The Elite Eight spherical of the N.C.A.A. ladies’s event begins on Sunday, bringing even greater stakes and tight matchups. Within the Greensboro and Spokane areas, two No. 1 seeds will struggle for the Ultimate 4 spots that they consider are rightfully theirs, and two decrease seeds — one a lot decrease — will attempt to spoil their celebration.
No. 1 seed South Carolina performs No. 10 seed Creighton at 7 p.m. Jap (ESPN) within the Greensboro regional last, whereas No. 1 seed Stanford performs No. 2 seed Texas at 9 p.m. Jap (ESPN) within the Spokane area.
The highest general seed, South Carolina, will face one other large underdog.
In keeping with ESPN, 3 percent of women’s basketball tournament brackets created utilizing its platform had No. 10 seed Creighton within the Elite Eight. Even that appears excessive, and going farther is a tall order towards South Carolina, a staff whose dominance all season has solely lately proven indicators of faltering.
The Gamecocks received their spherical of 16 sport on Friday towards fifth-seeded North Carolina with out posting gaudy statistics — at the very least not past ahead Aliyah Boston’s 28 factors and 22 rebounds. The Tar Heels stayed inside attain till the tip, and South Carolina had its second straight sport wherein it didn’t have sufficient separation to be comfy till the clock ran out. As a substitute, the Gamecocks wanted Boston to publish numbers far greater than her season averages to outlive, one thing Creighton is probably going contemplating because it places collectively its sport plan.
With the intention to beat No. 3-seeded Iowa State, the Bluejays needed to play spectacular, constant protection. The Cyclones had been one of many highest scoring groups within the nation coming into the sport, however Creighton was in a position to frustrate their greatest offensive weapon, artful Iowa State senior Ashley Joens. She made simply 4 pictures from the sphere. The 6-foot-5 Boston should use her substantial dimension benefit over Creighton — which has no gamers taller than 6-foot-1 — to as soon as once more rating constantly inside, even when the Bluejays can take away a lot of her guards’ open appears.
South Carolina can even want to protect the perimeter to be able to clinch their second straight journey to the Ultimate 4, which has been certainly one of their strengths this season. On common, opposing groups make simply 26.6 % of their 3-point pictures towards the Gamecocks. They’ll have to match or surpass that common towards Creighton, which has made 9.6 three-point baskets per sport to date on this event whereas taking comparatively few pictures. Though Creighton is combating towards the chances to turn into the primary double-digit seed to make the Ultimate 4, the sport may very properly come right down to the wire.
No. 2 Texas will attempt to replicate their largest upset of the season.
“That was a reasonably very long time in the past,” mentioned Texas freshman level guard Rori Harmon when requested in regards to the Longhorns’ win over the Stanford, the reigning champion, again in November. “It’s fully completely different now.”
The Cardinal, it might appear, don’t fairly see it that manner. Texas beat them on their house courtroom on the very sport the place they have been celebrating their title and awarding gamers their championship rings. Stanford had a 5-point lead going into the fourth quarter of that sport, and nonetheless misplaced — one thing coach Tara VanDerveer introduced up when contemplating the matchup. “I don’t assume anybody on our staff has forgotten about that,” she mentioned after Stanford’s spherical of 16 win.
Sadly for Texas, Stanford appeared as intimidating as ever in its near-total domination of No. 4 seed Maryland. Its weakest quarter, although, was as soon as once more the fourth, wherein the Terrapins have been in a position to minimize what had been a 26-point lead down to six. The Longhorns see relentlessness, and particularly relentless protection, as their trademark, and can goal to as soon as once more fluster the Cardinal late.
The problem will likely be stifling Stanford’s electrical offense, powered by junior Haley Jones and a slew of different shooters with the scale to create open appears from anyplace on the courtroom. In the event that they wish to pull off the upset, the Longhorns’ publish gamers should play cautious, tight protection to be able to draw Stanford’s Cameron Brink — one of many Cardinal’s best scorers — into foul hassle, which will be certainly one of her weaknesses.
Even when the Longhorns can gradual Stanford down utilizing the press protection, they are going to probably need to struggle to attain themselves. Joanne Allen-Taylor was the main scorer for Texas within the spherical of 16, combating for pull-up jumpers and drawing fouls. The senior should hold her vitality excessive and the ball transferring to be able to discover any offense in any respect towards this skilled Stanford staff.
Supply: NY Times
