Half the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament Final Four was set Monday. The other half will be decided Tuesday, as No. 1 Notre Dame takes on No. 2 Duke and No. 2 Tennessee takes on No. 5 Louisville.
NCAA Women’s basketball 2013 schedule and bracket: Can Louisville continue their run?
Notre Dame, Duke, Tennessee and Louisville are all fighting for the last two Final Four spots in the 2013 NCAA Women’s tournament on Tuesday.
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The Tennessee Volunteers haven't been in the Final Four since winning the national championship in 2008, and they might have picked a bad time to face the Louisville Cardinals.
The Cardinals, who played for the title in 2009, are coming off one of the bigger upsets in NCAA Tournament history after defeating Brittney Griner and the No. 1 Baylor Bears 82-81 on Sunday.
The Lady Vols have played solid basketball throughout the tournament, however, beating their opponents by an average of almost 17 points. First-year coach Holly Warlick has righted the ship many feared had gone adrift after longtime Tennessee coach Pat Summit retired. Behind the scoring prowess of Meighan Simmons (17 points per game), the Lady Vols are making their 26th appearance in the Elite Eight.
Meanwhile, Louisville could use more of the offensive firepower they had in the Baylor win on Tuesday. The Cardinals were 16-of-25 from behind the three-point arc and their defense clamped down on Griner, limiting her to just 14 points after she had averaged 33 in the previous two games of the tournament.
As one of the two remaining No. 1 seeds left, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish's odds to win the NCAA title got a bit better when Baylor made an early exit. Led by All-American point guard Skylar Diggins, Notre Dame has won 29 consecutive games and have defeated their three tournament opponents by a combined 74 points. Diggins scored 22 of her 27 points in the second half, as Notre Dame beat No. 12 Kansas 93-63. Diggins' final basket moved her into the top place as Notre Dame's career scoring leader.
The Duke Blue Devils have struggled a bit to score in the tournament. After averaging 75 points a game during the regular season, Duke's highest scoring game in the tournament was 68 points against No. 7 Oklahoma State. The Blue Devils are shooting just 38 percent from the floor and just 27 percent from beyond the arc during the tournament.
Click here for an updated bracket of the NCAA Women’s Tournament.
No. 1 Notre Dame vs. No. 2 Duke, 7 p.m. ET, ESPN
No. 2 Tennessee vs. No. 5 Louisville, 9 p.m. ET, ESPN
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