The upsets, comebacks, great individual performances, shocking moments and late game drama of the last two days made the Sweet 16 perhaps the best one ever. Advancing to the Elite 8 are two teams who have never been before, some who haven’t advanced to this round in a very long time, and some familiar faces.
Two key points from each matchup:
- Shooting percentages define Miami-Villanova: As a team, Miami shot 45.6 percent from the field and their leading scorer, Jasmyne Roberts, had 26 points on 10-of-16 shooting, or 62.5 percent. Meanwhile, Villanova was shooting 36.5 percent, and even though the nation’s leading scorer in all of college basketball, Maddy Siegrist, had 31 points, she shot 8-of-29, or 27.6 percent. Overall, Siegrist was responsible for 46 percent of her team’s field goal attempts and 68.2 percent of their attempted free throws.
- Overcoming turnover deficit: Shooting that well in this game allowed for the Hurricanes to overcome a 21-11 turnover differential that allowed for the Wildcats to have 30 points off of turnovers, compared to just 9 points for Miami. The two leading scorers also played a major role in forcing turnovers as both Roberts and Siegrist had four and five steals, respectively.
- It all came…
