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The “Bracket” section of this story has been updated.
The regular season ended Sunday with the top teams securing berths for the ACC Tournament that starts today. Notre Dame won the regular season championship by defeating Virginia 103-66, at home. In the game, Arike Ogunbowale scored 24 points to lead the Fighting Irish, but Jackie Young had her second triple-double of the season with 22 points, 11 assists and 10 rebounds.
The Louisville Cardinals finished their season with a win also, defeating Pittsburgh, 67-40. Asia Durr scored 17 points and played just 27 minutes in a game where the Cardinals held the Panthers to just 18 points in the first half.
But Sunday’s thriller was a 70-68 win for NC State over Miami, for the third seed. Wolfpack senior DD Rogers scored a career-high 21 points to close out NC State’s regular season on the right note. For the Hurricanes, Emese Hof added 24 points and Beatrice Mompremier added 15 more. Despite the loss and an outside chance at the ACC regular season championship, Miami still secured an automatic quarterfinals berth in the tournament.
Durr, Ogunbowale, Hof and Mompremier earned additional honors on Tuesday when they were among the players selected to the All-ACC Women’s Basketball first teams by both the Blue Ribbon Panel and the conference’s head coaches. The ACC’s top player, freshman and head coach of the 2018-19 season will be named on Wednesday.
Now that the ACC Tournament is starting, the main story is whether Louisville can win a second consecutive title given that the Cardinals will have to go through reigning national champion Notre Dame. In a college basketball season where anything can happen, it’s possible to see a ranked team like Miami, NC State, Syracuse or Florida State winning the tournament, while North Carolina and Clemson also have shown the ability to pull off upsets, especially when teams are playing on three or more consecutive days. The ACC is the nation’s deepest college basketball conference and we will see that in full display this week.
Schedule
When: Wednesday, March 6 — Sunday, March 10
Where: Greensboro Coliseum, Greensboro, NC
How to view:
- ACC Network Extra — Round 1, Round 2 and Quarterfinals
- ESPNU — Semifinals
- ESPN2 — Championship Round
Bracket
ROUND 1
The first round of the ACC Tournament started with three blowouts. In the first game of the day. Virginia blew out Boston College, 77-61, as Cavaliers guard Jocelyn Willoughby scored 29 points and grabbed 13 rebounds to lead a furious comeback for Virginia in the second half.
Virginia Tech made easy work out of Wake Forest in an 85-63 win in the second match. Regan Magarity scored 22 points and 14 rebounds and Taylor Emery scored 26 to lead the Hokies to an early 27-10 lead after the first quarter, and they never looked back. Alex Sharp scored 18 points for Wake Forest.
Finally, Duke blew out Pittsburgh, 86-64, in Wednesday’s last match. Duke guard Miela Goodchild scored 19 points while Haley Gorecki scored 18 for the Blue Devils. Danielle Garven scored 16 points on 8-of-13 shooting to lead the Panthers. Duke outscored Pittsburgh in each quarter of the game, but things didn’t open up until the Blue Devils’ 24-11 third-quarter run.
No. 12 Virginia vs. No. 13 Boston College
Wednesday, March 6, 1 p.m. ET, ACC Network Extra
No. 10 Virginia Tech vs. No. 15 Wake Forest
Wednesday, March 6, 3:30 p.m. ET, ACC Network Extra
No. 11 Duke vs. No. 14 Pittsburgh
Wednesday, March 6, 6:30 p.m. ET, ACC Network Extra
ROUND 2
Unlike Wednesday, none of Thursday’s games were blowouts. Syracuse defeated Virginia in the first game, 67-57. Tiana Mangakahia scored 13 points for the Orange as they held Virginia to 37.3 percent shooting. Syracuse took advantage of a strong first half to keep the game in their control. Jocelyn Willoughby scored 19 points for the Cavaliers in the loss.
The North Carolina Tar Heels beat the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, 80-73, in the second game. Leah Church scored a career-high 20 points and shot 6-of-8 from the three-point line for the Tar Heels. North Carolina fell behind by as many as 10 points in the first quarter, but outscored the Yellow Jackets 45-33 in the second half. Elizabeth Dixon and Daijah Jefferson were Georgia Tech’s leading scorers with 12 points each.
Clemson defeated Virginia Tech 80-79 in overtime in Thursday’s third game. Neither team led by double digits for the entire game. Tigers guard Aliyah Collier scored 28 points and all of Clemson’s overtime points as the Tigers head to the quarterfinals. Hokies guard Taylor Emery played the entire game and had 35 points to lead all scorers.
In Thursday’s final game, Florida State beat Duke 51-41 in a slow-paced game. Florida State shot just 41.2 percent and committed 15 turnovers. Meanwhile, Duke shot 29.3 percent on 17-of-58 shooting. The Blue Devils also shot just 5-of-11 from the free throw line. Kiah Gillespie scored 15 points and grabbed 12 rebounds for the Seminoles, while Haley Gorecki scored 17 points for the Blue Devils.
No. 5 Syracuse vs. No. 12 Virginia
Thursday, March 7, 11 a.m. ET, ACC Network Extra
No. 8 North Carolina vs. No. 9 Georgia Tech
Thursday, March 7, 2 p.m. ET, ACC Network Extra
No. 7 Clemson vs. No. 10 Virginia Tech
Thursday, March 7, 5 p.m. ET, ACC Network Extra
No. 6 Florida State vs. No. 11 Duke
Thursday, March 7, 8 p.m. ET, ACC Network Extra
QUARTERFINALS
On Friday, the ACC finally saw its first upset as Syracuse defeated Miami 92-85 in the first game. Tiana Mangakahia scored 25 points and tied an ACC Tournament record with 13 assists. Syracuse took control of the game with a 31-point second quarter run to head into halftime with a 50-37 lead. Though Miami’s frontcourt of Beatrice Mompremier and Emese Hof scored 27 and 25 points respectively, the Hurricanes committed 15 turnovers.
In the second game, Notre Dame blew out North Carolina in a 95-77 win. Arike Ogunbowale scored 28 points and Brianna Turner added 24 more in the win for the Irish. Paris Kea led North Carolina with 27 points. The Tar Heels kept things rather close until the second half as Notre Dame began to pull away. Notre Dame got revenge for a previous 78-73 loss to North Carolina on Jan. 27.
Louisville won 75-67 over Clemson in the third game after entering the fourth quarter down 60-54. Asia Durr scored 24 points to lead the Cardinals, while Simone Westbrook and Aliyah Collier scored 17 points each for the Tigers. Despite the loss, Clemson held Louisville to 44.3 percent shooting.
NC State advanced to the quarterfinals after beating Florida State 69-62. Wolfpack freshman Elissa Cunane scored 22 points and grabbed 9 rebounds. NC State also held Florida State to just 37.3 percent shooting and outscored them 30-15 in the second and third quarters. Nicki Ekhomu scored 23 points to lead the Seminoles.
No. 4 Miami vs. No. 6 Syracuse
Friday March 8, 11 a.m. ET, ACC Network Extra
No. 1 Notre Dame vs. No. 8 North Carolina
Friday, March 8, 2 p.m. ET, ACC Network Extra
No. 2 Louisville vs. No. 7 Clemson
Friday, March 8, 5 p.m. ET, ACC Network Extra
No. 3 NC State vs. No. 6 Florida State
Friday, March 6, 8 p.m. ET, ACC Network Extra
SEMIFINALS
Saturday’s semifinals results will give women’s basketball fans a rematch of the 2018 ACC Tournament Championship game with Notre Dame facing off against Louisville.
In the first game, Notre Dame made easy work of Syracuse in a 91-66 blowout win. Jackie Young scored 18 points and grabbed 13 rebounds while Jessica Shepard added another 16 points and 12 rebounds. The Irish are now headed to their sixth consecutive ACC Tournament championship game and their ninth consecutive overall, including their time in the Big East.
Tiana Mangakahia scored 14 points for the Orange, who didn’t lead after the opening minutes of the first quarter.
In the second game, Louisville defeated NC State, 78-68, in a game where both teams exchanged double-digit leads. Though the game wasn’t a blowout, Louisville put up a 12-0 run that spanned the end of the second and beginning of the third quarters. Though NC State reclaimed a 53-52 lead briefly with 2:35 left in the third quarter, Louisville went on a 15-2 run to start fourth quarter run to take control of the game for good.
Asia Durr scored 22 points while Sam Fuehring added 14 points and 12 rebounds for the Cardinals. For the Wolfpack, Elissa Cunane led with 20 points.
No. 1 Notre Dame vs. No. 6 Syracuse
Saturday, March 9, 12 p.m. ET, ESPNU
No. 2 Louisville vs. No. 3 NC State
Saturday, March 9, 2:30 p.m. ET, ESPNU
CHAMPIONSHIP (Greensboro Coliseum)
Notre Dame won the 2019 ACC women’s basketball tournament after a 99-79 win over Louisville. Jackie Young scored 21 points and Brianna Turner added 20 more for the Irish while Bionca Dunham led the Cardinals with 18 points. The Irish have now won their fifth tournament title in the last six years.
No. 1 Notre Dame vs. No. 2 Louisville
Sunday, March 10, 12 p.m. ET, ESPN2