Ole Miss stuns Stanford, reaches first Sweet 16 in 16 years

STANFORD, Calif. (AP) — Madison Scott hit apair of free throws with 23 seconds left that gave Mississippi thelead for good, Angel Baker scored 13 points, and the Rebelsdelivered on their declaration to get defensive, stunningtop-seeded Stanford 54-49 on Sunday night to reach the NCAATournament’s Sweet 16 for the first time in 16 years.

Behind the entire game, Stanford called timeout with 28 secondsleft then Hannah Jump turned the ball over and Scott converted.Haley Jones lost the ball out of bounds on the Cardinal’s lastpossession with a chance to tie then again in the waningmoments.

Marquesha Davis hit a pair of free throws with 15.4 seconds toplay as Ole Miss overcame not making a field goal over the final5:47, going 0 for 8.

These upstart Rebels (25-8) advance to the Seattle Regionalsemifinal next weekend, while Tara VanDerveer’s Stanford team(29-6) is eliminated far earlier than this group envisioned — theseason ending on the Cardinal’s home floor.

GREENVILLE 1 REGION

No. 1 SOUTH CAROLINA 76, No. 8 SOUTH FLORIDA 45

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Zia Cooke scored 21 points and AliyahBoston had her 81st career double double as South Carolina shookoff a slow start to power past South Florida.

The Gamecocks improved to 34-0 with their 40th straight winoverall and moved four victories away from a second straightnational title. They’ll head to Greenville, where they won theSoutheastern Conference Tournament two weeks ago, to play for aspot in the Final Four.

Boston, the program career record holder for double doubles,finished with 11 points and 11 rebounds, coming out of her finalgame at home to a huge ovation.

South Florida (27-7) entered looking for a program-record 28thwin this season and its first berth in the Sweet 16, but after afeisty start, couldn’t hang with the Gamecocks.

No. 2 MARYLAND 77, No. 7 ARIZONA 64

COLLEGE PARK, Md. (AP) — Diamond Miller scored 13 of her 24points in the third quarter to help Maryland to a victory overArizona.

The Terrapins (27-6) advance to the Sweet 16 for a thirdstraight year and the 11th time under coach Brenda Frese. Marylandtrailed by a point after two quarters but ran past the Wildcats(22-10) in the second half.

Shyanne Sellers scored 15 points and Faith Masonius gave theTerps a lift with 12.

Frese was coaching against her alma mater. She played at Arizonaand graduated in 1993.

Cate Reese led Arizona with 19 points.

No. 3 NOTRE DAME 53, No. 11 MISSISSIPPI STATE 48

SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) — Lauren Ebo had 10 points, 18 reboundsand four blocks to help Notre Dame beat Mississippi State.

Maddy Westbeld added nine points and 15 rebounds for the Irish,who blew an eight-point lead in the fourth quarter before makingthe plays down the stretch for the win.

Mississippi State scored eight straight points to open thefourth quarter and tie the game at 41. Ebo scored the first Irishbasket of the final period on an offensive putback with 4:38remaining.

The Irish regained the lead for good on a pair of KK Bransfordfree throws with 3:49 left in the game, which gave Notre Dame a45-43 advantage. The Irish held onto the lead the rest of theway.

GREENVILLE 2 REGION

No. 2 UTAH 63, No. 10 PRINCETON 56

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Alissa Pili had 28 points and 10 reboundsto lead Utah to a win over Princeton.

Jenna Johnson added 15 points for the Utes, who made only one3-pointer but still advanced to their first Sweet 16 since2006.

Kaitlyn Chen scored 19 points, Grace Stone had 16 and EllieMitchell finished with 18 rebounds, including 10 on the offensiveend, for Princeton (24-6).

Down the stretch, the game turned into an old-fashionedrockfight. The teams combined to miss 15 consecutive field goalattempts at one point, but Utah (27-4) got to the free throw lineto advance and face No. 3 seed LSU.

No. 3 LSU 66, No. 6 MICHIGAN 42

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Angel Reese dismantled Michigan on bothends of the court with 25 points, 24 rebounds, six blocks and threesteals to help LSU beat the Wolverines.

Reese, a 6-foot-3 All-America forward, did most of her damagewith gauze wedged under her upper lip after a shot to her mouthdrew blood in the opening minutes of the game.

Alexis Morris scored 11 and LaDazhia Williams had 10 points and10 rebounds for LSU (30-2), which never trailed and held Michigan(23-10) to its lowest point total of the season.

SEATTLE 3 REGION

No. 1 VIRGINIA TECH 72, No. 9 SOUTH DAKOTA STATE 60

BLACKSBURG, Va. (AP) — Georgia Amoore scored 21 points andVirginia Tech held off South Dakota State.

Elizabeth Kitley added 14 points and 14 rebounds for the Hokies(29-4), who won their 13th consecutive game, to advance to theSweet 16 for just the second time in program history. They willplay the winner of Monday’s matchup between No. 12 seed Toledo andNo. 4 seed Tennessee.

Virginia Tech also set a school record with its 29th win,breaking the mark of 28 set by the 1998-99 squad — the only otherteam in school history to advance to the Sweet 16.

Myah Selland led South Dakota State (29-6) with 17 points andnine rebounds.

SEATTLE 4 REGION

No. 2 IOWA 74, No. 10 GEORGIA 66

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — Caitlin Clark had 22 points and 12assists while Monika Czinano added 20 points to help Iowa beatGeorgia.

The Hawkeyes (28-6) advance to the ninth Sweet Sixteen inprogram history.

Gabbie Marshall added 15 points and McKenna Warnock had 14 forIowa, which erased the memory of last season’s second-round homeloss to No. 10 seed Creighton.

Clark, a first-team Associated Press All-American, was heldscoreless for 13 minutes in the first half, but scored 14second-half points as the Hawkeyes finally shook off the10th-seeded Lady Bulldogs (22-12). She made just 6 of 17 shots, buteither scored or assisted on nearly every point by the Hawkeyes inthe second half.

Georgia, a No. 10 seed, got within 68-66 on a 3-pointer fromAudrey Warren with 2:17 left in the game, but the Lady Bulldogswould not score again, committing three straight turnovers andmissing a layup.

Diamond Battles led Georgia with 21 points. Brittney Smith andJavyn Nicholson each had 12 points.