Women’s NCAA Tournament Kingston Regional 2nd Round Breakdowns
The road to Kingston was fairly smooth for almost all of the NCAA women’s basketball tournament’s top seeds. The notable exception was Rutgers, which saw its up-and-down season take one final plunge in the region’s most unpredictable game. Otherwise, all of the games went according to plan as seven of the top eight seeds moved on to the next round.
Here is a look at this part of the round of 32 and the four teams projected to move on to Kingston for the regional semifinals:
No. 1 Connecticut vs. No. 8 Kansas State (7:05 p.m. Monday at Webster Bank Arena in Bridgeport, Connecticut)
It may not be Hartford or Storrs, but it’s still friendly territory for the Huskies as the Big East and Big 12 face off in the second round. Connecticut (30-4) began its march toward Kingston, and hopefully Denver, with an 83-47 demolishing of Prairie View in what many viewed as a sacrificial 1-16 game. The game was sort of an introduction to the world for freshman Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis, who showed signs she might be Connecticut’s future star with 21 points in her tournament debut. That tied Jamelle Elliott for best tournament debut by a UConn player; Elliott, a former coach at Connecticut before taking the head job in Cincinnati, set that mark in 1993. Bria Hartley (18 points) and Stefanie Dolson (15) were also big scoring leaders for the Huskies. Kansas State (20-13), which tied Iowa State for fourth place in the Big 12, nearly found itself in the upset column as No. 9 Princeton played the Wildcats tough before bowing in a 67-64 K-State victory. Branshea Brown led the way with 22 points. This is Kansas State’s 13th straight appearance in the tournament and its third trip to Bridgeport in five years. No doubt 13 will be an unlucky number for the Wildcats on Monday. Barring a huge collapse of monumental proportions, Connecticut should easily punch its ticket to Kingston.
No. 3 Miami vs. No. 11 Gonzaga, 9:40 p.m. Monday at McCarthey Athletic Center in Spokane, Washington)
This is a true East Coast-West Coast matchup, as these two schools easily have the longest distance between them. As far as difficulty level, Gonzaga slightly spoiled some women’s brackets when it upset Rutgers in the first round. Miami (26-5), which finished second behind Duke in the Atlantic Coast Conference this season, recovered from a small regular-season swoon by beating Idaho State 70-41 in its first-round tournament game. Miami is playing without Riquna Williams, who did not make the trip to Spokane due to unspecified team violations, but the Hurricanes did not need her on Saturday. Shenise Johnson led the way with 20 points as Miami’s blistering scoring defense limited Idaho State to 25 percent shooting in the game. Gonzaga (27-5), winners of the West Coast Conference regular-season title, defeated Rutgers 86-73 and gave the Scarlet Knights just their third opening-round loss of C. Vivian Stringer’s storied coaching career. No doubt the home-court advantage helped Gonzaga, which topped Georgia earlier this season and has losses against Stanford, USC, Saint Mary’s and Brigham Young (twice). They say lightning never strikes twice in the same place, but it could happen Monday night. The Bulldog fans are known for being raucous, and if the noise level gets deafening again it could impact Miami in a negative way. Don’t be surprised if Gonzaga pulls off the upset.
No. 2 Kentucky vs. No. 7 Green Bay (9:45 p.m. Monday at Hilton Coliseum in Ames, Iowa)
This is the true definition of a neutral-court game, although the geography may slightly favor Green Bay. Kentucky (26-6), winners of the Southeastern Conference regular-season title, dropped its SEC semifinal showdown against LSU (72-61) and endured a tough contest before beating McNeese State 68-62 in the first round. McNeese State held A’dia Mathies, the SEC Player of the Year, to just six points, and no one else really stepped into the scoring role. The leading scorer, Keyla Snowden, only came up with 11 points in the victory. While Kentucky shot 25-for-63 (39.7 percent) from the field, it was only 2-for-17 (11.8 percent) from 3-point range. Kentucky lost to Notre Dame, Middle Tennessee State, LSU (twice), Tennessee and Alabama this season, but the seventh loss could come on Monday. Green Bay (31-1) won the Horizon League title and saw its lone loss come against Detroit on February 9. The Phoenix knocked out host Iowa State 71-57 in the first round as Sarah Eichler had 16 points and five assists. The Horizon League really isn’t a strong conference, but UWGB has beaten Georgetown, Marquette and Wisconsin this year. If the Phoenix can hold down Mathies, fire up the 3-point shooting (11-for-29 against Iowa State) and jump out front in a hurry, another upset is possible. Kentucky looked weak in the first round, so look for Green Bay to have a better than 50-50 shot of shocking the Wildcats.
No. 4 Penn State vs. No. 5 LSU (9:40 p.m. Tuesday at Maravich Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana)
Speaking of LSU, the SEC’s fourth-place team goes up against the Big Ten regular-season champions in what should be a decent matchup. Penn State (25-6) lost to Purdue in the Big Ten semifinals before recovering for an 85-77 win over Texas-El Paso in the first round of the NCAA tournament. Maggie Lucas and Alex Bentley combined for 23 and 21 points, respectively, to deal UTEP the first-round setback, and Penn State will need more of that teamwork as LSU figures to be a more difficult showdown. The Nittany Lions have lost to Michigan State twice and to Purdue, Nebraska, Delaware and Texas Tech. LSU (23-10) lost 70-58 to Tennessee in the SEC finals and endured a 14-day layoff before scoring a 64-56 win over San Diego State in the first round. LaSondra Barrett’s double-double of 17 points and 10 rebounds, in her first game back since suffering a concussion against Tennessee, gave LSU the victory. The Tigers have two losses each to Tennessee and Florida in addition to losses against Georgia, Vanderbilt and Arkansas. This game is probably the most even of the four second-round games, and it could go either way. LSU has had a more difficult schedule and that could help the team in the second round. Both Penn State and LSU had close games in their first-round matchups. The Tigers should advance to Kingston in a squeaker.
