The SEC-ACC Challenge is the perfect follow-up to the many Thanksgiving tournaments we saw last week. This year exceeded even the highest expectations in terms of on-court competition, intrigue, and building a foundation for the rest of the season.
Not only do these matchups feature many ranked teams, but the strength of schedule and seeding for the March tournament is often considered by the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee.
Here are five things we learned from this week's SEC-ACC Challenge Game.
Notre Dame never left
Perhaps the most star-studded game of the two days took place Thursday night. texas longhorns Traveled to South Bend, Indiana to face No. 10. notre dame fighting irish.
Going into the match, the Fighting Irish were on the ropes. Last week, then No. 3 Notre Dame lost both games. At first it was against the other person. TCU horned frog This team is one of the hottest in basketball, led by point guard Haley Van Lith, who adds to her already impressive scoring ability.
It was a loss that no one could blame on the Irish, but then the unranked Utah Utes defeated Notre Dame, and the Irish appeared to be in a slump after defeating No. 3 USC the weekend before. .
On Thursday, the Longhorns had a five-point lead at the end of the first quarter thanks to performances from Lori Harmon and Madison Booker, and it looked like Notre Dame's troubles would continue, but the Irish remained undeterred.
Notre Dame's defense stepped up its intensity, holding Texas to its lowest quarterly points total of the season (12) and producing a second half worth the price of admission. The lead changed hands four times in the final 10 minutes, with both teams taking center stage in 10 seconds.
First up was Harmon, giving his Texas teammates some playing time, but the Notre Dame zone was too much for the SEC side. Harmon took matters into his own hands, hitting a mid-range jumper against a double team to tie the game.
Not to be outdone, the senior guard attacked the rim, hovering around 6-foot-6 forward Kyla Oldaker with two seconds left and making a game-winning layup. .
That was long enough for Harmon to turn the small contact into a whistle and two free throws.
All of the free throws were made, but Hanna Hidalgo made five free throws, leading to an inevitable slump. Notre Dame scored 12 points in overtime to defeat the Longhorns 80-70.. Hidalgo led the Irish with 30 points, eight rebounds and four assists, erasing any doubts about an ACC side that held standout sophomore Booker to 7-of-21 shooting and Harmon to six points.
After a short ACC stint with Syracuse, it won't be easy for the Irish to have a No. 2 player. university university The Huskies travel to South Bend on Thursday.
LSU can compete
No. 5 in Baton Rouge LSU Tigers He started the scoring Thursday by hitting a three. They did not take the lead again until overtime against the lowly Stanford Cardinal.
Stanford entered the always noisy PMAC with just one blemish on its losing record. indiana hoosiers at the Capitol last month. Perhaps due to their passionate home environment, after building a 15-point lead at the start of the second quarter, the Tigers slowly closed the gap until the final moments.
With less than a minute left, the visiting team had a two-possession lead and many of the LSU “loyal” players were ejected. But the game wasn't over, especially for guard Mikayla Williams.
Williams scored five of LSU's final eight points, including the shot that sent the game to overtime.
The junior guard received a pass at the free throw line, made a push toward the basket, stopped and hit a midrange fadeaway jumper with four seconds left.
It was two of Williams' game-leading 32 points, and after Stanford missed the last second wave, all the momentum went to the Tigers, who cruised through overtime to win 94-88. did.
What made overtime so encouraging for Tiger fans was the absence of Frau Jay Johnson. With 1:05 remaining, LSU's leader on the court fouled out and left the game, giving the Tigers a four-point lead. The Tigers, without their leading scorer, extended their lead and clinched the victory.
Up until this point in the season, LSU fans had looked at the strength of the schedule and wondered if this team really deserved to be in the top five rankings. Following Thursday's win over Stanford; washington huskies and north carolina state wolfpack Over the past two weeks, it has become difficult to question the strength of head coach Kim Mulkey's team.
South Carolina is hungry.
For some sports fans, seeing a spectacular waterfall can be just as great as seeing your favorite team win. The South Carolina Gamecocks have been the most successful women's basketball team of the past decade, reaching four consecutive Final Fours, two of which brought head coach Dawn Staley a national championship trophy. Not to mention, they didn't lose a game in last year's title game and have only dropped nine games over the past five seasons.
So when the UCLA Bruins picked up their best win over the Gamecocks on Nov. 24, handing them their only loss since the 22-23 season, some in the basketball world wondered if another team would be at the helm. I was delighted at the idea of taking it.
Not so fast.
Since that defeat, the Shamcocks were in tears and had nothing left behind. Just four days after losing to the Bruins, South Carolina defeated the Bruins, who were ranked No. 15 at the time. iowa cyclone The difference was 40 points. That's not a typo.
Purdue was next defeated 99-51, but that scoreline is usually reserved for the first few games of the season, when top teams play small, regional schools in the state. No, it was a Big Ten team built like a mid-sized satellite campus.
Thursday was 8th place duke blue devils They were traveling to Columbia, South Carolina, looking for a chance to slow down a train hurtling down the tracks, but they didn't.
Duke's leading scorer, Ragan Richardson, had just scored 54 points in the last two games leading up to the SEC-ACC Challenge, but he was in foul trouble early and played just one minute in the first quarter. I didn't. Richardson finished just his second game since joining Duke, with no rebounds, no assists, and single-digit points (3).
South Carolina fought the Blue Devils for three quarters before Duke gave up a point, but by then it was too late. The Siamcocks held a 20-point lead going into the final 10 minutes, but Duke made it look more respectable in an 81-70 loss, but the end result was still the same.
Forward Chloe Kitts had 21 points and 11 rebounds in the win, matching her career high in points and recording her third double-double of the season.
The Siamcocks' next opponent will be the No. 9 TCU Horned Frogs, who have upset two ranked teams already this season.
oklahoma is growing
When the No. 11 Sooners signed Reagan Beers, perhaps the top transfer of the summer, the expected result was for Oklahoma to reach a new level and compete against a new SEC opponent in its first year in the conference. It was.
The Sooners' first test against the Duke Blue Devils on Nov. 27 ended in an overtime loss, with Oklahoma needing the final three seconds to add another period.
On Wednesday, they opened the SEC-ACC Challenge at Kentucky, facing freshman star Tazianna Roberts and the No. 22 player in the world. Louisville Cardinals. Louisville got off to a strong start, with Beals running into foul trouble early and playing only eight of the first 20 minutes, leading by 12 points into halftime.
In the fourth quarter, Oklahoma showed it could absorb pressure and persevere.
Guard Peyton Verhulst, who hit the game-tying triple against Duke, was once again in the spotlight with an 11-point quarter that upset the home team, going to the line in the sixth inning and hitting everything. Even more painful was the fact that Verhulst, a former Cardinal, would transfer in December 2022, a month after his sophomore season.
That frustration manifested itself on Louisville's offensive line. The Cardinals shot 25 percent in the final quarter, including missing all seven shots from beyond the arc.
With Verhulst's play and Beals' four points and five rebounds, the Sooners outscored the Cardinals 29-12 in the final quarter and defeated Louisville 78-72.
It was Louisville's second loss of the season against an SEC school. kentucky wildcats.
Oklahoma returns to Norman with the first marquee win of the Verhulst/Beers era. If they continue on this trajectory, their addition to the SEC could frustrate fans outside of Oklahoma more than within.
basketball is fun
Sheila Swish said it best to say, “Basketball is fun.” The SEC won the SEC-ACC Challenge after the two conferences tied in the first round last year, but it was basketball fans who actually won.
While most of the big games lived up to the hype, there were more lessons learned throughout these two days of battle. like north carolina finally defeated a ranked team when traveling to Ole Miss Either they beat the No. 18 ranked SEC program, or Cal beats the No. 1 ranked Alabama team, which is considered a dark horse team.
The SEC-ACC Challenge showed that outside of March Madness, basketball games are best played inside the team's arena and in front of home fans who can propel the team to new heights.
