When JuJu Watkins suffered a season-ending injury in Southern California’s second-round victory over Mississippi State, it left the NCAA Tournament without one of the leading national player of the year candidates.
Even with Watkins unavailable, there remains plenty of star power in the women’s tournament as it heads into the regional semifinals. That’s apparent from this look at notable numbers for the teams that reached the Sweet 16. Below is one statistical fact for each of the remaining teams, starting with the regions that play Friday.
Spokane 1
UCLA: Lauren Betts is shooting 64.3% from the floor this season to rank sixth in Division I and has made 75.9% of her attempts (44 of 58) over her last five games. She is shooting 76.9% (20 of 26) through the first two rounds of this tournament.
Mississippi: Ole Miss will have played each of the No. 1 seeds once it faces UCLA in the regional semifinal Friday. The Rebels lost 68-66 in their lone matchup with Southern California, fell 61-58 and 70-63 in two meetings with Texas, and lost 75-59 to South Carolina. Ole Miss also faced two of the No. 2 seeds, losing 73-60 to UConn and 68-61 to N.C. State.
LSU: This is the first time in school history that LSU has scored 100-plus points in consecutive NCAA Tournament games. The Tigers beat San Diego State 103-48 in the first round and defeated Florida State 101-71 in the round of 32. They now face an N.C. State team that didn’t allow more than 55 points in each of its first two NCAA games.
N.C. State: The Wolfpack have been called for just 12.1 fouls per game, the third-lowest total of any Division I team. They now take on LSU, which has 22.4 free-throw attempts per game to rank seventh in Division I.
Birmingham 2
South Carolina: The Gamecocks’ bench averages 41.5 points per game to lead all Division I teams by a margin of nearly 10 points per game. Duke ranks second with 31.7. South Carolina set an NCAA Tournament record by getting 66 bench points in its 108-48 first-round victory over Tennessee Tech.
Maryland: The Terrapins had three players score at least 24 points in their 111-108 double-overtime triumph over Alabama in the second round. Shyanne Sellers had 28, Sarah Te-Biasu 26 and Kaylene Smikle 24.
North Carolina: Friday will mark the first time North Carolina and Duke have faced off in the NCAA Tournament. The all-time series between these rivals is about as close as it can possibly get, with North Carolina leading 56-54.
Duke: The Blue Devils limited North Carolina to 53 points in each of their two regular-season meetings, matching the Tar Heels’ lowest total of the season (North Carolina had four games in which it scored just 53 points). The two teams split the regular-season series, with North Carolina winning 53-46 in overtime at Chapel Hill and Duke taking the rematch 68-53 in Durham.
Birmingham 3
Texas: The Longhorns have a plus-9.4 rebound margin that ranks seventh in the nation heading into their Saturday matchup with Tennessee. When Texas beat the Lady Vols 80-76 in the regular season, the Longhorns got outscored 27-3 from 3-point range but compensated by outrebounding Tennessee 39-24.
Tennessee: The Lady Vols have forced 740 turnovers this season. That’s the highest total since 2007-08, when they forced 784 turnovers in their last national championship season. They’re forced 22.4 turnovers per game to rank eighth in Division I and second among power-conference schools, behind only West Virginia (23.6).
Notre Dame: Olivia Miles is the only Division I player averaging at least 15 points, 5 rebounds and 5 assists while also shooting at least 40% from 3-point range. Miles has 15.5 points, 5.9 assists and 5.8 rebounds per game. She’s making 40.1% of her 3-point attempts.
TCU: The Horned Frogs’ regional final with Notre Dame is a rematch of a game that TCU won 76-68 at the Cayman Islands Classic on Nov. 29. TCU outscored Notre Dame 31-12 in the fourth quarter that day. Sedona Prince had 20 points, 20 rebounds, eight blocks, four assists and three steals.
Spokane 4
Southern California: After Watkins got hurt against Mississippi State, Kiki Iriafen picked up the slack and scored a season-high 36 points to go along with nine rebounds in the Trojans’ 96-59 victory. Iriafen, a Stanford transfer, has averaged 26.6 points and 11.4 rebounds over her last five NCAA games.
Kansas State: In the Wildcats’ second-round 80-79 overtime victory over Kentucky, Temira Poindexter went 8 of 15 from 3-point range and also blocked six shots. Her eight 3-pointers were the most by any Kansas State player ever in an NCAA Tournament game. Her six blocks matched the Kansas State NCAA Tournament single-game record. She had only 29 blocks all season before that game.
Oklahoma: The Sooners have a plus-13 rebound margin that ranks second nationally, behind only UCLA. Oklahoma has outrebounded its first two tournament foes by a combined 136-68. The Sooners now face UConn, which trounced South Dakota State 91-57 in the round of 32 despite getting outrebounded 33-28.
UConn: Paige Bueckers has a 3.9 assist-turnover ratio that leads the nation. As a team, UConn has a 1.98 assist-turnover ratio that also ranks first in Division I.
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