Three more opportunities for the team to play in the regular season.
Southern Wesleyan pulled away down the stretch for a 15 – 10 victory, but the Lady Wasps were in it to win it. The score was 9-8 after the end of the 3rd.
Marion Harris reports that his middle daughter, Jan Brady , received a yellow card in the first half. The amazing thing about it is that the fiery competitor had never picked one up at any level of any sport.
File that one under astonishing and know that when she was asked about the two minutes of solitaire, she said…
” Marsha, Marsha, Marsha……”
Very proud 👏 of this young lady and look forward to the next chapter of her life !
Michigan, TCU , Notre Dame, and Duke University all have very, very talented teams. They now can claim that they unofficially finished up in a tie 👔 for fifth place as the Big Four head to the desert 🏜.
12,18, 26, and 36 points margin of victories over the last two nights show you that as good as the quartet was this season, there is still a sizable gap between the first four and the second four.
Michigan steamrolled both NC State and Louisville on their way to the Elite Eight, yet they simply had no chance against Texas.
TCU received a gift 🎁 from the University of Virginia when the Hoos removed Iowa from its path, and for three quarters tonight, it stayed on the court with South Carolina. But the game lasts 40 minutes, and Dawn Staley is excellent at pushing buttons.
That leaves the two ACC schools, both of which managed to stay within 20 points against two #1 seeds. Duke actually led UCLA by 10 points in the first half before their short rotation wore out against a powerful Bruins team. Hannah Hidalgo once again put on a show, enough that Coach Geno took the time to praise the Notre Dame guard in his post game presser.
For just the second time in the history of the women’s tournament, we have the same four teams returning to the Promise Land. There was never any real doubt about it playing out this way, and the Hoops next weekend should be electrifying.
92 points ÷ 4 = 23 points was the average margin of victory over four teams that made it to the edge of the Final Four.
The game is healthy right now and getting stronger by the day. Two from the SEC, two others with one being undefeated and a second one with just one loss against a fellow #1.
Texas is 34 – 3, with the setbacks coming at the hands of South Carolina, LSU, and Vanderbilt. The same Vandy team that our Alyssa Ervin dropped 16 points on back in November.
South Carolina is 34 – 3 with losses versus Texas (twice ) and Oklahoma.
UCLA (35-1) with the lone loss against Texas in the Las Vegas event on Thanksgiving weekend.
Geno and UConn is 38 – 0, making the fearsome foursome a combined 141-7 with four of the seven setbacks coming against each other !
LSU, Oklahoma, and Vanderbilt University were the only three teams to best this group in 144 games.
The tournament has been fun, but the true challenge begins on Friday night in Phoenix.
Being that Duke University fell by the smallest margin, can we say, “Fifth place, ?”
On a serious note 📝, the biggest winner up to this point has to be Virginia. After being on the bubble 🫧 and one of the last teams in, the Cavaliers went to Iowa and won three straight games, with the third one disappointing 15,000 fans.
Did I mention that Carroll County graduate 🎓, Alyssa Ervin played at Vanderbilt and scored 16 points that night 🌙 ?
#2 Vanderbilt University and #6 Notre Dame kick off the four straight games today. The Fighting Irish upset #3 Ohio State to get the opportunity, and Miss Hidalgo gives them a fighting chance.
The Atlantic Coast Conference has five of the 16 spots, but it will be an uphill challenge for any of the teams to make it to Phoenix for the Final Four.
We’ll have to take a break in the coverage when it’s time to head to The Hill to announce the softball games.
Vanderbilt is a great story as the Duke University of the SEC has made made tremendous progress in each of the Big 3 sports.
The Commodores hosted Furman University in their second game of the season.
Alyssa Ervin dropped 16 points on the #2 seeded team back in early November!
Notre Dame has an advantage in experience, and the crowd up in Columbus, Ohio, when they beat OSU, will have them ready for any noise in Fort Worth.
Irish on an 11-0 run over five minutes, which gives them a 13 – 5 lead, but it’s still really early.
Coverage off and on until the end of the Duke – LSU game around Midnight.
End 1st – Irish 15, Vandy 11 (3pm)
Stay tuned….
Aubrey Galvan has game ! 12 points to lead the Vandy comeback from down 12.
Getting ready for halftime, Irish still leading behind 16 from Hidalgo.
Notre Dame 31, Vanderbilt 26 (3:28)…
Respectable performance from the Tar Heels 👠!UCLA joins the party 🥳 called the Elite Eight !
Next up : Duke – LSU !!!!
Sadly, it was not the first pair of tickets that I possessed but didn’t use.
I’m looking forward to watching it on TV 📺 here in a bit.
Duke leads 47 – 40 at the break and are now 20 minutes away from facing #1 UCLA. But there is no chance that LSU is going to just go away.
68 teams make the NCAA Big Dance on the Womens side and that is followed by 32 more teams in the Womens Basketball Invitational Tournament ( WBIT ).
After the Top 100 teams have been placed in the brackets of those two events, the Womens National Invitational Tournament gobbles up another 48 teams
With 148 teams hearing their name called, there was a reason to hope that the Southern Conference would get a third team into the field. But sadly, that was not the case and the 18 – 13 Lady Paladins can now turn their attention on next season.
Alyssa Ervin in the SoCon Tournament
That concludes the winter version of Saved by the Bell 🔔: The Cavalier College Years.
A.S.P.N on The Hill 