NCAA women’s basketball: Winners and losers from regular-season finales

Sunday was the last day of the women’s basketball regular season for all the major conferences and there was not a shortage of action. There are clear winners and losers on the scoreboard, but we decided to take a deeper look at some of the major moments and potential postseason implications. 

From clutch plays to teams collapsing at the end of the regular season, March 1 had a little bit of everything. Perhaps a preview of the madness yet to come? Here is a closer look at the action. 

Winner: Hannah Hidalgo’s late-game steal

Hidalgo made potentially her biggest play of the regular season when she stole the ball from No. 10 Louisville with under 20 seconds remaining in the game. Notre Dame held a 63-62 advantage at that point. She could have gone for the layup but instead chose to draw a foul. That steal helped her break her own ACC single-season record for steals with a total of 162 (and counting).

She made two key free throws with nine seconds remaining and got the defensive rebound when the Cardinals were trying to go for a game-tying 3-pointer as the clock was running out. Hidalgo finished the day with 20 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists while showing Notre Dame should not be overlooked in March. The Fighting Irish have been struggling during this rebuilding season, but Hidalgo is making a serious case to once again be named ACC Defensive Player of the Year. –Isabel Gonzalez

Loser: Ole Miss’s hopes for hosting in March

No. 19 Ole Miss looked like a potential NCAA Tournament host a few weeks ago and even pulled off a statement win over No. 5 Vanderbilt in January. However, the Rebels have lost six of their last eight games and will finish the regular season with four consecutive losses. Getting upset 66-58 by Texas A&M on Sunday shows their need to regroup ahead of the SEC Tournament. 

The Rebels lost the first quarter 13-23 and never really got going offensively. Cotie McMahon scored 19 points, but as a team, the Rebels went 22 of 68 from the field. Injuries have been affecting the team as of late, and Yolett McPhee-McCuin said the absence of starter Sira Thienou was felt on Sunday. However, she has not lost confidence in her team.

“Half glass full, I could be in another situation and this could be the end of our season. We go to Greenville and everything is over. I just know that’s not the case,” McPhee-McCuin said postgame. “I may sound naive, but I just believe in this team and I believe when we are at full strength, we are a tough out. We’ve shown that. Right now, that’s not our situation. 

“As a coach, I have to figure out how to be better for them and more creative. The 23-point first quarter just completely took us out. We don’t have any room for error like that. We can’t recover, we don’t have the bodies and we don’t have the experience to recover.” –Isabel Gonzalez

Winner: North Carolina’s free-throw shooting

Free-throw shooting, especially late in important games, has been a bit of an Achilles’ heel for North Carolina this season; the team ranks 266th in the nation in free throw percentage, 321st in free throw attempts and 336th in free throws made per game. (For context, the NCAA ranks 359 teams in those categories.)

And free throws have been a big story in North Carolina’s three ACC losses this year. In the game against Louisville, the Tar Heels missed their last four free throws – including two that would have all but sealed the game with five seconds remaining.

Against Stanford, they missed four free throws in the fourth quarter of an overtime loss and were only 18-30 for the game. And against Duke a couple of weeks ago, they infamously didn’t shoot a single free throw the entire game.

But on Sunday, No. 21 North Carolina upset No. 12 Duke 74-69, and this time, free throws were a big reason why they won. The Tar Heels were 20 of 27 for the game and 15 of 18 – 83.3% – in the fourth. They got to the line often and made shots when they did, especially when it mattered the most.

This win will go a long way towards helping them nab a top-four seed in the NCAA tournament, and as winners of 12 of their last 13, Courtney Banghart’s team is peaking at the right time. — Lindsay Gibbs

Loser: Baylor’s 15-point half

The No. 18 Baylor Bears only managed seven points in the first quarter and eight in the second during their season finale against No. 11 TCU. They were more competitive after the break but couldn’t do enough to overcome that devastating first half and ultimately lost 65-53. That result meant getting swept by their rivals and losing a share of the Big 12 regular-season title. The Horned Frogs have now won their last five encounters. 

Baylor’s 15 points after the first two quarters also tied the least amount of points the Bears have ever scored in a first half against a Big 12 opponent. The last time it happened was in 2010 against Oklahoma.

Taliah Scott led Baylor with 17 points, but the ball wasn’t going in for her at the beginning of the game as she missed her first 11 attempts and only scored two points in the first half. Fifty-three points was a season low for the Bears, but coach Nicki Collen tried to look at the positives and reminded her team postgame that there is still more basketball left to play.

“I’m proud of the way we competed,” the coach said. “I thought we showed some stuff in the second half that we haven’t done all season that we can build on, that’s a little bit different, that can bother people. We rattled them for a bit and that was good to see… we gotta do a little bit more of that.” –Isabel Gonzalez

Winner: The ACC Tournament

All season long, I’ve been pretty tough on the ACC – the first couple of months, pretty much every team was underperforming, and then for most of January and February, it looked like Duke and Louisville were head and shoulders above the rest of the conference.

But goodness did the last week shake things. On Sunday, Duke lost to North Carolina and No. 10 Louisville was upset by Notre Dame. Last Sunday, Clemson upset Duke while Virginia took down Louisville. Duke and Louisville are still rightly the top seeds in the tournament, but look far from invincible. Meanwhile, as discussed above, the Tar Heels are surging, NC State has the firepower to take down anyone and counting out any team with Hannah Hidalgo feels foolish.

Plus, four teams that have been in and around the bubble – Clemson, Virginia, Virginia Tech and Stanford – all have massive motivation to boost their resumes before the NCAA tournament, and even teams that are pretty much out of the NCAA tournament picture, such as Cal and Georgia Tech, finished the season strong on Sunday.

The 2026 ACC tournament will be held in Duluth, Georgia this year. This will be the first time since 2000 that the ACC tournament will take place at a venue other than the Greensboro Coliseum, the first time since 1997 it has taken place outside of North Carolina and the first time since 1980 – just the third year of the tournament’s existence – that it will take place outside of North or South Carolina. And it looks like Georgia is getting a good one this year. – Lindsay Gibbs

Loser: Clarity for bubble teams

Heading into the weekend, CBS Sports bracketologist Connor Groel gave us a look at his 12 teams on the bubble. I thought it would be fun to look at how those teams performed in their final regular-season games.

Last Four In:

• Virginia (lost to Virginia Tech, 83-82)
• Virginia Tech (beat Virginia, 83-82)
• Colorado (lost to BYU, 75-62)
• South Dakota State (beat South Dakota, 82-49)

First Four Out: 

• Arizona State (lost to No. 20 Texas Tech, 58-51)
• Richmond (beat Saint Joseph’s, 72-61)
• Mississippi State (lost to No. 6 LSU, 72-63)
• Stanford (beat Clemson 85-50)

Next Four Out: 

• Kansas (lost to Oklahoma State, 70-56)
• BYU (beat Colorado, 75-62)
• Utah (beat Arizona, 81-67)
• Texas A&M (beat No. 19 Ole Miss, 66-58)

There is no rhyme or reason to any of this. It is pure madness, especially when you factor in that Clemson, whom Groel put in a play-in game against Colorado on the No. 10-seed line in his Feb. 24 bracketology, had one of the most lopsided losses of the day to Stanford.

Groel also said that the winner of Virginia vs. Virginia Tech should be comfortable, but considering that it was just a one-point game, it doesn’t look like any bubble team truly put themselves in a position to breathe easily heading into conference tournaments. –Lindsay Gibbs

Winner: The Cambridge sisters

No. 13 Ohio State took an 87-68 victory over Big Ten rivals, No. 15  Michigan State, on Sunday. Jaloni Cambridge scored 33 points in a performance that included seven 3-pointers, which surely helps her case for conference Player of the Year. Meanwhile, her sister Kennedy continued making her case for Defensive Player of the Year. Her five steals against Michigan State helped her break the Ohio State all-time record for steals in a single season.

It was also a great day for the Buckeyes as a whole. The Buckeyes broke their single-game school record with 18 made 3-pointers, seven of those belonging to Chance Gray. 

The Buckeyes were the No. 16 overall seed in the latest NCAA reveal earlier in the day, and the win over No. 14 seed Michigan State should make them feel more confident about their chances at hosting during the NCAA Tournament. –Isabel Gonzalez

Loser: Tennessee’s third-quarter performances

The Lady Vols had an opportunity to end their regular season with a statement win over No. 5 Vanderbilt when they entered halftime with a 43-37 advantage. However, they lost the third quarter 15-30, and that shift in momentum led to a 87-75 win for the Commodores.

Tennessee is now on a six-game losing streak, which ties their longest losing streak over the last 15 seasons. The Lady Vols lost the third quarter of each of those games.

“It’s something we’ve been addressing,” head coach Kim Caldwell said postgame. “We’ve been addressing it. We’ve tried to change up who goes back out on he court when we start the third quarter. We’ve addressed it for, I don’t know, for a couple games now. Maybe longer.” –Isabel Gonzalez