We were still leading 45 – 40 when I left the basketball banquet, but the UCLA Bruins went on a 20-5 run 🏃♂️ and finished up with a 12 point victory.
From day one in Paris, France 🇫🇷 to the ending a few minutes ago, Kira Lawson coached them up, and they responded.
For the second straight season, the team fell in the Elite Eight to a number one seed.
ACC regular season crown 👑 and tournament crown 👑 to build on !
In her own words, this goes beyond the game of Basketball 🏀
https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1CU9v8h7JX/
Duke women off to Elite Eight with buzzer-beating 3 vs. LSU 😈 https://thescore.com/s/35034039
Kira Lawson and the Lady Blue Devils live to play another day out in North Cali!!!!!!!
#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.
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)…
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.
13 – 9, at first media TO
24 – 19, after 1st
34 – 23 , media TO
47 – 40 , Halftime
Up 61 – 59 at 3rd Quarter Media TO
67 – 65 lead after 3rd quarter…..
10 more minutes…. 11:40 pm
Last Media TO – Duke 83 – 73 [4:45] !!!!
What a ball game !!!!!!!!!!!!
Duke 87, LSU 85 at the buzzer..
..
It’s been a minute or two (9 years) since I attended a Joel Osteen Night of Hope event in the pristine arena in downtown Sacramento, but I remember it well.
Duke University Women’s Basketball is the #3 seed in the chalk heavy bracket of loaded teams playing on Friday.
On Saturday, there are four more teams with one BIG surprise !
Virginia needed double overtime to win a game in front of 14, 332 screaming Iowa Hawkeye fans to become the first team to advance from the First Four to the Sweet 16.
7 teams and fan bases that absolutely felt they were heading to the Capitol city of California and one awesome surprise.
At 2,646 miles from our home, I am thinking that it is the arena that sits in the lower 48 states that is the furthest from our 🏠???? It turns out that Seattle is 80 miles further and the same for Portland, Oregon.
LSU just broke the All-Time scoring record for most games in triple figures by doing it for the 17th time in the second round versus Texas Tech.
Both LSU and UCLA were part of the 3-6 start by our beloved Lady Blue Devils, and in both cases, we were overmatched. On the flip side of that, Baylor University defeated us in the season opener over in Paris, France 🇫🇷 by 6 points and we won the rematch on Sunday, 69 – 43.
Quick math says that’s a 32-point improvement from the first time around.
We were in the building in Las Vegas when UCLA edged us in late November
Quick math part 2: If we are 32 points better now than in November = we would edge UCLA by 2 points ‼️and advance to the Final Four in Phoenix the following weekend..
The next game after UCLA took place at Cameron Indoor against LSU. We jumped out to a 14 – 1 lead before 92-63 in the other direction. Still, the 29-point turnaround falls inside of the 32-point improvement, so once again, we are Golden !
Seriously though, the odds of finding away past LSU and UCLA in back to back games on the other side of the Country is slim to none but just take a look at what the University of Virginia just accomplished and one can find hope !
The Lady Cavaliers defeated a fellow #10 seed in Arizona State, then upset #7 Georgia and stunned #2 Iowa at Iowa to get to Northern California.
The only thing standing 🧍♂️between / protecting me from using our tickets to the game is that we are set to host Pulaski County High School in a softball doubleheader, and commitment is a real thing for me.
With that said, when we chased the Lady Devils around the globe 🌎 back in our November to Remember, we went to special places like Paris, France 🇫🇷, Vegas and even watched them play a game at The Greenbriar Resort in West Virginia. Back then, we weren’t sure what our 3-5 team would turn into, but now we know!
26 – 8 minus 3-5 = 23 -3 or 23-2 since the LSU loss.
For those who want to take a shot at the fact Duke ” only ” plays in the ACC, I would point out that our league has FIVE of the Sweet 16 as Louisville, Notre Dame and North Carolina are still alive in addition to Duke and UVA. They just get to play down in Texas, which is only halfway across the country.
It’s been a great experience with Kira Lawson coaching up our Blue Devils for the past few years, and no matter what happens out in No Cal, we will have Sunday to hold onto.
Besides, it’s not like it’s going to rain out our softball games on Friday afternoon.
A.S.P.N on The Hill 