Early in the third quarter, Kiki Rice knew the pressure was on her if the Bruins wanted to keep their hopes alive of getting to the Women's Final Four for the first time. Rice scored 13 of her 24 points in the third quarter as second-seeded UCLA rallied for a 67-63 victory over seventh-seeded Creighton in the second round of the women’s NCAA Tournament on Monday night. “At this point of the season, it’s one game and you’re out,” Rice said.
Hands on his head with the front of his jersey pulled up to cover his face, Baylor Scheierman was the picture of Creighton's raw emotion in the immediate aftermath of its crushing loss in the NCAA Elite Eight last year. If third-seeded Creighton beats No. 2 Tennessee in the Sweet 16 in Detroit on Friday night, the Bluejays would be in the same position as a year ago. Creighton leaned hard on Scheierman to get through the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament with an 86-73 double-overtime win over No. 11 Oregon in Pittsburgh on Saturday.
Dressed in white from head to toe, Rick Pitino and his St. John's players handed No. 15 Creighton a humbling defeat. Daniss Jenkins scored a season-high 27 points and St. John's shredded the Bluejays 80-66 on Sunday for its best win yet under the Hall of Fame coach. Jordan Dingle added 18 points and the Red Storm (16-12, 8-9 Big East) finally closed out a quality conference opponent following a string of blown leads.
Creighton went into its game against UConn having lost all six of its previous meetings with No. 1-ranked teams and never coming closer than 10 points. The No. 15 Bluejays finally broke through on their seventh try, building a double-digit lead in the first half and knocking off the Huskies 85-66 Tuesday night. “We played a really good game and we beat an incredible team, a team that has a legitimate chance to win a national championship,” Creighton coach Greg McDermott said.