It was a busy Sunday in women’s college basketball, as fans saw thrilling comebacks, a top-five matchup and more. Here’s what you need to know:
Pitt (9-9, 1-4 ACC) completed a comeback for the ages against SMU (10-7, 2-3 ACC), winning 72-59, behind a must-see third-quarter performance. The Panthers mounted a 32-point comeback, tying the largest comeback in NCAA women’s basketball history — arguably no better way to end a home stand.
It was a tale of two halves for both teams. Everything that could’ve gone wrong for the Panthers in the first quarter did, missing 11 of their 12 shots and turning it over six times. The Mustangs outscored Pitt 32-7 in the first quarter and 17-11 in the second.
The halftime score, 49-18 was enough reason for home fans to exit early from Petersen Events Center.
The Panthers came out of the break with a new resolve — and it was a strong one.
Pitt went on a 28-0 run in the third quarter, 31-0 total. Eventually, they took the lead with five minutes left behind forward MaKayla Elmore’s trailing three-pointer at the left wing.
The Panthers didn’t look back from there, outscoring SMU 15-5 following the three. The win snapped Pitt’s three-game losing streak.
No. 14 Duke (13-4, 4-1 ACC) made a thrilling fourth-quarter comeback to edge Virginia (10-7, 2-3 ACC) 60-55, securing their fourth ACC win.
Virginia controlled the first half, shooting 43.5% from the field while holding Duke to just 26.5%. The Cavaliers’ defense limited the Blue Devils to just 1-of-10 shooting from beyond the arc, helping them build a nine-point lead by halftime.
The Cavaliers extended their dominance into the third quarter, pushing their advantage to as many as 10 points while continuing to outscore Duke in every quarter up to that point.
But the Blue Devils flipped the script in the fourth. Virginia endured a critical scoring drought of over four minutes, allowing Duke to claw its way back. The Blue Devils seized the lead and never looked back.
With just 14 seconds remaining, Taina Mair sank a clutch three-pointer to turn Duke’s slim two-point lead into a more comfortable five-point cushion. Moments later, Oluchi Okananwa knabbed a game-sealing steal, completing Duke’s remarkable turnaround. Outscoring Virginia 21-12 in the final quarter, the Blue Devils capped their comeback.
A season-high 20 offensive rebounds proved pivotal for Duke, giving it the extra opportunities needed to secure the hard-fought victory.
Te-Hina PaoPao, Chloe Kitts and Joyce Edwards all finished with double-digits to propel No. 1 South Carolina (16-1) to a dominant 67-50 win over No. 5 Texas (16-2) at Colonial Life Arena.
The win extended Carolina’s win streak to 11 games and snapped a the Longhorns’ nine-game winning streak
The Gamecock defense held Texas forward Madison Booker to just seven points, limiting her to shooting just 3-for-19 from the field. Booker entered the matchup averaging just over 15 points per game.
South Carolina’s dominance spilled over to the offensive side as well, where the group shot a commanding 51% from the field, compared to Texas’ 28%.
After Booker made a free throw to give the Longhorns a 3-2 lead in the opening minutes of the game, Pao-Pao answered with six consecutive points to erase Texas’ only lead of the afternoon.
While Pao-Pao got the offense rolling early, Kitts sealed the victory with six points in the fourth quarter alone. The forward went 4-for-4 from the free throw line in the fourth.
Edwards continued to shine off the Gamecocks’ bench, totaling her third double-digit performance in the last three games. The freshman saw 18 minutes of play and racked up 10 points, two rebounds and one steal to headline the South Carolina bench.
No. 13 Georgia Tech’s comeback fell short versus Louisville (12-5, 5-1 ACC), losing 69-60. Its the Yellowjackets’ (13-2, 3-2 ACC) second straight loss and their second loss of the year.
The Cardinals made paint points their bread and butter early, outscoring Georgia Tech 22-10 during the first half. It helped Louisville shoot 60 percent from the field, alongside 14 points off the Yellowjackets 10 turnovers. By halftime, the Cardinals led 37-23.
GT went on to outscore Louisville in the third and fourth quarters and cut the deficit to as low as five points with less than two minutes left to play. However, they couldn’t make the final push to complete the comeback, mainly because the offense went quiet down the stretch.
Even though the Yellowjackets erased the ‘Cardinals’ lead, which reached 16 points at one point in the second half, they made zero field goals in the last 4:13 seconds of the contest.
Although the Yellowjackets had the game leader in points guard Kara Dunn with 18, each Cardinals’ player scored while three players finished in double digits and two others had eight points.
Georgia Tech suffered its first loss of the season just three days ago to unranked Virginia Tech 105-94 in double overtime. They head up north next to face No. 3 Notre Dame on Thursday.
For Louisville, it was the program’s first ranked win of the year. They entered the matchup 0-5 against ranked opponents.
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