He 2025 Women’s NCAA Tournament He continued on Friday with the first day of action Sweet 16.
[Read more: 2025 Women’s March Madness Schedule: Dates, locations, channels, how to watch]
Duke began the day with an old defensive performance, since the second Blue Devils sown the third sown of North Carolina.
Now, sown No. 1 of South Carolina continues its defense of the title while the Gamecocks face Maryland in fourth place.
Later, the state of Louisiana of the third sower tries to make its third consecutive appearance of Elite 8, but will have to go through the state of North Carolina No. 2 to get there.
The best seed in the NCAA Women’s Tournament, UCLA, limits the night with its confrontation against Ole Miss while the Bruins try to return to Elite 8 for the first time since 2018.
These are all the most important moments of day 1 sweet 16:
Oluchi Okananwa registered his third double double of the season to lead the champion of the ACC Duke tournament through North Carolina 47-38 on Friday and in Elite 8 of the NCAA Women’s Tournament.
The Blue Devils will make its 12th appearance of Elite 8 in the history of the program and will play the number 1 champion and the South Carolina defender or Maryland of the sown room, who was scheduled to play later on Friday at Birmingham.
Okananwa scored 10 of his 12 points in the first half along with 10 rebounds from the bank for Duke, who obtained 26 points from his bank compared to the six of North Carolina. Ashlon Jackson finished with 10 points, and Toby Fournier, Duke’s top scorer this season that lost the second round with a disease, had three points.
Fifth -year Alyssa Ustby had nine points in 3 of 10 shots for the Tar Heels, who fell short in his attempt to advance to his first elite 8 since 2014.
None of the teams shot the ball well. Duke fired 31% after missing his first nine field goals. North Carolina was 28% from the field.
Part of this could have been for familiarity. The teams played with each other for the second time this season less than a month ago. North Carolina coach Courtney Banghart said this week that there is an additional level of comfort with a team that has just played.
But this was also two of the main defenses in the country that did it, which forced the losses of the ball, wandering and agitated shots desperate at the end of the shooting clock at the beginning of the game.
It was the first meeting in the NCAA tournament between the two teams, which have been played 111 times. North Carolina still has a slight advantage of 56-55.
Kaylene Smikle leads Maryland with nine points and the Terrapins obtained an advantage of 33-31 over the Gamecocks, in the part-time. Maryland led in most of the first half and kept the Gamecocks without a basket for six consecutive possessions during a stretch in the second quarter.
Associated Press reports
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