NCAA Tournament: Women’s roundup

Published 12:00 am Saturday, March 21, 2009

Associated Press
The women’s roundup …
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. ó Another year, another early win for Purdue in the NCAA tournament.
Danielle Campbell scored 12 points, and No. 6 seed Purdue downed 11th-seeded Charlotte 65-52 Saturday for its 12th straight first-round win, this time in the Oklahoma City Regional.
Purdue (23-10) hasn’t lost in the opening round since 1996, and the Boilermakers improved to 18-2 in the first round.
They will play No. 3 seed North Carolina, an 85-80 winner over UCF, in the second round Monday night in the teams’ third meeting in the past four NCAA tournaments.
Charlotte (23-9) missed on making school history with an NCAA win in its second trip, and the 49ers can blame themselves. A team averaging 19.4 turnovers per game had 20 in the first half alone and finished with 28, one off its worst of the season.
Aysha Jones had a game-high 24 points for Charlotte, and Danielle Burgin had 10.
Vanderbilt 73, Western Carolina 44
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. ó Make it 3-0 at The Pit for Vanderbilt.
Christina Wirth scored 23 points and Jennifer Risper had 11 points and nine rebounds as fourth-seeded Vanderbilt beat No. 13 Western Carolina 73-44 , ending the Catamounts’ 10-game winning streak.
Vanderbilt (25-8) is in the NCAA tournament for the 10th straight year.Florida State 83, North Carolina A&T 71
DULUTH, Ga. ó Alysha Harvin scored 18 points to lead five players in double figures and Florida State pulled away from the 14th-seeded Aggies.
Tanae Davis-Cain added 16 points for the third-seeded Seminoles (26-7), who will face Arizona State on Monday night.
North Carolina A&T (26-7) was lde by Ta’Wuana Cook, a 5-foot-8 guard, who had 19 points for the Aggies. Lamona Smalley had 14.
Mississippi State 71, Texas 63
COLUMBUS, Ohio ó Alexis Rack was perfect in eight trips to the foul line down the stretch, and 11th-seeded Mississippi State was 21 of 22 as a team in upsetting Texas 71-63.
Ohio State 77, Sacred Heart 63
COLUMBUS, Ohio ó Samantha Prahalis scored a career-best 23 points, and Jantel Lavender added 19 points and 10 rebounds to lead the Buckeyes (28-5) to an easy win.
Arizona State 58, Georgia 47
DULUTH, Ga. ó Arizona State (24-8) held Georgia to 20 first-half points, winning despite fill-in Kate Engelbrecht scoring only three points in place of injured guard Dymond Simon.
Auburn 85, Lehigh 49
PISCATAWAY, N.J. ó DeWanna Bonner scored 26 points and led an early 21-3 spurt that carried the second-seeded Tigers to an easy win over Lehigh.
Whitney Boddie had eight points and nine assists in becoming the career assists leader at Auburn (30-3).
Rutgers 57, VCU 51
PISCATAWAY, N.J. ó Epiphanny Prince scored 26 points, including 10 during a decisive run in the second half, to lead seventh-seed Rutgers (20-12) past Virginia Commonwealth.
Pittsburgh 64, Montana 35
SEATTLE ó Shavonte Zellous could use some help from her teammates as Pittsburgh progresses in the NCAA tournament.
Zellous scored 15 of her 31 points in the first half to keep Pitt even with energized Montana, and the fourth-seeded Panthers took over in the second half.