ACC Tournament: Duke joins UNC, NC State in semis, will face Notre Dame next
GREENSBORO, N.C. (WTVD) -- The Women's Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament is in full swing Friday with all three Triangle teams in action.
No. 14 North Carolina was up first, surviving a tight battle with No. 22 Florida State. No. 7 NC State, the tournament's top overall seed, had an even bigger scare, squeaking past gritty Georgia Tech 73-72. No.11 Duke became the third Triangle team to reach the semis on Friday night and will play No. 6 Notre Dame on Saturday.
No. 11 Duke 61, Louisville 48
Oluchi Okananwa came off the bench to score 13 points and Duke cruised to victory over Louisville on Friday night in the quarterfinals.
The third-seeded Blue Devils (24-7), who have won four in a row, will play No. 2 seed Notre Dame at 2:30 p.m. in Saturday's semifinals.
Okananwa made 4 of 7 shots with a 3-pointer and 4 of 5 free throws for Duke. Reigan Richardson added 12 points and Ashlon Jackson scored 11. ACC rookie of the year Toby Fournier scored 10 and grabbed eight rebounds off the bench.
Reserve Mackenly Randolph scored 13 points on 5-for-6 shooting to lead the sixth-seeded Cardinals (21-10). Olivia Cochran had 11 points and 11 rebounds for her sixth double-double this season.
Six different players had a basket, and the Blue Devils led 15-11 after one quarter.
Louisville made 1 of 5 shots and turned the ball over five times in the first seven minutes of the second quarter in falling behind 23-13. Nyla Harris ended the Cardinals' six-minute scoring drought with a basket, but Taina Mair buried a 3-pointer with two seconds left as the Blue Devils closed the half on an 8-3 run for a 31-18 advantage.
Duke held Louisville to two points through the first four minutes of the third quarter and the Blue Devils used back-to-back 3-pointers by Jackson and a three-point play by Fournier to up their lead to 41-20. Jackson finished with eight points in the period and Duke led 45-30.
Louisville scored the first seven points of the fourth quarter, but Okananwa answered with a three-point play and Duke maintained a double-digit lead from there.
No. 7 NC State 73, Georgia Tech 72
Aziaha James hit two free throws with 7.1 seconds left to help the Wolfpack squeak past fiesty Georgia Tech in Friday's quarterfinals.
James scored 16 points for the top-seeded Wolfpack (25-5), who had a tough grind to advance to Saturday's semifinals. N.C. State trailed by nine in the first quarter and neither team led by more than four in the fourth.
But this one ended unceremoniously for the ninth-seeded Yellow Jackets (22-10), who had a chance to win but failed to get a shot off before the horn on the final possession.
Tonie Morgan and Kara Dunn each scored 21 points for Georgia Tech.
The Yellow Jackets stumbled down the stretch, losing four straight and five of six before beating Virginia Tech in Thursday's second round. They very nearly followed with a bigger win.
The Wolfpack ran down No. 6 Notre Dame in the final week to finish atop the regular-season standings and grab the top seed in Greensboro, but its tournament run nearly ended in shocking fashion.
After James' shots and with Georgia Tech having no timeouts, Morgan pushed the ball up court and gave it to Dani Carnegie on the left wing as time wound down. But Carnegie didn't shoot and instead tried to dribble to her right near the 3-point arc as time expired, igniting a Wolfpack celebration in front of a home-state crowd.
N.C. State made 8 of 14 shots (.571) in the period, while James' winning free throws came on her only trip to the line.
The Wolfpack await the Tar Heels in a noon semifinals matchup Saturday.
No. 14 UNC 60, No. 22 Florida State 56
Alyssa Ustby scored 12 points and grabbed 18 rebounds and freshman Lanie Grant made two free throws with 7.3 seconds left to give the Tar Heels the 60-56 win over the Seminoles in the quarterfinals.
Reniya Kelly, who missed the previous three games with an injury, hit a jumper with just over a minute remaining to give the Tar Heels the lead and she connected again near the foul line to make it 58-54 with 20.4 seconds left.
Ta'Niya Latson made two free throws for the Seminoles with 11.4 to go but then they had to foul three times before Grant went to the line.
The 2024 Virginia Gatorade Player of the Year and early enrollee at UNC, calmly swished the clinchers after a timeout to ice her.
The fifth-seeded Tar Heels now play rival N.C. State in Saturday's semifinals at noon.
Lexi Donarski also scored 12 points for the Tar Heels (27-6) and Indya Nivar added 10. With Maria Gakdeng grabbing 16 rebounds, the Tar Heels had a 53-40 rebounding advantage, 17-9 on the offensive end for a 21-2 difference on second-chance points.
Makayla Timpson had 15 points, eight rebounds and she tied a tournament record with eight blocks for the fourth-seeded Seminoles (23-8). Latson added 13 points and O'Mariah Gordon had 12.
Florida State won the regular-season matchup 86-84 when Latson made a layup as time ran out. This time the nation's leading scorer was held to half her scoring average on 3-of-14 shooting as the Seminoles had their lowest scoring game of the season.
The largest lead in the second half was five points.
No. 6 Notre Dame 73, California 64
Hannah Hidalgo scored 25 points and the Fighting Irish took over down the stretch to beat Cal on Friday night in the quarterfinals.
Olivia Miles added 14 points and six assists for the second-seeded Irish (26-4), the tournament's reigning champion. Notre Dame had won the regular-season meeting in a blowout, but trailed by six midway through the third quarter and led by just three with 7 1/2 minutes left in the game.
Lulu Twidale scored 16 points and made four 3-pointers for the seventh-seeded Golden Bears (25-8). Marta Suarez added 14 points and 11 rebounds.
Takeaways
The Golden Bears opened their first ACC Tournament by beating Virginia in Thursday's second round. That earned them a rematch with the Fighting Irish after losing 91-52 in South Bend nearly a month earlier, and they gave the Irish fits before fading as Notre Dame took over.
Much like top-seeded N.C. State earlier Friday, Notre Dame had a tough grind to push through its tournament opener.
The Fighting Irish advanced to Saturday's semifinals to play the Louisville-Duke winner.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
