Caitlin Clark, Thwarted Upset Bids Headline Day 1 of Women's NCAA Tournament

Plus, freshmen Caitlin Clark and Paige Bueckers starred and NC State got an early scare.

Avery Brittingham’s last bid for Stephen F. Austin’s season left her fingertips a fraction of a second too late.

The first-round game had been singled out early as a potential upset: No. 12 seed SFA was an analytical darling that had steamrolled almost all of its mid-major competition and seemingly had a good chance to show against No. 5 seed Georgia Tech. That prediction looked straight on for the first two quarters, and at halftime, the Ladyjackets went into the locker room at halftime with a 17-point lead. But that gradually disintegrated over the course of the second half and overtime, until it came down to the final few moments for Brittingham, with possession of the ball and her team down by two.

To read the play-by-play of those final 20 seconds is to believe the freshman was the only player on the floor, every possible outcome contained in her hands, wrenching the fate of the game back and forth: Brittingham, defensive rebound; Brittingham, missed shot; Brittingham, offensive rebound; Brittingham, missed tip-in; Brittingham, offensive rebound. But one last try—another tip-in, one that went in, one that would have tied the game and sent it to a second overtime—is missing from the play-by-play. A review confirmed that the shot had come just after the buzzer. Brittingham went up, down, up, down, and at last—too late. Georgia Tech had staved off the threat, 54–52, in overtime.

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It was the first game in the tournament to go into overtime and the first to stay anywhere near so close so late. And in a women’s field that is more open than usual, with talk of increased parity, the near-upset was the first true battle of the opening round.

“This was, I think, not a 12 seed,” Georgia Tech coach Nell Fortner said. “I think what we were maybe taken aback with was how physical the game was, and it just got us off-balance, offensively.”

SFA entered the tourney with an 18-game winning streak that had held little room for doubt—it'd won those games by an average of 33. The Ladyjacks’ stats landed them on the national radar; the team led the country in both steals and forced turnovers and was third in effective field goal percentage. All of that was on display in the first half. But Georgia Tech picked up the tempo on defense and was able to counter quickly from there, leaving “a lot of tears and a lot of disappointment” in the locker room for Stephen F. Austin, said head coach Mark Kellogg.

The low-scoring contest featured physical defense and required contributions for both teams from up and down the roster. Brittingham, who led the Ladyjacks in scoring with 16, came off the bench. So too did the hero for Georgia Tech—Anaya Boyd, who made two free throws to tie the game, only to follow them up with a crucial block to keep it tied to send it to overtime.

“She just came here to play,” Lorela Cubaj, who led Georgia Tech in scoring with 14, said of Boyd. “She’s proven game after game that she really can contribute.”

The final seconds made for some of the most captivating—and stressful—basketball of the day. Look no further than Fortner’s reaction to a staffer complimenting her on a good game as she sat down for her press conference.

“Oh, my God,” she sighed. “I’m glad you enjoyed it!”

Caitlin Clark Is Not Messing Around

No. 5 Iowa 87, No. 12 Central Michigan 72

During the fourth quarter of this broadcast, ESPN shared an interview with WNBA superstar Sue Bird, who came ready with praise for Iowa freshman Caitlin Clark: “She’s the most exciting player in college basketball right now.”

That sort of language can come across like hyperbole. But Clark made it sound perfectly reasonable. After finishing the regular season as the national scoring leader (26.7 ppg), she entered her first tourney game with all eyes on her, and she came prepared. The guard said that she didn’t have any time to let herself get nervous beforehand—an 11 a.m. tip-off will do that—but she gave the sense that she would have felt perfectly at ease on the floor no matter what. With 23 points, seven assists, and seven rebounds, Clark backed up the declaration from Bird, and she made it look easy.

This first-round match-up came against one of very few players who approached Clark’s scoring total: Central Michigan senior Micaela Kelly, who finished third in the country, with 23.9 ppg. But Kelly was somewhat limited after getting in foul trouble early, and despite a valiant effort from her later on, it just wasn’t enough. The Hawkeyes maintained a double-digit lead for the entirety of the fourth quarter.

Clark, of course, received most of the attention here. But the (reasonable) focus on her masked a fairly even distribution in scoring from Iowa. Clark’s 23 points were equaled by Monika Czinano, with double-figure efforts from two more of their fellow starters, Kate Martin and McKenna Warnock.

And Clark’s brightest highlight of the day wasn’t even one of her own baskets. Instead, it was her final assist—a slick, no-look, behind-the-back pass to Czinano.

“I split a screen—it was like a staggered double screen for me—and then I knew Monika was staying on the block, so I was like, I’m just going to throw it,” Clark laughed. “And she caught it.”

Don't blink @CaitlinClark22 behind the back#ncaaW pic.twitter.com/wprtVR5O2F

— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessWBB) March 21, 2021

That’s a marvel of a play for anyone, in any context, much less a freshman in her first tournament game. But Clark’s been comfortable with tricky passes like that all year, said head coach Lisa Bluder, and she didn’t think the freshman ever showed any growing pains in adjusting to the college passing game. If anything, she noted, the adjustment has been for her teammates, who have to grab what the crafty passer dishes out. (In addition to being the national scoring leader, Clark was third in assists, 7.1 APG.)

“I obviously like them to make the safe pass in a tight game,” Bluder said with a smile. “But man, you know, that’s exciting. And so I love it. That’s who she is, and I’m going to let her shine.”

This win was the first step to what could be an Elite Eight match-up between Iowa and UConn, which would offer an all-time freshmen battle between Clark and another first-year phenom, Paige Bueckers. But that’s still a few games away, and for now, the message is clear: This is who Clark is, and complemented by a solid supporting cast, Bluder’s going to let her shine.

A Fairytale Falls Short for Anastasia Hayes

No. 3 Tennessee 87, No. 14 Middle Tennessee 62

A No. 14 seed has never beat a No. 3 seed on the women’s side, and if there were ever a storybook chance for one, this was it. Anastasia Hayes, SEC Freshman of the Year in 2018 for Tennessee, transferred to Middle Tennessee, where she now plays alongside her sister, Aislynn. After a standout season—Anastasia Hayes was second in scoring in the country this year (26.5 ppg), and it took the last day of the season to rule her out of the conversation for national scoring leader—she had a chance to pull off something magical. 

This would have been a first-round upset that made history, over an in-state rival, against her old team. And she was better suited to carry her team than anyone—no other player in the country had so much of an impact on an offense, with Hayes either scoring or assisting on 56.4% of the Lady Raiders’ points, according to Her Hoop Stats.

It would take a heroic effort, but at halftime, it looked like it was entirely possible: Middle Tennessee and Tennessee were tied, 39–39.

In the second half, however, they couldn’t keep it up. The Vols blew it wide-open, led by Rennia Davis (24 points) and Rae Burrell (22 points). They left no doubt by the start of the fourth quarter and cruised to the win.

Finally, Middle Tennessee coach Rick Insell offered a reminder that, even though the tournament's weight room situation has been remedied, it’s difficult to adjust to the bubble in San Antonio—and the initial reviews on the conditions are starkly different from the men’s bubble in Indianapolis.

“It’s been tough in this bubble,” Insell said. “You’re just not around anybody, and you don’t really get to get that much exercise. I mean, we took them out yesterday and we walked around, but it’s been really tough. The food was not that good, and we had to bring all of our food in, and that kind of messed things up … There were some negatives as far as all of that was concerned.”

No. 1 North Carolina State 79, No. 16 North Carolina A&T 58

The score makes this one look simple. But NC State struggled to find its footing—down by as much as six in the second quarter to a surprisingly scrappy NC A&T. 

“It wasn’t pretty,” said Wolfpack coach Wes Moore. “You always struggle with how to handle that much time off and how hard to go, how many days to go, and all those things. I think we just didn’t have our energy.” 

One thing to watch heading into the next round? Senior starter Kayla Jones was pulled from the game with an injury and did not return. Moore said NC State believed it was not an ACL tear or anything similarly serious, but the team would not know for sure until she had an MRI, and they could not be sure about her status for the next round.

Scott Wachter-USA TODAY Sports

No. 6 Michigan 87, No. 11 Florida Gulf Coast 66

This was another one pegged as a potential upset—largely because of the offensive threat of Florida Gulf Coast, which make more threes than any other team in the country, 11.8 per game. (No other team comes close to them with three-point attempts, either: The Eagles try a whopping 35 per game.) But Michigan neutralized the threat well. The Eagles were 9 for 29 from beyond the arc, which, while perfectly serviceable numbers, don’t represent the kind of performance that would be needed for such a three-heavy team to pull off the upset. Making it all the more impressive for the Wolverines? They did it without relying too much on star Naz Hillmon, hampered by foul trouble, who was held to just 14 points in 29 minutes. (It was only her second time all season scoring less than 18.)

No. 1 UConn 102, No. 16 High Point 59

C’mon. What did you expect? UConn reached triple digits for the fourth time this season with terrifying precision. Though coach Geno Auriemma was absent after testing positive for COVID-19—he should most likely be able to rejoin the team after the second round—there was no sign that anything was amiss under longtime associate coach Chris Dailey.

The result was a well-rounded effort led by, yes, freshman marvel Paige Bueckers (24 points) but with solid contributions from Olivia Nelson-Ododa (22) and Aaliyah Edwards (17). Bueckers’s performance was the highest scoring ever for a tournament debut by a freshman at UConn. But the freshman still found a few flaws to pick at. 

“I could hear Coach yelling in my ear,” she joked about Auriemma, presumably watching at home in Connecticut, after she attempted just two shots in the first quarter. “I know he was yelling at the TV.” (The team would have to wait to find out how much he was actually yelling—they said that they had to wait until they were back at the hotel to give him a call.) But she quickly settled in after that, confirming that, yes, the player you’ve been hearing about all year really is that good.

“Paige absolutely has another gear,” Dailey says. “And the more physical the game … the quicker that gear comes out.” 

UConn, like fellow No. 1 seed NC State, did have an injury scare. Starting guard Nika Muhl had to be helped off the court with what appeared to be an ankle sprain and was spotted later on crutches. No update was available immediately after the game. While it would certainly be a blow to lose her—”The words that went through my mind, I can’t repeat,” Dailey said of watching the freshman go down—UConn’s depth is an asset that would leave it well-suited to navigate that absence if it has to.