Notre Dame Region 2nd Round Preview: Cowgirls and Boilermakers battle for Sweet 16 bid

After surviving the upset bid from Florida Gulf Coast Eagles on Saturday, the Oklahoma State Cowgirls found their victory in overtime, 61-60. They'll have to find a way to play better against the 4th-seeded Purdue Boilermakers.

"It's one of those games in 36, 37 years of coaching that you kind of look at and go, how did we win that game? said Oklahoma State coach Jim Littell. "But these kids didn't quit. When we were down 10 or 12 in the second half they continued to make plays and just found a way to win at the end and I'm very proud of 'em."

Their defense will have to be better, even though they allowed just 60 points in a game that included an overtime session. The Cowgirls allowed the Eagles to drains eight 3-pointers in the game.

"I think we focused so much on them not shooting 3-pointers," said Brittany Martin. " I think we played too far up on there them and didn't move our feet so I think our defense really hurt us."

Purdue didn't have much problem in their win over the Akron Zips. They were 8-of-20 from Purdue money range and never really were scared in their game against Akron. The Boilermakers rank sixth in the nation at 38.1 percent from 3-point range.

"We just have to do what we do well, and they're going to try to do things that they do well." Purdue Head Coach Sharon Versyp said on Saturday. "We need to try to exploit any weaknesses from each side. But, I know they mentioned that they're worried about our rebounding, we got to crash, we got to do that exceptionally well, and we got to be able to run."

If you haven't watched the Cowgirls play this season, they like to get out and run. They'll score a lot of points in a hurry if you let them. They're led by Tiffany Bias, who's a nominee for an All-American as well was an All-Big 12 First Team selection. She'll be the primary scorer for the Cowgirls. She can be very inconsistent, but when she's on, she's very hard to stop. Just ask everyone in the Big 12.

"She's the one that can come off on ball screens, she can fake to the hole, does pull up jump shots, she find the role player exceptionally well." Coach Versyp on Bias. "So we just need to slow her down little bit and not allow her to really get going and get her tempo going."

Purdue and Oklahoma State have never met throughout their many years of basketball.

For Oklahoma State, they want to get back to the Sweet 16, where they haven't been since 2008. Purdue hasn't been to the Sweet 16 since 2009. Purdue that season went all the way to the Elite 8, losing to Oklahoma.

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