NCAA women's college basketball took a few days off after Week 7, but when it resumes this weekend, two of the top-ranked teams will clash, an unexpected ACC side will be on a tear, and the Maryland Terrapins will be on a tear. Senior Shan’Ann Sellers is an early candidate for the Play of the Year award.
Top 25 women's college basketball rankings by Associated Press:
- University of California Los Angeles
- south carolina
- notre dame cathedral
- University of Southern California
- texas
- LSU
- university university
- maryland
- oklahoma
- ohio
- TCU
- Kansas
- Georgia Tech
- duke
- tennessee
- kentucky
- north carolina
- west virginia
- Alabama
- Cal
- michigan
- north carolina
- iowa
- michigan
- Ole Miss
Other people to vote for: Vanderbilt 26, Utah 24, Illinois 11, Oklahoma St. 7, Baylor 5, Nebraska 4, Mississippi St. 3, Harvard 3, Portland 1.
Maryland surpasses Michigan
In the first of just two ranked matches that week, the No. 19 Michigan State University Spartans traveled to College Park to take on the No. 8 Spartans. maryland terrapin.
After a close first quarter in which the two Big Ten teams traded leads, the Terrapins built a 17-point lead in the second quarter. The best moment of the game came during an 11-5 run at the start of the second period. Michigan State had a full-court press, but guard Kaylen Smickle sent a long pass from the backcourt to escape MSU's double-team defense.
Smickle found senior Shan'ann Sellers, who caught the pass, and in one motion sent a no-look, behind-the-back pass to guard Bry McDaniel, who finished the play with a layup.
“I saw a girl trying to run through the pass,” Sellers said. “I met Bri when I went to see him.” [McDaniel] I saw it out of the corner of my eye and luckily she caught it. I knew I didn't have time to turn back, so thank you, boo. ”
“Pukaluk is fine,” McDaniel told Sellers.
Maryland was able to enjoy the moment as they won 72-66, but it wasn't easy. The Terrapins held the Spartans at bay until their offense cooled down in the third quarter. Maryland was scoreless for 6 minutes, 16 seconds of play, but Michigan State took the lead with an 11-point run that tied the game with 6:06 left.
After going 0-of-3 in the first five minutes of the fourth quarter, the Terps regrouped and never let the Spartans take the lead. Maryland made 5 of 6 shots in the final 5:06 to pull away for the victory.
“Credit to Michigan State,” head coach Brenda Frese said. “We knew they were going to play hard for 40 minutes. It's always like this in league play, every possession was going to be important.”
The biggest drop in this week's rankings was at Michigan State, which dropped two spots. That's not a huge drop considering many teams in the top 25 haven't played during the holiday weekend.
ACC Play Returns
The Big Ten wasn't the only conference to begin newly expanded conference play over the weekend. Five games were played within the conference on Sunday, with all four ranked teams winning. Most impressive was the No. 13 Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, who continued their best start of the season with a 100-61 victory over the Pitt Panthers.
By the end of the first quarter, Georgia Tech already had a 13-point lead, but they didn't let up.
Georgia Tech had four players score in double figures, including starting guard Carla Dunn with a season-high 28 points and freshman guard Dani Carnegie off the bench with a career-high 24 points. Won the wire-to-wire victory.
“It's not easy to score 100 points. Pittsburgh is a really physical defense,” head coach Nell Fortner said. “There was a period in the third quarter where things were going pretty smoothly and it was fun to watch.”
The triple-digit total was the Yellow Jackets' first 100-point game in conference play since 2008, and it came in double overtime. It was also the first time the Yellow Jackets scored 100 points since November 2015, when they defeated Southeastern Louisiana 102-49.
Elsewhere in the conference, No. 17 North Carolina State and No. 22 North Carolina State are both in action, with the Tar Heels defeating North Carolina State. miami hurricanes And the Wolfpack went back and forth. Clemson Tigers.
North Carolina State and Clemson exchanged leads 14 times as the Wolfpack won 83-79, but the higher-ranked team took the lead at the start of the fourth inning and never let Clemson get back into the game. North Carolina State has won 16 straight games against the Tigers.
Third-place Notre Dame played the only ACC game involving a top 25 team and won in style. virginia cavaliers 95-54.
return of hollywood star
In Los Angeles, two college basketball stars returned to their home courts. It's the number one UCLA Bruins. nebraska cornhuskers Pauley Pavilion.
Returning was center Lauren Betts. The Bruins' leading scorer this season missed the last two games with a leg injury, but returned and held off the Cornhuskers' key big, Alexis Murkowski. The 6-foot-2 forward entered Sunday averaging 15.0 points and 8.3 rebounds per game, including three points and two rebounds in 16 minutes. Murkowski had limited fouls and struggled to get past the 6-foot-7 Betts, who led the scoring with 21 points and eight rebounds when he entered the game.
Junior guard Kiki Rice had a complete offensive performance in the 91-54 win, scoring 18 points on 8-of-8 shooting. Along the way, Rice reached his 1,000th career point and continued to cement UCLA's legacy.
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Robert Hanashiro-Imag Images
Across town, the No. 4 USC Trojans welcomed No. 23. michigan wolverines Heading into the final conference game of the week. Kennedy Smith, a freshman at the University of Southern California; He returned home before the holidays against the University Huskies, who were without talented freshman Cyra Swords against the Maize and Blue.
Despite Swords' absence, the Wolverines kept the game close, largely due to the play of senior Jordan Hobbs. In the second quarter, Hobbs scored 14 points on 4-of-6 shooting from beyond the arc. All of the points came in the final 6:20 of the quarter and helped the Trojans cut the lead from 10 points to one possession entering halftime.
Guard JuJu Watkins and forward Kiki Iliafen combined for 28 points in the second half and USC defeated Michigan 44-27.
USC's Smith wasn't very productive offensively, scoring three points in 32 minutes, but she helped hold Michigan's leading scorer, freshman Olivia Olson, to 11 points. Smith finished the game with a +/-17, the second-highest mark for a Trojans starter behind Watkins.
The Wolverines' loss didn't significantly impact this week's rankings, moving them down one spot.
Other stories this week
- Most of the SEC wrapped up its non-conference schedule this weekend with the No. 2 South Carolina Gamecocks and No. 5 South Carolina Gamecocks. texas longhorns6th place LSU Tigers, 9th place oklahoma sooners And No.20 alabama crimson tide It all ended in a lopsided home win.
- Seventh-ranked UW defeated Providence 67-41 to win its second Big East Conference game of the season. The Huskies now have a 37-game winning streak against teams in their conference. UW hasn't lost to Providence since 1993.
- Battle of Kiyomi and McMiller's new students rutgers Ohio State's Jaloni Cambridge ended up being a battle in the paint between seniors Destiny Adams and Ajay Petty. Both forwards had double-doubles, but Petty and the No. 10 Buckeyes defeated the unranked Scarlet Knights 77-63.
