Miami women hold on, beat Villanova for 1st trip to Elite 8

GREENVILLE, S.C. — The horn sounded and Miami coach Katie Meier turned to start jumping and hugging her staff as players and cheerleaders sprinted past for a meet-at-midcourt celebration. An improbable and emotional ride to the program’s first Elite Eight appearance in the women’s NCAA Tournament was worth sharing with as many people as she could. This is awesome.” Jasmyne Roberts scored a career-high 26 points — including a stick-back for the go-ahead, three-point play with 38.8 seconds left — to help Miami overcome blowing a 21-point lead and beat Villanova 70-65 on Friday, pulling the program to within a win of the Final Four. The Wildcats scored 14 straight points to end the third quarter then took a 60-59 lead on Siegrist’s free throws with 5:31 left to cap a 23-2 run, a stretch that had Roberts saying the Hurricanes “did kind of lose our composure for a little bit.” That set up a tense finish with neither team leading by more than two until the final 30 seconds. Take the basketball part out of it, like the memories and the people are something that I’m going to cherish forever.” TIP-INS Siegrist closed with 37 straight 20-point games, which the NCAA said is the longest streak by any men’s or women’s Division I player this century.. Christina Dalce had 13 points, eight rebounds and five blocks to help Villanova do a better job of battling Miami inside after halftime.. Harden had 15 points and nine rebounds for Miami, which took a 43-32 rebounding advantage..