Michigan women end UNLV’s 22-game win streak in first round Notre Dame women beat Southern Utah 82-56 in March Madness South Florida women rally to beat Marquette 67-65 in OT No. 1 Gamecocks cruise past Norfolk State in March Madness Georgia ousts Florida State women from March Madness 66-54 Nunge’s block seals Xavier’s win over Kennesaw St in NCAAs

Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Emily Kiser scored 18 points and grabbed 10 rebounds, Maddie Nolan added 18 points, and the sixth seed Michigan beat the 11th seed UNLV 71-59 on Friday in the first round of the NCAA Women’s Tournament, passing the Rebels. 22 match winning streak.

Leiga Brown scored 17 points for Michigan (23-9), who have lost three of their previous four games. The Wolverines used their size and fitness advantages to create and maintain a double-digit lead for most of their first game in the Greenville 2 region.

Guard Lyla Felia, with a bandage on her left knee and playing in her third game after missing seven with a leg injury, had an impact on defense with a career-high 11 rebounds and eight points less. over half of her GPA is 16.9.

In the second round, the Wolverines will face either the third seed LSU or the 14th seed in Hawaii.

UNLV (31-3) fell short of the longest winning streak in program history. His Mountain West Tournament wins equaled those he had previously won in the 1978-79 and 1989-90 seasons.

The Rebels were undefeated (27-0) with 69 or more points, a total they failed to achieve against a team from Michigan that outscored them 41-31 in rebounding.

Essence Booker scored 16 points for UNLV, while Justice Ethridge and Desi-Rae Young each scored 11 points.

Michigan took the lead for good when Felia’s offensive rebound resulted in Brown getting a second chance to go 9–7 in the first quarter.

The Wolverines took a 13-point lead in the second quarter before Kenadi Winfrey and Ethridge each gained 3 seconds during an 8-0 series to help UNLV close to five points.

Michigan led 28-20 at halftime. The Wolverines took a 17-point lead when Kiser scored eight free throws, two layups and 3 points at 12-0 to make it 48-31 at the end of the third period. After that, UNLV only came close to nine points.

BIG PICTURE

UNLV: Shooting 28% (7 of 25) from three-point range, well below the all-season average of 33.8% shooting. … Overall 38% shooting (23 out of 60), which is also well below the season average of 46.3%. .

Michigan: Turned 12 offensive rebounds into 13 second chance points. … Finished with a 20-14 loss lead.

South Bend – Forward Maddy Westbeld scored 20 points to lead Notre Dame from 3rd to an 82-56 victory over 14th-seeded South Utah in the first round of the NCAA Women’s Tournament.

Defender Sonya Citron scored 14 points and six assists. The team’s top scorer, she developed into the team’s primary coordinator, and second-team Associated Press All-American quarterback Olivia Miles missed the remainder of the season with an undisclosed knee injury.

Lauren Ebo posted a double-double with 14 points and 10 rebounds.

Megan Jensen led Southern Utah (23-10) with 11 points.

Notre Dame (26-5) awaits the winner of Friday night’s first-round matchup between No. 6 Creighton and No. 11 Mississippi State.

NEVER DOUBT

Notre Dame took a 16–0 lead and kept up with the gas.

The Irish led 27-10 at the end of the first quarter, making 13 of 16 field goals with 20 in the paint. Westbeld led with eight points, while Ebo and Watson each scored six points.

BIG PICTURE

Southern Utah: A magical end to the 2022-23 season. The Thunderbirds won the Western Athletic Conference Tournament title and earned their first-ever NCAA Tournament seed.

Notre Dame: The ACC regular season champions are looking to play the Sweet Sixteen for a second straight season.

COLOMBIA, South Carolina. Dulcy Fancam Mengiadeu scored 22 points, while jumper Elena Zineke, with 31.2 seconds left in overtime, gave South Florida the lead for good in a 67-65 victory over No. 9 seed Marquette to kick off the NCAA Women’s Tournament on Friday.

The Golden Eagles (22-11) had the last chance to win, but Mackenzie Hare’s three-pointer hit the basket and rolled out a second before the game.

“What a way to start the NCAA Tournament,” said South Florida coach Jose Fernandez.

The Bulls (27-6), who were off the lead in the first 38 minutes of the game, moved up several times, including from 47-36 on the first team, to equal their season winning record.

Breaking the record this year won’t be easy as South Florida will face No. 1 seed overall and defending champion South Carolina, undefeated this year 33-0 after a 72-40 win over Norfolk State 16- and sown.

“We have one day to prepare for them and they have one day to prepare for us,” Fernandez said. – So let’s see.

The Bulls appeared to win the game late in the fourth quarter, leading 59–55 after Zineke’s three-pointer with 31.7 left in the game. But Hare’s two penalties after losing the ball in South Florida equalized and forced an extra session.

The lead changed hands six times in overtime, most recently at the Zineke basket.

“This game says we just shouldn’t give up,” said Zineke, the eldest, who made just one of her first nine shots before warming up.

She finished with 13 points, 11 of which came in the fourth quarter and overtime.

Fancam Mengiadeu ended her career with 16 rebounds, recording her 24th double-double this season and 56th of her career.

It was a disappointing result for the Golden Eagles (22–11), who took a double-digit lead with Chloe Marotta scoring 25 points. But the 6’1″ senior, Big East first team player, fouled at 2:56 to play OT.

“This is the hardest day of the year,” Marquette coach Megan Duffy said.

South Florida came in with a different finishing mindset than they did in this building a year ago, when the Bulls lost an eight-nine game to #8 seed Miami in their first NCAA season with Team Colombia.

BIG PICTURE

Marquette: The Golden Eagles have appeared in two NCAA Tournaments in Coach Megan Duffy’s four seasons. They have a strong base of young players, including Hare and freshman Emily La Chapelle, who need to be developed in the future. “We’re in the dance and we’ve earned every bit of it,” Duffy said.

South Florida: The Bulls won the AAC regular season title and have a strong one-two combination in Fancam Mengiadeu and Zinek that should keep them close to anyone — maybe even the No. 1 national team .

A MATTER OF NERVES?

Fancam Mengiadeu admitted that she was nervous when she stood at the free throw line in overtime, her team was ahead by one and faced a pair of free throws. “I was scared,” she said with a laugh. Fancam Mengiadeu made one of two, which was enough to keep the Bulls ahead, “so it worked out.”

COLOMBIA, South Carolina. It wasn’t the NCAA Tournament debut that South Carolina coach Dawn Staley had hoped to see from the Gamecocks’ best players.

The final score was 72-40 against No. 16 seeded Norfolk State (26-7) on Friday. Staley saw poor shooting early on and an incoherent attack that could cost her team down the road.

“If it wasn’t for the way we play defense, (Norfolk State) would probably give us a lot of trouble given the way we threw the ball,” Staley said.

Zia Cook scored 11 points, and South Carolina moved five wins away from a perfect season. Aaliyah Boston had seven points, nine rebounds and two blocks for the Gamecocks (33-0), who won their 39th consecutive game since last year’s NCAA title run.

They also went 11-0 in the first round games under Staley. Not so much it mattered to the two-time coach of the national championship.

She was so frustrated with her attack that she called an early timeout in the second quarter with her team’s 24-12 score, which she rarely does.

Staley told her players to shut up because it’s not getting any easier. “We were trying to force something that wasn’t there, trying to make spectacular games, not just simplify,” she said. “This has happened more than once and it’s time to let our players know that we don’t want to give (opponents) opportunities.”

It was a colossal mismatch from the start, like so many other games South Carolina has played in this season.

“Wow,” Norfolk coach Larry Vickers said when he first sat down to speak to the media.

Norfolk State’s tallest player is freshman forward Skye Robinson at 6ft 2ft. South Carolina has seven players the same height or taller. The tallest Spartan player on the bench? Vickers, head coach of the 6-9 team, moved to the Spartan men’s team and eventually became its captain.

“They’re as good as you’d expect,” he said. “And they just keep kicking them out, kicking them out.”

South Carolina did their best to end any drama early as Boston and Cook scored five points each in the first quarter, leading 20-7.

Gamecock starters improved things in the third quarter with a first six points and a 40–18 lead, and the Spartans couldn’t hope to catch up. The gap widened to 30 points after three quarters, and few in the full and grenade stands complained.

Vickers joked Thursday that he wasn’t sure how much of a home game it was until he walked around the arena and saw Staley’s banner from ceiling to door at the building’s main entrance.

Kirra Wheeler led Norfolk State with 13 points. The Spartans scored almost 40% for the season, but the Gamecocks lost 16 of 61 (26%) to them.

Wheeler, a 6-1 sophomore who spent time guarding Boston 6-5, admitted how quickly that can tire you out. “Me, being the one who guarded Alia, yes, I did,” Wheeler said. “It was definitely a challenge.”

South Carolina’s second-round rival, South Florida, won the regular season of the American Athletic Conference and has a pair of top scorers in Elena Cineke and Dulcie Fancam Mengiadeu. Fancam Mengiadeu has 24 double-doubles this season, more than the Gamecocks’ Boston has 20.

BIG PICTURE

Norfolk State: A year ago, the Spartans were defeated in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference title game, contributing to this season’s league title and first-place finish in the NCAA Tournament…