All six of the NCAA women’s basketball power conferences crowned their regular season champions this week
The GIST: The NCAA women’s basketball selection committee released their final pre-tournament Top-16 list last night, which means one very important thing: The Madness is near. Plus, the final Power Six regular-season titles were officially locked up this week, so here are the top dawgs heading into next week’s conference tourneys.
The Wednesday winners: No. 20 Oklahoma sealed the Big 12 title in the most dramatic way: With just four seconds remaining, guard Lexy Keys drilled the go-ahead three-pointer to top Red River rival No. 3 Texas 71–70, stamping an exclamation point on the end of an instant classic. Chills.
- In the Big Ten, No. 2 Ohio State rolled to the outright conference crown by defeating blood rival Michigan 67–51 in front of a home crowd. With the trophy in the case, the only things on the line in this Sunday’s blockbuster at No. 6 Iowa are a 15-game win streak and team pride.
Thursday’s throwdowns: Even though No. 5 Virginia Tech fell victim to No. 17 Notre Dame freshman phenom Hannah Hidalgo and her Fighting Irish in last night’s 71–58 upset loss, the Hokies still clinched sole ownership of the ACC title thanks to No. 12 NC State’s 75–71 overtime (OT) win over VT’s only challenger, No. 19 Syracuse. Even when they’re losing, the Hokies still win.
- No. 4 Stanford also protected their spot atop the Pac-12 with last night’s crucial 67–63 road win over No. 11 Oregon State, placing them officially out of reach for the Beavers, No. 8 UCLA, and No. 7 USC.
