Women’s Second Round: Tennessee, Duke, Kentucky And FSU Still Standing

Highlights from the first night of second-round play in the women’s NCAA tournament:
• No. 1 Tennessee 92 - No. 8 Dayton 64
Dayton got here, you may remember, by beating TCU at the actual last second after trailing by 18, but its first tournament bid met a grisly end in Knoxville. It took the Lady Vols four minutes to establish their first double-digit lead, and it was full throttle from there for Pat Summitt’s latest war machine. (Rumors that Tennessee’s head coach was seem smiling a human smile on the sidelines cannot be confirmed at this time.) At no time was it a particularly exciting matchup, unless you like your lady hoopsters flirting with triple-doubles with the game well in hand. ESPN abandoned coverage in favor of actual contested games early on and didn’t even cut back for the final minute. Alicia Manning had a career night with 17 points and ten rebounds, and did it coming off the bench.
• No. 2 Duke 60 - No. 7 LSU 52
This was sort of a head-scratching heartbreaker, as LSU committed turnover after inexplicable turnover but managed to hang with Duke until the final few minutes. Once the clock wound down to single digits, the harder the Lady Tigers played, the faster the Lady Devils widened the gap. This was one of Duke’s lowest offensive outputs of the season, but tonight, it was enough. They await the winner of tomorrow’s San Diego State-West Virginia matchup.
• No. 4 Kentucky 70 - No. 5 Michigan State 52
The Lady Wildcats haven’t enjoyed the program success bestowed upon their male counterparts in Lexington, but they thrashed their way out of a low-scoring snoozer where plodding, single-digit stats were spread evenly across both squads with the aid of Victoria Dunlap, whose 21 points and eight rebounds were the only remotely entertaining part of the evening. After a steady drizzle of points in the first half, Kentucky outscored the Lady Spartans by 14 in the second. What remains to be seen is whether they can keep it together against a presumptive Sweet 16 date with top-seeded Nebraska.
• No. 3 Florida State 66 - No. 6 St. John’s 65
Florida State is hard to root for right now, knocking off one of the 2010 tournament’s favorite plucky upstarts in such cruel fashion, but they also have the year’s most terrifying player in Cierra Bravard, who’s got the eyes of a mako shark and hands that could crush a man’s skull with little effort, so let’s just say it’s a real shame we don’t get to see more of the Red Storm’s Nadirah McKenith, a freshman guard who charges around the court like Ivory Latta, and leave it at that. This game went to overtime tied at 62, but Shenneika Smith let a pass slip through her fingers with nine seconds remaining and the ‘Noles up by a point, and Da’Shena Stevens’ last-second heave clanged off the rim. Congratulations, Florida State. Please don’t hurt me, Cierra.