It was a quiet week on the hardwood with many top teams having a gap in their schedule due to final exams, but there were still a few exciting games on the road to Tampa.
No. 13 Duke had the week off after its hearbreaking loss to No. 1 South Carolina Dec. 7. The Blue Devils have lost three games in a row and fell out of the top 10 for the first time since 2007 and will look to rebound with home contests against Oklahoma, UMass Lowell and No. 8 Kentucky on tap this week. The Gamecocks also had a lot of time off before taking down Savannah State 111-49 Sunday. The Wildcats followed up their win at then-No. 7Louisville with wins against Belmont and Middle Tennessee.
The most exciting game of the week came Wednesday when No. 5 Notre Dame bounced back from its huge loss at No. 2 Connecticut by winning an overtime thriller 94-93 at No. 25 DePaul. Dynamic wing Jewell Loyd carried her team to the win, pouring in a career-high 41 points and adding 12 rebounds to push the Fighting Irish past a dynamic Blue Demon squad that knocked Duke out of the NCAA tournament last year.
Despite their offensive prowess, DePaul shot just 12-of-29 from the free throw line and star guard Brittany Hrynko inexplicably went 5-of-16 from the charity stripe, but still managed to score 32 points in the game. Notre Dame backed up the win with a 70-50 win against Michigan Saturday.
The Blue Demons weren't able to pull of an upset, but Long Beach State made sure there was another stunner in women's basketball this week by knocking off No. 18 California 58-56 in an ugly overtime game. The 49ers used a 21-0 run in the first half to build a lead after Golden Bear leading scorer Reshanda Gray was ejected early for an intentional foul and were able to hold on in overtime to hand California its second straight loss. The Golden Bears will look to bounce back against No. 10 Louisville Sunday and avoid a three-game losing skid before Christmas.
In the second game between ranked opponents this week, No. 11 Tennesseeused suffocating defense to knock off No. 17 Rutgers 55-45 on the road Sunday despite shooting just 27.5 percent from the field. The Volunteers won with legendary former head coach Pat Summit looking on and held a 54-42 edge on the glass to spark the victory.
ACC game to watch: No. 6 North Carolina vs. No. 15 Oregon State, Tuesday, Dec. 16, 6 p.m.; No. 8 Kentucky at No 13 Duke, Sunday, Dec. 21, 3 p.m.
Rivals in rank: No. 4 Texas A&M at No. 3 Texas, Sunday, Dec. 21, 1:30 p.m.; No. 7 Stanford at No. 11 Tennessee, Saturday, Dec. 20, 1 p.m.
Upset alert: No. 9 Baylor vs. No. 19 Michigan State, Saturday, Dec. 20, 4 p.m.
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