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March Madness live updates, scores, bracket: NC State vs. Michigan State in NCAA tournament action on Monday
- The Wolfpack roll into the fourth quarter with a 69-36 lead over the Spartans.
- The threes have continued to rain down Raleigh with NC State now 14-for-23 from 3-point range. Aziaha James, who is 6-for-11 from distance, leads with 26 points. Madison Hayes, who has five 3-pointers herself, has 17 points. Saniya Rivers has her second straight double-double with 15 points and 10 assists.
- NC State has doubled its lead to 50-25 and the Spartans’ shooting woes has played a big role in the deficit. Michigan State is shooting 11-for-34 from the field and 2-for-10 from 3-point range.
- Meanwhile, Aziaha James hit her fourth 3-pointer of the game early in the third quarter. As a team, the Wolfpack are 11-for-18 from 3-point range.
- The Wolfpack were dominant from 3-point range in the first half going 10-for-16 from distance. Madison Hayes led the way with five 3-pointers, while Aziaha James sank three.
- NC State shot the lights out all over the floor going 18-for-29 from the field.
- James leads all players with 17 points. Hayes is right behind her with nine points. Saniya Rivers chipped in with seven assists and two blocks.
- If NC State is going to shoot like this from beyond the arc, it’s going to be a long day for Michigan St. The Wolfpack got out to an incendiary start from long range, hitting 5-of-7 three-point attempts in the first quarter of Monday’s game.
- Senior Madison Hayes led the charge, going 3-for-4 in the first quarter. She wasn’t the only member of the Wolfpack to hit from deep. Saniya Rivers and Aziaha James each added their own three-pointers to the early blowout.
- The team’s sharpshooting, combined with its excellent defensive effort, has NC State up big at the end of the first quarter. They lead the way 27-9 after the first quarter.
- NC State got out to a hot start as the second round of the NCAA Tournament continued Monday. Senior guard Madison Hayes got the team going early, nailing both three-point attempts to give the team a 12-4 lead over Michigan St.
- Hayes entered the tournament fourth on the team with 10.8 points per game. Her speciality is her long-range shooting, as she averaged 40 percent from beyond the arc as a senior. Hayes showed off those skills early Monday, going 2-2 from the three-point line midway through the first quarter.
- With her help, NC State leads 15-7 with 5:16 to play in the quarter.
- In a bracket full of routs and chalk, any lower seed that takes a lead on a higher seed draws outsized attention. But a No. 1 seed, winner of 16 quadrant 1 games, boasting a résumé many believed the selection committee snubbed for the No. 1 overall seed, falling behind in the second round? That can be cause for concern.
- The last time South Carolina trailed at halftime was that ugly 29-point blunder to Connecticut that ultimately dropped them out of the top overall seed line. The Gamecocks scored nine points in the second quarter of that rout, the fewest of a quarter in their season. They tied the mark with nine in the first against No. 9 Indiana at Colonial Life Arena on Sunday. South Carolina had lost all three games in which it scored fewer than 28 points at the half.
- As the Gamecocks often do, they leaned on defense, turned around another slow start and waltzed into their 11th consecutive Sweet 16 with a 64-53 win.
- “You’ve just got to score more points than the other team and work the kinks out as we advance into the tournament,” South Carolina head coach Dawn Staley said.
- Neither UCLA nor South Carolina made it easy on themselves. But both, after late runs, are into the second weekend.
- The Bruins survived a scare against Maggie Doogan and Richmond, who stunted them early and entered the locker room tied up at halftime at Pauley Pavilion on Sunday night. But UCLA, which earned the No. 1 overall seed in the tournament, erupted in the third quarter to seal the 84-67 blowout win and make it into the Sweet 16. Lauren Betts dropped 30 points and 14 rebounds, which made her the first UCLA player to have at least 30 points and 10 rebounds in an NCAA tournament game.
- The Gamecocks were in a similar boat against Indiana earlier on Sunday. After putting up just nine points in the first quarter, they entered halftime down by a single point. But, after shooting just 10-of-29 in the first half, they also rallied in the third quarter with a quick 20-7 run. South Carolina still picked up a 64-53 win to make it to an 11th consecutive Sweet 16.
- Hailey Van Lith has done it again, and taken TCU somewhere the program has never been before.
- Van Lith led the Horned Frogs to a 15-point win over Louisville, her former team, on Sunday afternoon in Fort Worth. That officially sent the Horned Frogs into the Sweet 16 for the first time in history.
- TCU outscored Louisville 27-9 in the second period alone while limiting the Cardinals to just 3-of-19 shooting from the field. The Horned Frogs entered the locker room shooting better than 70% from the field, too, which pushed them to the eventual win. Van Lith finished with a double-double, with 16 points and 10 assists.
- Van Lith spent her first three seasons at Louisville before transferring to LSU for last season. She’s been to the Elite Eight in all four of her seasons and reached the Final Four with the Cardinals once. The Horned Frogs will take on No. 3 Notre Dame next in the Sweet 16, where a win would give Van Lith a remarkable fifth Elite Eight trip in her career.
- While this is uncharted territory for TCU, and Notre Dame has looked incredibly good so far in the tournament despite a rough finish to the regular season, Van Lith has proven she knows what it takes to make a deep run in the NCAA tournament. If anyone can pull this off for the Horned Frogs, it’s her.
- The Sweet 16 field in both the men’s and women’s NCAA tournaments will be complete by the end of Monday night.
- With the second week of the men’s NCAA tournament set after Sunday, we’ll find out the next eight teams advancing in the women’s tournament on Monday. It’s another day full of basketball for over 12 hours and there should be some fantastic games. Four of the eight games on the schedule have spreads that are less than seven points.
- Must-see: Can we interest you in a game that features a higher-seeded underdog at home? No. 3 North Carolina is a 1.5-point underdog to No. 6 West Virginia. The Mountaineers force nearly 24 turnovers per game and No. 11 Columbia had 25 in the first round. North Carolina, meanwhile, averages fewer than 13 turnovers per game and is one of the best teams in college basketball at protecting the ball.
- Must-skip: South Dakota State would pull off an incredible upset if it beat UConn. The Huskies are 26.5-point favorites over the Jackrabbits following their huge 103-34 win over Arkansas State in the first round. SDSU upset Oklahoma State, 74-68, and hasn’t lost since a 103-57 defeat to Texas — a No. 1 seed in the tournament — on Dec. 22.
