Rounds one and two of the NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Tournament are now complete. The upsets of round one were minor, such as the ninth seed University of Southern California, without star guard JuJu Watkins, who has been out all season recovering from a torn ACL suffered in last year’s tournament, defeating eighth seeded Clemson and the nine seed Syracuse downing eight seed Iowa State.
In round two, Virginia secured its spot in the Sweet 16 upsetting the two seed in the region, Iowa, becoming the first team to advance that far after beginning the tournament in the First Four. Notre Dame also advanced, upsetting Ohio State. The four number one seeds: UConn, South Carolina, UCLA, and Texas all advanced.
The New Jersey teams have exited. Fairleigh Dickinson lost 58–48 to the two seed in its region, Iowa. Princeton was defeated 82–68 by Oklahoma State. The two HBCU schools in the Big Dance have been eliminated. Southern won its game in the First Four, defeating Samford 65–53, and advanced to the first round where it faced off with the region’s top seed South Carolina, and were soundly defeated by 103–34. Howard, the No. 14 seed, lost to No 3 Ohio State 75–54 in the first round.
In the Women’s Basketball Invitation Tournament (WBIT), a 32-team postseason tournament produced by the NCAA, Seton Hall lost in the first round 67–57 to Missouri. In the battle of New York teams, Columbia defeated St. John’s 74–26 in an unfortunate game for the Red Storm, who played without guards Jailah Donald and Shaulana Wagner. The St. John’s coaching staff didn’t explicitly state why Donald and Wagner were absent, and the Johnnies struggled offensively and defensively, finishing with more turnovers than points.
“I’m not going to get into why they’re not here, just for their sake, but stuff happens. Tough to play without them,” said St. John’s Coach Joe Tartamella.
“It’s a new season and a new opportunity for us to go out and do something maybe that we hadn’t planned to do, but that we’re really intentionally attacking right now, so I was happy to see a dominant performance,” said Columbia coach Megan Griffith after the win over St. John’s. On Sunday, Columbia upset WBIT one seed North Dakota State, 86–57 to advance. The Lions head west to play Cal Berkeley tonight.
In the 48-team WNIT, Monmouth defeated Lehigh 72–62 in the first round. In the second round, Cleveland State defeated the Hawks by a close 74–68. New Jersey Institute of Technology defeated Merrimack in the first round 68–65 and West Point Army had a bye to the second round where the two teams faced off with West Point prevailing 59–52.
The WNIT’s Super 16 began yesterday. Play in the quarterfinals of the WBIT begins today. NCAA Tournament action returns tomorrow with the Sweet 16.