Portland Bounced In Ot

Midwest/East women

Michigan State coach Karen Langeland is all too familiar with overtime play.

“I’m getting real tired of these overtimes in the NCAA Tournament,” Langeland said after the Spartans (22-7) needed overtime Friday night to squeeze past Portland 75-70 in the NCAA East Regional at Chapel Hill, N.C.

Eighth-seeded Michigan State was ousted from the 1991 NCAA second round after a three-overtime 96-94 loss to Oklahoma State. Last year, the Spartans got by Massachusetts 60-57 in overtime.

Kristen Rasmussen had 23 points - including four of the Spartans’ seven points in overtime - and added 11 rebounds.

Michigan State’s Jamie Wesley had 14 points, hitting a layup with 9 seconds left in regulation to send the game into overtime, and adding another basket in the extra period that gave the Spartans a 73-70 lead.

Kim Green had 22 points for the No. 9 Pilots (27-3), who have not made it past the first round in four consecutive tries.

Spokane’s Kristen Hepton had 11 points for Portland. Hepton returned to the lineup after missing the West Coast Conference tournament with a head injury.

“We recognized we made way too many critical errors at the wrong times,” Portland coach Jim Sollars said, noting Portland’s 21 turnovers, three of them in the extra period.

North Carolina 78, Harvard 53

Also at Chapel Hill, Tracy Reid scored 20 points as the top-seeded Tar Heels (28-2) defeated the 16th-seeded Crimson (20-7).

North Carolina jumped out to a 24-4 lead and cruised to its 20th victory in its last 21 starts.

UNC, 14-0 at home this season, will face Michigan State (22-7) Sunday.

St. Joseph’s 70, Kansas St. 52

At Tuscaloosa, Ala., Megan Compain scored 24 points to lead the Hawks to their 18th straight win.

It was the first tournament win in five tries for St. Joseph’s (26-4) coach Stephanie Gaitley and it put the seventh-seeded Hawks (26-4) into the second round of the tournament for the first time since 1989.

Alabama 94, St. Francis 50

Also at Tuscaloosa, Shalonda Enis had 23 points as the Crimson Tide geared up for tougher things to come with a win over No. 15 St. Francis (21-9).

Alabama (24-6) won its first-round tournament game for the sixth straight year. A victory over St. Joseph’s on Sunday would put the Crimson Tide in the Sweet 16 for the fourth straight year.

Midwest

Duke 70, DePaul 56

At Champaign, Ill., Tyish Hall scored 18 points, including the go-ahead basket with 7:47 left, as the No. 5 Blue Devils beat the No. 12 Blue Demons (20-9).

Hall scored 10 points in a 14-2 run that put the Blue Devils (19-10) up 53-48 with 6:56 to go. Hall then scored four of Duke’s next eight points to make it 61-51 with 2:42 left.

Illinois 79, Drake 62

Also at Champaign, Alicia Sheeler had 15 points and nine rebounds as the Fighting Illini beat Drake.

The victory snapped a 16-game winning streak for the No. 13 Bulldogs (23-7) and kept the No. 4 Illini (23-7) undefeated in Huff Hall this season.

Illinois and Duke meet Sunday.

Stephen F. Austin 79, Toledo 66

At Boulder, Colo., Katrina Price scored 32 points and Christie Smith added 15 as the Jacks beat Toledo.

Stephen F. Austin (28-4) advanced to a Sunday game against Colorado.

Price, the Southland Conference player of the year, made 7 of 12 3-point attempts. Kim Knuth had 26 points and nine rebounds for Toledo (27-4).

Colorado 69, Marshall 49

Also at Boulder, Erin Scholz had 15 points and nine rebounds as the Buffaloes beat the Thundering Herd.

Raegen Scott added 12 points for the Big 12 tournament champion Colorado (22-8), while LaShena Graham and Alexis Felts each had 10 points.

Marshall (18-12) was making its first NCAA Tournament appearance.