Joyce Edwards had 27 points and eight rebounds and No 1 seed South Carolina won their 17th straight home women’s NCAA Tournament game with a 103-34 defeat of 16th-seeded Southern on Saturday.
Edwards and the Gamecocks (32-3) opened with a 15-0 burst and never let up against the Jaguars (20-14), the Southwestern Athletic Conference champions.
South Carolina, already up 25 at the break, outscored Southern 32-2 in the third quarter.
It took little time for South Carolina to get going with Edwards scoring the first two baskets. Ta’Niya Latson added five points in the opening run as Southern started 0-for-7 shooting with six turnovers.
Latson finished with 17 points while Madina Okot and Agot Makeer had 15 points each. Tessa Johnson had 14 points and a career-high 10 rebounds.
Southern had won their second NCAA Tournament game in the First Four, defeating Samford 65-53. The Jaguars beat UC San Diego in that round last year before getting drubbed by Final Four team UCLA 84-46.
This time, the Jaguars ran into a South Carolina team anxious to get the tournament started after a disappointing defeat by Texas, 78-61, in the Southeastern Conference Tournament title game on 8 Match.
Jocelyn Tate had 10 points to lead Southern.
South Carolina will play either No 8 seed Clemson or No 9 seed Southern California in the second round on Monday.
No 1 UConn 90, No 16 UTSA 52
Sarah Strong scored 18 points and Ashlynn Shade added 14 to help No. 1 seed UConn rout UTSA 90-52 in the first round of the women’s NCAA Tournament on Saturday.
The Huskies (35-0) have won 51 consecutive games dating back to last season and looked dominant again despite not having a great shooting game from behind the three-point line.
UConn led 19-6 after the first quarter and poured it on in the second. Strong had nine points and two steals in the first quarter as the Huskies limited USTA to three field goals.
UTSA (18-16) had one field goal in the final 8:54 of the second quarter and trailed 48-14 at the half as Strong hit a jumper right before the buzzer. Blanca Quinonez had 10 points during an 18-1 run for the Huskies
Azzi Fudd picked up her third foul with 1:44 left in the opening quarter. KK Arnold was whistled for her third foul with 7:40 to play in the first half.
UTSA had 27 turnovers in the game and only 20 baskets.
Ereauna Hardaway was one of three UTSA players with 11 points. The Roadrunners reached the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2009 after winning the American Conference tournament.
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