Catch up on all the excitement and excellence from Monday, Feb. 19 to Sunday, Feb. 25, one of the final weeks of regular-season NCAAW action:
Taking stock of the top 10
Things got a bit wild and woolly across women’s college hoops, with six top-10 teams going down. With conference tournaments quickly approaching, let’s check on the top-ranked teams, assessing who is, and is not, entering March with great victories and even greater vibes. The next top-16 reveal, scheduled for Thursday, certainly should be interesting.
No. 1 South Carolina Gamecocks (27-0, 14-0)
Holding steady: If it was possible for South Carolina to rise higher, they would have. After showing some shakiness against Tennessee and Georgia, South Carolina slammed the door on Alabama on Thursday before blowing out Kentucky on Sunday. In the process, the Gamecocks secured the SEC regular season title for eighth time in program history. Head coach Dawn Staley also reached 600 career wins.
No. 2 Ohio State Buckeyes (24-3, 15-1)
Stock up: The Buckeyes seemingly have overcome any curses that came with the No. 2 spot in the standings, with drama-free victories at Penn State and over Maryland to extend their winning streak to 14 in a row. Led by grad guard Jacy Sheldon, Ohio State is on pace to solely claim the Big Ten regular season championship, while continuing to build positive momentum for March.
No. 3 Stanford Cardinal (24-4, 13-3)
Stock down: Despite winning the program’s fourth-straight and 27th overall regular season conference championship with Sunday’s win over Arizona State, Stanford’s stock is down, as Arizona upended the Cardinal at home on Friday night. It was the first time the Wildcats had won in Maples Pavilion since 2001. All credit to Arizona freshman guard Jada Williams for scoring 14 points in the final four minutes to lead the Wildcats to the comeback win. The Cardinal were without star senior forward Cameron Brink, who was out with an illness. If the frontcourt tandem of Brink and junior forward Kiki Iriafen is not fully operational, Stanford is vulnerable.
No. 4 Iowa Hawkeyes (24-4, 13-3)
Stock down: Did Indiana put the “Fear of God” in Iowa? Maybe not. But the Hoosiers showed that it is possible to shut down Caitlin Clark. With Clark frustrated and inefficient, the Hawkeyes suffered their worst loss since last season’s national championship game. Yes, the Hawkeyes are more than Clark, as sophomore forward Hannah Stuelke reminded everyone a few weeks ago. However, it’s unlikely Iowa achieves their postseason ambitions if Clark is off her game. On Sunday, Iowa got back on track, thumping Illinois behind a triple-double from Clark.
No. 5 Texas Longhorns (26-3, 13-3)
Stock up: Texas certainly did not face the toughest schedule last week, as Texas Tech and UCF have a combined eight conference wins. Nevertheless, wins should not be taken for granted. After the Longhorns held off the upset-minded Red Raiders on Wednesday, they rolled over the Knights on Saturday. That’s eight wins in a row, a stretch of consistency made more impressive due to the injury-induced absence of the team’s expected engine, junior guard Rori Harmon. Freshman forward Madison Booker continues to blossom, finding ways to generate good offense. Against Texas Tech, it was at the free throw line, where she made all 10 of her attempts. In the win over UCF, she showed off her full arsenal on her way to a game-high 22 points.
No. 6 NC State Wolfpack (23-5, 11-5)
Stock down: NC State made a trip across the Triangle on Thursday and were drowned by triples from North Carolina. However, one loss is not a cause for alarm. Although the usually defensively stout Wolfpack could have shown more discipline defending the 3-point line, the Tar Heels enjoyed an abnormally-efficient shooting night. But, two losses in a row? That’s a bit more concerning. On Sunday, NC State struggled to generate efficient offense, stifled by Duke in Durham.
No. 7 USC Trojans (21-5, 11-5)
Holding steady: In late January, when USC had lost three of their last four games, it looked like the Trojans were just going to be a fun early-season story, as the team didn’t appear quite ready for the pressures of Pac-12 play. Wrong. The next game, freshman phenom JuJu Watkins dropped 51 points. Since then, the Trojans had not lost. Until Sunday. After a quality win over Colorado on Friday night, USC could not pull off the comeback against Utah. Nonetheless, it’s hard not be optimistic about the Trojans. Watkins tallied her 11th and 12th games of at least 30 points, establishing a new program record as she poured 42 points on Colorado before finishing with an even 30 on Sunday. She can do it all.
No. 8 Virginia Tech Hokies (23-4, 14-2)
Holding steady: The Hokies had only one game this week, and they did their job. Virginia Tech held North Carolina to just five first-quarter points. From there, the dynamic duo of grad center Elizabeth Kitley and senior guard Georgia Amoore inflected their characteristic damage, with Kitley dropping 34 points and Amoore finishing with a 19-point and 11-assist double-double to secure a 10th-straight win. Amoore also became the program’s all-time leader in assists. The win earned the Hokies a share of the regular season ACC championship.
No. 9 Oregon State Beavers (22-5, 11-5)
Stock down: After losing a tough battle to USC last Sunday, Oregon State had an uneven trip to the state of Washington. While the Beavers took care of the Cougars with a balanced effort on Friday night, a five-point first quarter doomed them against the Huskies on Sunday. For upstart Oregon State, still less trusted than their top-10 counterparts, it was the kind of loss they could not afford. However, the Beavers will have the opportunity to regain upward momentum when they meet Stanford on Thursday.
No. 10 Kansas State Wildcats (24-4, 13-4)
Stock down: Still-hobbled star senior center Ayoka Lee had her best game of the season on Thursday, turning in a 34-point and 12-rebound double-double to power K-State’s overtime win over West Virginia. On Sunday, however, Lee and the Wildcats did not have enough juice to overcome their in-state rivals, falling to the Jayhawks in Lawrence.
Stat-stuffing standouts
In addition to the aforementioned Ayoka Lee’s latest outstanding performance, here’s a look a who else impressed over the past week:
- Although we also noted JuJu Watkins above, her 42-point masterpiece deserves a bit more shine. The freshman’s precocious ability to draws fouls was on full display, as she earned 18 trips to the line and sunk them all, giving her a season-high 18 points from the stripe. She registered a quartet of 3s, boards, assists and steals as well. Teammate McKenzie Forbes also was fantastic, with the grad wing finishing with 24 points, seven assists and no turnovers in No. 7 USC’s 87-81 Friday night victory over No. 11 Colorado. Although USC lost to No. 18 Utah on Sunday, 74-68, Watkins claimed the program’s freshman scoring record.
- On Monday, junior wing Aneesah Morrow and sophomore guard Flau’jae Johnson provided a one-two punch for No. 13 LSU, propelling the Lady Tigers to the 81-58 win over Texas A&M. Morrow finished with a 25-point and 15-rebound double-double, while Johnson added 20 points, nine rebounds and six assists. On Thursday, it was Angel Reese’s turn to lead the Lady Tigers, with the junior forward posting the sixth 20-20 game of her career. She tallied 25 points and 20 rebounds in LSU’s 71-66 win over Auburn. Then, on Sunday, Reese had another double-double and reached 2,000 career points as LSU ran away from Tennessee, 75-60.
- Wisconsin sophomore forward Serah Williams turned in a Reese-like performance on Wednesday, finishing with a monster 30-point and 15-rebound double-double as the Badgers bested Minnesota, 67-56. Eric Nemchock recently wrote about Williams’ importance to Wisconsin.
- It was a fitting Senior Day performance for Georgetown’s Kelsey Ransom. The senior guard scored a career-high 31 points as the Hoyas got the W over Butler, 70-63, on Saturday.
- Yet again, sophomore guard Ny’Cera Pryor nearly did it all for Sacred Heart. In a 75-63 win over Farleigh Dickinson on Thursday, she finished an assist shy of a triple-double. Her final stat line: 22 points, 10 rebounds and nine assists. While we don’t want to steal Pryor from Sacred Heart, especially if she is perfectly happy playing for the Pioneers, it would be fun to see her hoop for a Power Five school next season.
- Maryland junior guard Shyanne Sellers also nearly got in on the triple-double fun. She posted 21 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists in Wednesday’s 81-62 win over Rutgers.
- A 25-point and 12-rebound double-double from freshman center Audi Crooks helped Iowa State take care of Houston, 76-64, on Wednesday. On Saturday, Crooks scored 18 points as the Cyclones stomped BYU, 74-49. In the process, she claimed the highest-scoring freshman season in program history, with 476 points and counting.
- Murray State senior forward Katelyn Young uncorked a 38-point and 13-rebound double-double on Illinois-Chicago on Thursday, leading the Racers to the 83-63 victory.
- Utah Tech fifth-year senior guard Breaunna Gillen unleashed her own 38-point and 10-rebound double-double on Saturday, adding six assists and three steals in the 88-69 win over UT Arlington. The victory also earned the Trailblazers a berth in the WAC Tournament.
- In a Saturday overtime affair in the OVC, Southern Indiana edged Western Illinois, 96-89. While the Screaming Eagles benefitted from junior guard Vanessa Shafford’s 25-point and 10-rebound double-double, Raegan McCowan, a freshman guard for the Bulldogs, had the head-turning performance, dropping a career-high 45 points as she made 17 of her 18 free throw attempts.
Celebrating the all-time scorers of the present—and past
On Saturday, Grace Beyer, a senior guard for University of Heath Sciences and Pharmacy in St. Louis, became the women’s NAIA all-time leading scorer. By scoring 32 points in a win over Hannibal-LaGrange, Beyer reached 3,874 points, surpassing Miriam Walker-Samuels, who scored 3,855 points for Claflin University, a HBCU in Orangeburg, SC, from 1987 to 1990.
Basketball player Miriam Walker-Samuels will become the first SC Athletic Hall of Fame inductee from Claflin University. Walker-Samuels, who set the NAIA record of most points in a career (3,855), has been selected to the Induction Class of 2019. (Photo courtesy of the T&D) pic.twitter.com/xCm96Is7dq
— Claflin University (@ClaflinUniv1869) February 23, 2019
Beyer would have to go on quite a tear to reach Pearl Moore’s 4,061 career points. Caitlin Clark’s current women’s NCAA Division I total is 3,617, still shy of Lynette Woodard’s recognized AIAW mark of 3,649.
Points, points and more points. And all the players who have scored them deserve praise.
Hopefully, as Woodard herself expressed to commentator Brenda VanLengen before Sunday’s game between Kansas, her alma mater, and Kansas State, the recent, well-publicized achievement of Clark will lead to too-long overlooked and under-appreciated legends getting the recognition and respect they deserve, not only from fans but also from the NCAA.
“It’s not so much what I want the people to know. I want the NCAA governing body to know that they should respect the players, they should respect the history. Include us and our accomplishments.”
– Lynette Woodard to @BrendaVanLengen on the AIAW era, prior to the NCAA
— Across the Timeline (@WBBTimeline) February 25, 2024
Additionally, Dyaisha Fair continues to put her name among the sport’s best scorers. With 23 points in Syracuse’s comeback win over Pitt on Sunday, Fair reached 3,302 career points, surpassing Brittney Griner for fifth on the women’s NCAA Division I all-time list.
Congrats to regular season conference champs
Congratulations to the following teams for winning their conference’s regular season championship: FGCU (ASUN), UConn (Big East), High Point (Big South), MTSU (C-USA), Fairfield (MAAC), UNLV (MWC), Southern Indiana (OVC), Stanford (Pac-12), South Carolina (SEC), Chattanooga (SoCon) and Gonzaga (WCC). The team that have earned a share of their conference’s regular season championship are: Virginia Tech (ACC), Ohio State (Big Ten) and South Dakota State (Summit League).
A B1G sell out!
For the first time ever, the Big Ten women’s basketball tournament has sold out in advance. More the 109,000 are expected to pass through the Target Center doors in Minneapolis from March 6 to 10 to watch Ohio State, Iowa, Indiana and upset-minded foes contend for the conference title.
Former player sues Nebraska
Former Nebraska player Ashley Scoggin has filed a law suit, alleging that head coach Amy Williams and athletic director Trev Alberts failed to take appropriate action regarding her sexual relationship with former Nebraska associate head coach Chuck Love.
Scoggin’s attorney, Maren Chaloupka, asserted, “It’s a very troubling and serious subject of predatory coaches that pursue sexual relationships with student-athletes. There’s an enormous imbalance of power between the professional coach and student-athletes. This is something that was well known in 2022.”
A former Nebraska player alleges coach Amy Williams and athletic director Trev Alberts did not take appropriate action when her sexual relationship with an assistant coach became widely known. The lawsuit was filed Sunday. https://t.co/fs7NtXIsza
— ESPN Women’s Hoops (@ESPN_WomenHoop) February 19, 2024
Scoggin, who played for Nebraska for two years and was dismissed from the team in Feb. 2022 on the same day that Love was suspended without pay, now plays for UNLV.
A look ahead
In the week ahead, teams will have the opportunity to secure conference regular season titles, improve their seeding for conference tournaments and bolster their resume for the NCAA Tournament. There’s also a number of revenge games on the calendar.
Monday, Feb. 26
No. 11 Colorado vs. No. 12 UCLA (9 p.m. ET, ESPN2)
Wednesday, Feb. 28
Michigan vs. No. 2 Ohio State (7 p.m. ET, Peacock)
No. 5 Texas vs. No. 23 Oklahoma (7 p.m. ET, ESPN+)
Iowa State vs. No. 10 Kansas State (7:30 p.m. ET, Big 12 Network/ESPN+)
Thursday, Feb. 29
No. 17 Syracuse vs. No. 6 NC State (7 p.m. ET, ACC Network Extra)
No. 8 Virginia Tech vs. No. 19 Notre Dame (7 p.m. ET, ESPN)
No. 3 Stanford vs. No. 9 Oregon State (10 p.m. ET)
Sunday, Mar. 3
Tennessee vs. No. 1 South Carolina (12 p.m. ET, ESPN)
No. 2 Ohio State vs. No. 4 Iowa (1 p.m. ET, FOX)
No. 20 Louisville vs. No. 19 Notre Dame (2 p.m. ET, ESPN)