March Madness live updates: NCAA women's tournament results, highlights
March Madness continues Monday, and the NCAA women's tournament takes center stage. The remaining teams in the Sweet 16 will be determined in today's action, which started shortly after noon Eastern with No. 2 seed N.C. State demolishing No. 7 Michigan State, 83-49. Now, No. 1 seed Texas is taking on No. 8 Illinois. Later, No. 4 seed Maryland plays No. 5 Alabama at 5 p.m. Other highlights include No. 3 seed LSU vs. No. 6 Florida State at 6 p.m., No. 2 seed U-Conn. vs. No. 10 South Dakota State at 8 p.m., and No. 1 seed USC vs. No. 9 Mississippi State at 10 p.m.
Illinois is looking to become only the third No. 8 seed to take down a No. 1 seed in the round of 32. Mississippi was the most recent to do it, two years ago against No. 1 Stanford. Boston College was the first to do it, in 2006 against Ohio State.
Saturday's first-round win over Creighton was Illinois's first in 25 years. The Illini have been a Big Ten afterthought for much of the span between then and now, though Coach Shauna Green has led Illinois to the NCAA tournament in two of her first three seasons. Texas is a No. 1 seed for the second straight season.
Top-seeded Texas and No. 8 Illinois are underway in Austin, with the winner advancing to the Sweet 16 in the Birmingham 3 bracket. Led by sophomore Madison Booker, the Longhorns are looking for their fourth Sweet 16 trip in five seasons. Illinois hasn't won two games in a single NCAA tournament since 1998.
N.C. State's three dominant guards are so efficient, but that was a fantastic defensive performance from the Wolfpack that shows how motivated they are to make their second straight Final Four. It'll be fun to see if they face Florida State next, who has Ta'Niya Latson, the country's leading scorer averaging 25 points.
North Carolina State did not enter Tuesday's second-round NCAA tournament game against visiting Michigan State as a renowned three-point threat. Only 31.8 percent of the Wolfpack's field goal attempts were from long range, a number that ranked in the bottom half of Division I, and it made only 32.5 percent of those shots, which wasn't in the top 100.
The third quarter ended much like the first two, with North Carolina State hitting a three-pointer to extend its lead over Michigan State to an almost certainly insurmountable 69-36. The Wolfpack is 10 minutes away from its sixth Sweet 16 appearance over the last seven NCAA tournaments.
North Carolina State has 14 three-pointers with a few minutes left in the third quarter, storming past its previous program record for three-pointers made in an NCAA tournament game (10, set three times). The Wolfpack overall program record is 16, set in 2021 against Pittsburgh and 2014 against Mount St. Mary's.
In case you were wondering, the biggest deficit ever overcome in NCAA women's basketball tournament history is 21 points, by Texas A&M against Pennsylvania in the 2017 first round. The Quakers led the Aggies, 58-37, with 8½ minutes left to play, but Texas A&M closed on a 26-3 run to score a 63-61 victory.
This has turned into a complete rout, with North Carolina State storming out to a 47-23 halftime lead over Michigan State. The Wolfpack went on a 12-0 run that spanned the first and second quarters and closed the half with a 13-4 run over the final 3 minutes 51 seconds. The Spartans have 11 turnovers.
The Wolfpack entered Monday's game as good but not great three-point shooters, averaging 6.8 per game on 32.5 percent shooting. But N.C. State already has made 8 of 12 three-pointers midway through the second quarter against Michigan State, with Madison Hayes (4 of 4) and Aziaha James (3 of 5) doing most of the damage. It's now 39-21.
Julia Ayrault finally ended Michigan State's scoring drought on a three-pointer with 8 minutes 17 seconds left in the second quarter. The Spartans had gone nearly seven minutes of game time without a point, digging themselves a 31-12 hole to North Carolina State.
North Carolina State already has five three-pointers through one quarter after only making four in Saturday's first-round win over Vermont. The Wolfpack ended the quarter on a 12-0 run and have amassed a 27-9 lead. Michigan State looks lost out there and failed to score over the final 5 minutes 5 seconds of the quarter.
The Wolfpack, which has stretched its lead to 18-9 and is 4 of 5 from three-point range, has won 19 straight home games in the NCAA tournament, last losing in Raleigh in 1983, the program's second year in Division I.
North Carolina State has jumped out to an early 12-4 lead, as the Wolfpack has taken advantage of some soft defending on Michigan State's part. Madison Hayes has been given plenty of room on both of her three-point attempts and made both of them, the second leading to a Spartans timeout.
No seed lower than a No. 5 has claimed a Sweet 16 berth thus far, so the seventh-seeded Spartans are looking to break up the tournament's chalky run (last year, the lowest-seeded Sweet 16 team was No. 7 Duke). But Coach Wes Moore has led the Wolfpack to at least the Sweet 16 in three of the past four seasons.
The final women's Sweet 16 bids will be claimed on Monday, starting with No. 2 North Carolina State's home game against seventh-seeded Michigan State. The Spartans are looking for their first trip to the regional semifinals in 16 years, but will have to topple the Wolfpack, a Final Four team last season. Keep it here for all the updates.
RALEIGH, N.C. — There are many ways to be good at basketball, both as a team and an individual player. But this March Madness, Duke is affirming an age-old strategy, one that stretches from pickup runs to the biggest games of the college season: It certainly helps to be tall.
As a unit, the revamped Maryland Terrapins can seem like an all-star assembly. Before she committed to use her final year of eligibility in College Park, Sarah Te-Biasu was her conference's best player. Senior Christina Dalce had been one of her league's top defenders, and junior Kaylene Smikle was already familiar with Big Ten basketball and already had the respect of coaches and media members.
RALEIGH, N.C. — It sounded like a locker room when a season ends, players sniffing back tears, managers zipping bags that would head to Storrs, Connecticut, for the spring, summer and fall, until they're unzipped and the whole thing starts again.
Which is the only promise, really, in these sorts of moments.
It will start again.
SEATTLE — When there was no one left to celebrate with him, Derik Queen clapped by himself. He stared into the crowd. He bounced a little. The author of a forever moment, the man who finally changed Maryland's last-shot fortunes, basked as he waited for a hero's postgame interview.
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