohio State, they will face the winner between the defending champion and one-seed Stanford and No.4 Maryland in the Spokane Regional final.
In the Wichita Region, the Baylor Bears were the No.2 seed. Still, they suffered a surprising 61-47 upset at home to No.10 South Dakota in the second round.
Baylor was the Big 12 regular-season champion for the 12th consecutive year and had won 17 straight NCAA tournament games played on their home court since 2011.
However, South Dakota scored the first 11 points of the game and never trailed.
The loss gave the Baylor women their earliest tournament exit since 2008. It also ended a streak for the Bears of 66 consecutive wins against non-Big 12 opponents at home. The las time the team lost at home to a non-conference opponent was against UConn on January 13, 2014.
South Dakota is making only its fifth-ever appearance in the tournament. The team had never won a tournament game before their 75-61 first-round win over No.7 Mississippi.
On Saturday, South Dakota will play No.3 Michigan in the Wichita Regional semifinal. In the region’s other semifinal, No.1 Louisville will square off against No.4 Tennessee.
In the Bridgeport Region, the Oklahoma Sooners were the No.4 seed, but they were defeated thoroughly in a 108-64 blowout loss to No.5 Notre Dame.
The Sooners committed 28 turnovers and made just 32.3% of their shot attempts.
Notre Dame quickly exerted their will as they raced ahead to an early 25-7 lead and extended it to a commanding 60-25 at halftime. The 60 points are the most Notre Dame has ever scored in a half of a tournament game.
Notre Dame reached the 100-point mark with over four minutes remaining. The Fighting Irish are now the first team in the history of both the men’s and women’s tournaments to beat a higher-seeded team by 40 points or more. They will play No.1 seed North Carolina State on Saturday in a Bridgeport Regional semifinal.
No.2 UConn will face No.3 Indiana in the other Bridgeport Regional Semifinal.
In the Greensboro Region, the tournament’s No.1 overall seed, South Carolina, will face No.5 North Carolina in one regional semifinal. The other regional semifinal will feature No.3 Iowa State against No.10 Creighton.
