Women’s NCAA Tournament: Washington shakes off rust to turn back Montana State in opener

A 15-day layoff since losing in the quarterfinals of the Pac-12 Tournament left Washington a little rusty.

Washington coach Mike Neighbors knew it was coming and Montana State was more than willing to give the Huskies a bit of a scare – for a while.

“I was rusty. I called a couple of plays that were just kind of made up. They were the wrong calls. We did some uncharacteristic things and a team like that, that is coming off a championship exposed us every single time we made a mistake,” Neighbors said.

Fortunately for the Huskies, the mistakes were few and lasted all of one quarter.

Kelsey Plum scored 17 of her 29 points in the second half, Chantel Osahor had her 28th double-double of the season with 16 points and 19 rebounds, and No. 3 seed Washington pulled away in the second half for a 91-63 win over 14th-seeded Montana State in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Saturday night in Oklahoma City Region play in Seattle.

Plum, the all-time leading scorer in NCAA history, didn’t quite match the output of her last game on the Huskies home court when she scored a school record 57 points to become the premier scorer in NCAA history. Against the Bobcats, Plum settled for going to the rim, hitting 10 of 20 shots, but just one 3-pointer. Plum is 21 points shy of breaking Jackie Stiles’ record of 1,062 points in a single season.

“We hit some shots in the second half that we weren’t hitting in the first and we just kind of started getting on a roll from there,” Plum said.

Perhaps more impressive than Plum was the performance of Montana State’s Peyton Ferris, who tied her career high with 33 points in her final college game and kept the Bobcats (25-7) hanging around into the third quarter before Washington pulled away.

Ferris fouled out with 2:39 remaining and was given a standing ovation from the Washington crowd.

“You go out and play hard and you keep going at it. We played good, kept it close and then they went on a run and we never fully got back in it,” Ferris said.

Montana State was making just its second NCAA Tournament appearance in school history. And it took a little longer than expected for the Huskies (28-5) to finally put away the champions of the Big Sky Conference.

Montana State actually led 17-16 after one quarter when Delany Junkermier (Mead High) tossed in a 3-pointer at the buzzer. Ferris outplayed Plum for most of the half, finishing with 19 of Montana State’s 27 points and the Bobcats stayed nearly even in rebounding and 3-point shooting.

And Montana State still trailed by 11 at halftime.

The Bobcats pulled within 40-34 in the opening moments of the second half before the Huskies slowly started pulling away. Osahor scored seven straight points, including her first 3-pointer, and a 3 from Natalie Romeo pushed Washington’s lead to 59-40. The lead grew to as many as 31 in the fourth quarter.

It was a decisive first statement by Washington coming off an unexpected Final Four run a season ago. The Huskies are among the popular choices to come out of the Oklahoma City Regional this time around despite having not played since losing to Oregon in the quarterfinals of the Pac-12 Tournament.

“I thought we attacked that the first quarter and then Washington brought it,” Montana State coach Tricia Binford said. “It was a lot of fun.”

(1) Baylor 119, (16) Texas Southern 30: Kalani Brown scored 21 points and the Lady Bears (31-3) overwhelmed the Lady Tigers (23-10) in Waco, Texas, to set the record for most lopsided women’s NCAA Tournament game. The 79-point margin broke the previous record 74-point win by Tennessee over North Carolina A&T (111-37) in 1994. Baylor’s 119 points were the most scored in regulation of a women’s NCAA Tournament game, surpassing the previous record of 116, set by Ohio State in 1998 and matched twice by UConn, including earlier the day.

(9) California 55, (8) LSU 52: Asha Thomas scored 18 points and made a tiebreaking 3-pointer with 1:19 left to end a long scoring drought, and the Bears (20-13) held on to defeat the Tigers (20-12) in Waco. California had gone 4 1/2 minutes without scoring until Thomas made her sixth 3 of the game, from the right corner just in front of the Bears bench for a 53-50 lead.

(4) Louisville 82, (13) Chattanooga 62: Asia Durr scored 27 points to lead the Cardinals (28-7) past the Mocs (21-11) in Louisville, Kentucky. Myisha Hines-Allen added 16 points and 12 rebounds while Jazmine Jones came off the bench to get 14 for Louisville.

(5) Tennessee 66, (12) Dayton 57: Diamond DeShields scored 24 points to lead the Lady Vols (20-11) over the Flyers (22-10) in Louisville. The Lady Vols shot 52 percent after halftime. DeShields and Mercedes Russell combined to score 23 of Tennessee’s 37 points in the second half.

Bridgeport Region

(5) Texas A&M 63, (12) Penn 61: Khaalia Hillsman scored 27 points and the Aggies (22-11) overcame a 21-point deficit in the fourth quarter to stun the Quakers (22-8) in Los Angeles for the biggest comeback in women’s NCAA Tournament history. Hillsman scored the go-ahead basket with 19.1 seconds left as the Aggies finished the game on a 27-1 run to beat the Quakers.

(4) UCLA 83, (13) Boise State 56: Monique Billings scored 19 points and Jordin Canada had 15 points and 16 assists to help the Bruins (24-8) defeat the Broncos (25-8) in Los Angeles. The Bruins opened the game with a 15-0 run and were never seriously threatened.

(10) Oregon 71, (7) Temple 70: Ruthy Hebard hit a jumper with 5.5 seconds remaining to lift the Ducks (21-13) past the Owls (24-8) in Durham, North Carolina. Hebard finished with 23 points and Sabrina Ionescu added 16 points to help the Ducks win a wild game that had three lead changes in the final 30 seconds.

(2) Duke 94, (15) Hampton 31: Rebecca Greenwell had 26 points and 10 rebounds, and the Blue Devils (28-5 routed the Pirates (20-13) in Durham. Freshman Leaonna Odom added a season-best 23 points, while Lexie Brown and Oderah Chidom finished with 11 apiece for Duke.

(1) UConn 116, (16) Albany 55: Napheesa Collier and Kia Nurse each scored 24 points as the Huskies (33-0) routed the Great Danes (21-12) in Storrs, Connecticut, for the program’s 108th consecutive win and 25th straight in the NCAA Tournament. Gabby Williams added 20 points for UConn. She and Collier each pulled down 10 rebounds for the Huskies.

(8) Syracuse 85, (9) Iowa State 65: Brittney Sykes scored 28 points and Alexis Peterson added 25 to lead the Orange (22-10) past the Cyclones (18-13) in Storrs. Freshman Gabby Cooper added a season-high 24 points, all from 3-point range, for the Orange.

Stockton Region

(12) Quinnipiac 68, (5) Marquette 65: Jennifer Fay scored 20 points and the Bobcats (28-6) held on in a frantic final minute to upset the Golden Eagles (25-8) in Coral Gables, Florida. Paula Strautmane scored seven of her 15 points in the fourth quarter for the Bobcats, who opened on an 18-4 run and were up 52-33 midway through the third quarter before Marquette roared back and got within two.

(4) Miami 62, (13) Florida Gulf Coast 60: Keyona Hayes scored 16 points, including the go-ahead basket inside with 1.5 seconds remaining, and the Hurricanes (24-8) rallied to beat the Eagles (26-9) in Coral Gables. Hayes added 10 rebounds for the Hurricanes, who wasted a 13-point lead and found themselves trailing twice in the final 2 minutes before rallying.

Lexington Region

(2) Stanford 72, New Mexico State 64: Alanna Smith had 19 points and 11 rebounds, Karlie Samuelson hit five 3-pointers and finished with 17 points, and the Cardinal (29-5) survived a spirited upset bid to beat the Aggies (24-7) in Manhattan, Kansas. Playing nearly 1,800 miles from home because of a scheduling conflict at Maples Pavilion, the Cardinal trailed the Aggies by as many as nine early on.

(7) Kansas State 67, (10) Drake 54: Breanna Lewis had 23 points and 11 rebounds, Kindred Wesemann added 16 points and the Wildcats (23-10) beat the Bulldogs (28-5) in Manhattan. The Wildcats took the lead in the game’s opening minutes and never relinquished it.