Second Round action in the NCAA women’s March Madness tournament continued on Sunday as Notre Dame took on Mississippi State and Virginia Tech played South Dakota State.
Mississippi State pulled off the upset in the first round when they beat six-seed Creighton 81-66 in the first round as an 11-seed. Creighton can be most remembered for its Cinderella-story run last season, which involved beating Caitlin Clark and the Iowa Hawkeyes.
Notre Dame on the other hand came into the tournament with a lot of question marks. They lost Dara Mabrey earlier in the season to an ACL injury, and then earlier this week it was announced that Olivia Miles would not play in the tournament either. They still came in as the No. 3 seed in the Greenville 1 Region, and beat No. 14 seed Southern Utah 82-56 in dominant fashion.
With those wins, the second-round matchup of Notre Dame and Mississippi State was set. With those injuries to Miles and Mabrey, don’t let the seeds fool you into thinking this is a walk-off for Notre Dame. They have had to quickly adjust without their offensive leader in Miles, and learn to share and handle the basketball as a team.
The first quarter was tight all the way through, with neither team able to bridge a large lead. It ended with Notre Dame up by just one…
