The Candy 16 for the ladies’s NCAA Match is ready, but when we’re being trustworthy it’s setting as much as be extra spicy than candy.
Caitlin Clark and Iowa are nonetheless on a collision course with the workforce that beat them within the title sport final yr, LSU … offered the Tigers can get previous UCLA. Stanford didn’t look sharp in its second-round sport — does that imply NC State can fly throughout the nation and pull the upset? Is UConn’s Paige Bueckers on a mission or is she on a mission?
Three newcomers — USC’s JuJu Watkins, Notre Dame’s Hannah Hidalgo and Texas’ Madison Booker — have all led their groups the second weekend of the NCAA match. Can any of them get to the third?
And might anybody beat South Carolina? Can anybody even play with the Gamecocks? After the best way they rolled by the Columbia regional, we’re not so certain. South Carolina was the favourite final yr earlier than falling to Iowa within the semifinals. They nonetheless appear mad about it, and so they’re taking it out on anybody and everybody within the bracket.
We’ve so many questions and till video games tip off once more Friday, too few solutions. Till then, listed here are Monday’s winners and losers.
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WINNERS
Gonzaga
In a match dominated by Energy Six applications, the Zags are the one mid-major nonetheless dancing. However at this level, perhaps it’s time to simply think about them a powerhouse in their very own proper, particularly after they dispatched Utah, 77-66, to earn a visit to the Candy 16 for the primary time since 2015.
Gonzaga has been elite all season, and performed prefer it, particularly the second quarter, exploding for twenty-four factors.The Truong twins, guards Kayleigh and Kaylynne, mixed for 35 factors, 9 rebounds and 7 assists, and 5 Zags scored 9 factors or extra. Gonzaga additionally shot 48% from the sphere (24-of-50) and 55% from 3 (12-of-22).
Holding spray
JuJu Watkins, the perfect freshman in girls’s basketball, is thought for a number of issues: One of many prettiest pull-ups you’ve ever seen, sneaky good defensive performs, main USC again to the Candy 16 for the primary time since 1994 after scoring 28 factors and snagging 11 rebounds within the Trojans’ 73-55 win over Kansas.
After which there’s her signature: a wonderfully positioned bun that by no means strikes throughout video games. A model ambassador for Mielle, Watkins quipped on the Pac-12 convention match that she credit “holding spray” for the bun by no means budging, regardless of how bodily it will get on the ground. The “JuJu bun,” because it’s identified across the Galen Heart, might be discovered on the Trojans’ first workforce All-American, tons of little ladies who like to cheer for No. 12 in addition to … Joel Embiid?
Gabbie Marshall, Iowa
Or ought to that be Gabbie “Marchall” given the 5-foot-8 guard’s penchant for giant blocks in massive moments?
Caitlin Clark rightfully will get a lot of the consideration — she scored 32 in Iowa’s closer-than-the-score-indicates 64-54 win over West Virginia — nevertheless it was Marshall’s clutch block of a West Virginia 3 with 2:12 to play and the sport tied 52-52 that helped the Hawkeyes seal it. After Iowa grabbed the ball and raced to the opposite finish for a rating, the Hawkeyes wouldn’t path once more.
Marshall, a senior for the top-seeded Hawkeyes, scored simply 4 factors however was clutch defensively, additionally nabbing three steals.
“That’s one factor I at all times concentrate on,” Marshall stated of her protection. “I didn’t rating a single level tonight, however I’m centered on the workforce and what we now have to do to win.”
Aziaha James, NC State
The stat line for N.C. State’s junior guard is spectacular sufficient by itself. Staff highs in each factors (22) and assists (seven), together with three rebounds and two steals. Nevertheless it’s when James exerted herself that was so vital, which explains the Wolfpack are into the Candy 16.
N.C. State had so totally dominated the second quarter in opposition to Tennessee that the sport was verging into blowout territory. When Mimi Collins made a putback on the primary possession of the third quarter, it gave the Wolfpack a 20-point lead.
However Tennessee clawed all the best way again, getting inside 2 factors with 4:16 left within the fourth quarter. That’s when James took issues into her personal fingers. She scored on a jumper and made a 3-pointer on consecutive possessions to present NC State respiration room. After a 3 by Jewel Spear pared the Wolfpack’s lead again to 4, James was fouled and made each free throws with 43 seconds left to successfully seal what was a 79-72 win.
LOSERS
Anybody making an attempt to cease Hannah Hidalgo
You’ve gotten our sympathies. Slowing down Hannah Hidalgo, the speedy freshman from Notre Dame who made a robust case for nationwide freshman of the yr this season, is a brutally exhausting activity. Stopping her all collectively? Nicely that’s dang close to unimaginable. Simply because the Rebels. In Notre Dame’s 71-56 win over Ole Miss the rookie scored 19 factors, grabbed 4 rebounds, handed out 4 assists and, in her signature transfer, snagged 4 steals. She’ll subsequent match up in opposition to one other quick freshman in Oregon State level guard Donovyn Hunter, because the second-seeded Irish meet the third-seeded Beavers in Albany on Friday.
Us, for not speaking about Paige Bueckers sufficient
Pity the fools (us, we’re speaking about us right here) who obtained so caught up within the Caitlin Clark hype, we spent a lot of the season not speaking concerning the No. 1 ranked participant within the 2020 class. In our protection, Bueckers missed the entire 2022-23 season with an damage, and nobody was fairly certain how she’d come again this season.
Nicely, lesson discovered. After not enjoying in an NCAA match sport for 720 days, Bueckers has been a tear within the Huskies’ first two wins. Monday in UConn’s 72-64 win over Syracuse, which despatched the Huskies to the Candy 16, Bueckers had 32 factors, 10 rebounds, six assists, 4 steals and a block.
“We’ve the perfect participant in America,” UConn coach Geno Auriemma stated. “On this world of analytics, the numbers say she is … and everybody that watched is aware of it.”