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Day 2 of the 2019 women's NCAA tournament tipped off Saturday, and we compiled some of the top results, sights and sounds of the day.
And be sure to check out our additional coverage:
+ Roundtable: What's next for Tennessee and predictions for Sunday
+ Tennessee's disappointing season ends in another first-round exit
+ Missouri State upsets No. 6 seed DePaul
+ Notre Dame's dominating debut
Saturday's results
No. 1 Baylor 95, No. 16 Abilene Christian 38
The Lady Bears basically had this one won before tipoff against the Wildcats, who were playing in their first NCAA tournament. Baylor took a 26-3 lead after one quarter, and then it was just a matter of what the final score would be.
The Lady Bears' 57-point margin of victory matched that of Mississippi State over Southern on Friday. The other No. 1 seeds, Louisville and Notre Dame, won by 35 and 42 points, respectively.
Ten Baylor players scored, led by Kalani Brown with 17 points. It was a perfunctory victory against an overmatched foe, but one thing stood out for Baylor: The Lady Bears were 9-of-13 from 3-point range. Baylor came in averaging just 3.3 treys per game, as the Lady Bears rely heavily on their inside game. (They had 61 rebounds on Saturday.)
Next up is an all-Bears matchup, as Baylor faces Cal in the second round. These teams also met in the second round in 2017, with Baylor winning 86-46. -- Mechelle Voepel
No. 4 Oregon State 80, No. 13 Boise State 75 OT
The Beavers trailed 66-62 with 17 seconds left in regulation but forced overtime with two key plays from junior Mikayla Pivec. She made a jumper and forced a tie-up that led to a pair of Katie McWilliams free throws that knotted the score. Oregon State was 10-of-21 from the free throw line up to that point. The Beavers then made 10 straight foul shots in overtime to hold off the Broncos, who were looking for their first NCAA tournament win (0-6).
Pivec finished with 20 points and 12 rebounds. Aleah Goodman also had 20 points for the Beavers, who led the game 29-15 at one point and 36-28 at halftime. But they were outscored 19-9 in a third quarter in which the Beavers committed seven turnovers. Boise State scored 23 points in the game off of 18 Oregon State turnovers, and the Broncos were led by senior guard Marta Hermida's 22 points. -- Charlie Creme
No. 9 Michigan State 88, No. 8 Central Michigan 87
In the first half, Central Michigan's Reyna Frost was the best player in the NCAA tournament so far. In the second half, teammates Presley Hudson and Micaela Kelly, stepped up. In the end, neither was enough, as Shay Colley hit the winning layup with 7.6 seconds left.
Frost, the MAC player of the year, was a one-player tour de force in the first half. She scored 21 of Central Michigan's first 26 points and had 25 by halftime on 12-of-18 shooting. The Spartans elected to guard her one-on-one in the post, and the 6-foot Frost dominated in space, repeatedly scoring over her left shoulder. But Frost needed help as Michigan State led 43-40 at the break.
She got it in the second half. Hudson, the Chippewas' all-time leader in points and assists, had just four points at halftime but scored seven in a 12-4 run to give CMU a 75-74 lead with 5:25 left. Hudson's 3-pointer with 20 seconds left put the Chips up 87-86 before Colley gave the lead back to the Spartans.
Frost, after scoring 34 points on 16-of-27 shooting, passed up a potential game-winning attempt. Kelly's off-balance attempt at the buzzer was off the mark. She finished with 24 points.
Frost finished her career with her fifth 30-point game, all produced this season. Five players scored in double figures for the Spartans, who will face top-seeded Notre Dame in the second round. Michigan State has dropped each of its past six head-to-head meetings against the Fighting Irish by an average of 13.8 PPG. -- Charlie Creme
No. 3 Syracuse 70, No. 14 Fordham 49
Guard Tiana Mangakahia had 21 points, 11 assists and eight rebounds to lead No. 3 seed Syracuse past 14th-seeded Fordham 70-49. She just missed the triple-double, but Mangakahia is in elite company. She's just the fifth player over the past 20 seasons with 15 points, 10 assists and five steals in an NCAA tournament game, joining Texas A&M's Chennedy Carter (2018), Notre Dame's Skylar Diggins (2012), Gonzaga's Courtney Vandersloot (2011) and Utah's Shona Thorburn (2005). -- Melanie Jackson
No. 6 UCLA 89, No. 11 Tennessee 77
The season began unceremoniously for UCLA, as it lost its opener at Loyola Marymount. Then, the Bruins had one four-game losing streak in nonconference play, and another early in the Pac-12 season. But the Bruins seemed to be improving all along, which showed in their upset victory at Oregon on Feb. 22. Then, they took the Ducks to overtime in the Pac-12 tournament semifinals before losing and came into the NCAA tournament looking like a dangerous team.
While they had to battle to hold off Tennessee after the Lady Vols' third-quarter surge, the Bruins still ended up winning by double-digits. Kennedy Burke took over the last four-plus minutes of the game with 10 of her 19 points. And guard Lindsey Corsaro made two key 3-pointers after taking an elbow in the face about 2 minutes into the fourth quarter. -- Mechelle Voepel
No. 8 Cal 92, No. 9 North Carolina 72
Kristine Anigwe and Cal turned the second half into their own personal playground in Greensboro, outscoring North Carolina by 23 points after halftime. The Tar Heels led 40-37 at the break.
Anigwe, the nation's leading rebounder, dominated after a slow start. She scored 16 of her 18 points in the second half, and finished with 22 rebounds, for her 33rd consecutive double-double (that ties the NCAA single-season record set by Oklahoma's Courtney Paris in 2006-07). She also set the Pac-12 record for most rebounds in a season (522).
The Bears, who advance to the second round for the fifth time in eight years, set a season high in points -- more than 20 over their season average - fueled by 11 3-pointers and 52.4 percent shooting. Senior Asha Thomas, who hit three 3-pointers, led Cal with 19 points. Recee Caldwell, a two-time transfer from UCLA and Texas Tech who was playing in her first NCAA tournament game, set a Cal single-game NCAA tournament record with 12 assists. -- Charlie Creme
Top plays
Round of 32 trends
For the first time since 2015, the top five seeds in each region advanced to the second round. According to ESPN Stats & Information data:
ACC sent seven teams to the round of 32, most of any conference
Pac-12 went 6-0 in the first round, the most wins without a loss of any conference (fourth straight season sending at least five teams to the Round of 32)
Big Ten and SEC sent five teams to the second round
First round featured three overtime games, tying the most in the first round in tournament history and the most since 2000
Only three double-digit seeds will make the round of 32, as compared to six in last season's NCAA tournament
No. 1 seeds won their first-round matchups by an average of 47.8 points. That is the second-largest margin of victory for 1-seeds in the first round in the past 15 years (2017 average was 57.5)
With Gonzaga and BYU both advancing to the second round, this is the first time in women's NCAA tournament history that the West Coast Conference had multiple teams win a game in the tournament
How to beat UConn?
SCOUTING REPORT LEAKED@UBwomenshoops reveals how they planned on taking down the Huskies! ðŸ˜#ncaaW pic.twitter.com/DsyniUPJw0
— NCAA WBB (@ncaawbb) March 23, 2019
What you missed on Friday
+ What Louisville win says about Cardinals' title chances
+ Inside Megan Gustafson's big day for Iowa