The first-ever Southeastern Conference matchup between new league counterparts Tennessee and Texas went down to the wire. The two will meet again on Saturday in Birmingham Region 3, in the first NCAA Tournament pairing of the programs.
No. 1 seed Texas (33-3) held off fifth-seeded Tennessee 80-76 when the two met during SEC play on Jan. 23. The Longhorns scored the last four points of a back-and-forth final period.
“They have height. They’re really athletic, and they get to the boards quite a bit,” Texas forward Taylor Jones said was her key takeaway from the first meeting with the Lady Vols. “Making sure that we block them out and doing our job, getting to the rebounds, for the posts especially (will be key.
“For the guards and all of us as a whole,” Jones added, “breaking their press. They have a 40-minute in-your-face defense.”
Tennessee (24-9) uses its full-court pressure defense to generate 22.4 turnovers per game. The Lady Vols feed their Division I-best 87.5-point per game offense with a whopping 29 points off turnovers per game.
When they last met, Texas committed only 12 turnovers that Tennessee converted into 12 points.
“Possessions are going to be very important in this game,” Lady Vols guard Jewel Spear said. So will rebounding, she added, against a Longhorns bunch that averages 40 boards per game.
No. 2 TCU vs. No. 3 Notre Dame
On Saturday, No. 2 seed TCU strives to continue a historic season for the program against a nine-time Final Four participant, third-seeded Notre Dame.
Saturday’s Sweet 16 game marks the first time TCU (33-3) has played this deep into the NCAA Tournament. The Horned Frogs advanced with lopsided wins over Fairleigh Dickinson (73-51) and Louisville (85-70) in the first two rounds.
The Sweet 16 may be new for TCU as a program, but not for Hailey Van Lith, who had a 16-point, 10-assist double-double against her former Louisville team. Van Lith reached the Final Four with Louisville in 2022 and the Elite Eight last season at LSU.
Van Lith and Sedona Prince lead the Horned Frogs with 17.7 and 17.5 points per game. Prince is also a transfer, coming from Oregon two years ago.
“Our careers have kind of been revived in a sense,” Prince said. “Go somewhere where you are happy, where you are loved, where you are seen, where you know you can grow in your game and be in an environment where you are … given confidence.”
The new-look lineup clicked early, including in a 76-68 win over Notre Dame at the Cayman Islands Classic in November. Van Lith scored 21 points and Prince had 20 points, 20 rebounds and eight blocked shots in that matchup.
Hannah Hidalgo had 27 points and nine rebounds in the loss, a performance consistent with her 24.1-point per game average for the season. She is the top scorer remaining in the NCAA Tournament.
The Fighting Irish (28-5) lost a 14-point lead in that game, providing some fuel for Saturday’s rematch.
“It was tough to watch, but it’s definitely a learning experience,” Hidalgo said of revisiting the game film. “Film (session) is to learn and to see where you can improve and get better. So it definitely helps to see those tough moments because we’re able to get back in the lab and kind of work on where we went wrong and make sure we correct those mistakes.”
Notre Dame blew past Stephen F. Austin (106-54) and Michigan (76-55) to advance to the second week of the tournament.
–Field Level Media
