Overall No. 1 seed Stanford and No. 2 Louisville meet tonight in San Antonio's Alamodome with a 2021 Final Four berth on the line. The Elite Eight game tips off at 9 p.m. ET on ESPN.
The Stanford and Louisville game follows No. 1 South Carolina and No. 6 Texas, who play at 7 p.m. The winners tonight will meet in the Final Four, joining UConn and Arizona, who advanced with wins Monday night.
Here are tonight's games and the rest of the schedule for the 2021 women's tournament. Tapping or clicking each link will open the live scoreboard.
Stanford vs. Louisville: History and preview
Stanford and Louisville have met exactly one time. That was in March 2018, when Louisville knocked the Cardinal out of the NCAA tournament in the Sweet 16, 86-59, at Rupp Arena in Lexington.
This time around, these two programs feature different squads with new senior leadership in Louisville's Dana Evans and Stanford's Kiana Williams — both freshmen on the 2018 squads. Evans and Williams are the leading scorers on their respective teams and will look to continue their senior campaign to the Final Four.
Both squads feature balanced scoring attacks, but will look to its seniors to get the offense going. Louisville's defense has been elite — the team has held opponents to 46 points per game and 29.5 percent shooting through three NCAA tournament games, which leads the tournament. The Cardinals will have a tough task in the paint to slow down Cameron Brink, Haley Jones and Fran Belibi.
“I think we are playing our best defense right now, I think it’s starting to come together,” Louisville's Dana Evans said, per the AP. "We’re able to help each other, get in the passing lanes, pressure the ball. We know at this time of year you can’t make many mistakes."
Louisville will rely heavily on Evans, its go-to scorer, who tied her career-high for the fourth time this season with 29 points against Oregon. Her 29 points rank fourth in program history by a Card in the NCAA tournament.
Stanford has been blazing beyond the arc with a record 43 3-pointers through three NCAA tournament games, and are in sight of the record for most 3-pointers in an entire tournament (54). Kiana Williams leads this charge and Stanford is 19-0 when she hits at least two 3-pointers in a game.
ESPN's Holly Rowe reported Stanford is keeping occupied during the tournament with a team table-tennis tournament. Stanford coach Tara Vanderveer was asked about the importance of doing things as a team on Sunday.
"I think it's really important," she said. "When you're here for two weeks and you hope to be here for three weeks, you can't be just locked up in your hotel room, just eating hotel food ... As far as the ping-pong, of the staff, both [assistant coach Kate Paye] and I were knocked out ... [Ashten Prechtel] has a wicked backhand; she knocked me out. It's been fun ... And our team has enjoyed being here, being together. I think part of the reason we play well is that they want to keep playing with each other. And so we just want to stay for another week."
Stanford is 5-2 in the Elite Eight since 2010 and looks to reach the Final Four as a No. 1 seed for the seventh time. This is the Cardinals' third straight Elite Eight appearance (out of six overall) and they hope to make their fourth Final Four appearance. They will have to overcome a little history. The Cardinals are 3-6 overall against No. 1 seeds in the NCAA tournament.
"time" - Google News
March 30, 2021 at 09:48PM
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Stanford vs. Louisville: Time, preview, for the 2021 Elite Eight showdown - NCAA.com
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