Morgan Tuck had 26 points and eight assists as No. 1 Connecticut began its drive toward a 10th national title and third in a row with an 89-33 rout of St. Francis (N.Y.) on Saturday night in Storrs, Conn.
Tuck, who outscored the Terriers, 20-14, by herself in the first half, made 12 of her 13 shots from the floor for the Huskies (33-1), who won their 32d consecutive game. Breanna Stewart hit eight of her 10 shots, and finished with 17 points and 10 rebounds.
Sarah Benedetti, who grew up about 40 miles away in Canton, Conn., had 13 points for St. Francis (15-19).
The Huskies shot 70 percent from the floor and held the Terriers to just 22 percent and 13 baskets.
The Huskies are now 23-2 in the opening round, where they have not lost since 1993.
St. Francis tried to stay with the Huskies for the first few minutes, trailing just 16-11 after a Benedetti 3-pointer.
But UConn scored the next 18 points and the game was essentially over.
UConn led 47-14 at the half.
The Huskies are now 98-17 in NCAA Tournament play and will be looking for their 22d consecutive trip to the regional semifinals when they play Rutgers on Monday night.
Rutgers 79, Seton Hall 66 — Kahleah Copper and Tyler Scaife each scored 21 points and the eighth-seeded Scarlet Knights (23-9) used a season-high seven 3-pointers to beat the ninth-seeded Pirates (28-6) in Storrs, their 14th win in the 15 meetings between the former Big East rivals.
Betnijah Laney added 17 for Rutgers. Tabatha Richardson-Smith had 18 points for Seton Hall, which was making just its third appearance in the tournament and its first in 20 years.
Louisville 86, BYU 53 — Myisha Hines-Allen scored 19 points, leading the No. 3 seed Cardinals (26-6) to a victory over the Cougars (23-10) in Tampa, Fla. Morgan Bailey had 15 points for BYU (23-10).
Jude Schimmel added 13 points for the Cardinals, and Shawnta’ Dyer and Bria Smith had 11 apiece.
South Florida 73, LSU 64 — Courtney Williams had 17 points and 12 rebounds, Alisia Jenkins added 15 points, and the No. 6 seed Bulls (27-7) beat the 11th-seeded Tigers (17-14) in Tampa.
Okla. City Regional
Oklahoma 111, Quinnipiac 84 — Freshman Gabbi Ortiz scored 16 points and Vionise Pierre-Louis added 15 to lead the fifth-seeded Sooners to a rout of the Bobcats in Stanford, Calif.
Maddie Manning also scored 15 points, McKenna Treece had 14, and Kaylon Williams had 12 for Oklahoma (21-11), which advanced to play Stanford in the second round of the Oklahoma City Regional on Monday.
Jasmine Martin scored 24 points and Gillian Abshire added 12 for the Bobcats (31-4), who had their 21-game winning streak snapped and failed to earn the first NCAA Tournament win in school history.
The Bobcats, fresh off a Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference tournament title, fell behind by 10 points less than three minutes into the game and never got the deficit back into single digits.
Quinnipiac cut what was once a 20-point deficit down to 11 with a 7-0 run early in the second half capped by a 3-pointer from Maria Napolitano.
But Ortiz then got a steal to break up a 2-on-1 break and took it the other way for a 3-pointer to restore order for the Sooners.
Stanford 73, Cal State Northridge 60 — Taylor Greenfield and Lili Thompson each scored seven points in a game-changing, second-half run that helped the fourth-seeded Cardinal (25-9) overcome a long scoring drought in the first half to beat the Matadors (23-10) in Stanford.
Greenfield with 19 points and Thompson had 17 as they took the game over during a 14-0 run that broke open a tie game early in the second half for the Cardinal.
Ashlee Guay scored 27 points to lead the Matadors (23-10), who once again failed to get their first NCAA Tournament victory.
Spokane Regional
Princeton 80, Wisconsin-Green Bay 70 — After trailing at halftime, the eighth-seeded Tigers came back to improve to 31-0, beating No. 9 seeded Green Bay (28-5) behind Michelle Miller’s 20 points, Annie Tarakchian’s 19, and a 49-22 rebounding edge.
‘‘And that’s not belittling his importance. That will go down as a highlight, as well, and I’m hoping there’s a picture of me — and he’s somewhere in the background,’’ she continued. ‘‘Someone got that, right?’’
There was some question whether Ivy League champion Princeton deserved a better seeding, given that it was the only undefeated women’s team and was ranked 13th in the final AP poll. But the Tigers came in 0-4 in the NCAAs, all since 2010; indeed, Ivy League teams were 1-22 before Saturday.
‘‘My NCAA Tournament record is atrocious,’’ Banghart said. ‘‘But tonight, it’s not so atrocious.’’
Coming now is by far the biggest challenge Princeton has faced all season: a game against No. 1 seed Maryland on the Terrapins’ home floor. Maryland advanced Saturday by beating 16th-seeded New Mexico State.
Against Green Bay (28-5), Princeton fell behind by 3 points late in the first half and was down, 35-34, at halftime.
Princeton is not accustomed to losing and it’s not all that familiar with close calls, either, having won all but two of its games by at least 10 points.
As for Princeton’s mental state heading into the second half, guard Blake Dietrick said, ‘‘We came out with an attitude of, ‘OK, we got our feet wet. We know we’re in this game. We know we can win this game. And we know we can play a lot better than we did in that first half.’’’
And just like that, Princeton used a 15-3 run to lead, 60-48, with nine minutes left on Alex Wheatley’s fast-break layup.
Maryland 75, New Mexico State 57 — Brionna Jones dominated the inside on both ends of the court, getting 22 points and 12 rebounds to carry the top-seeded Terps past the Aggies (22-8). Maryland (31-2) will bring a school-record 25-game winning streak into Monday night’s matchup against Princeton.
Jones went 7 for 10 from the floor and 8 for 9 at the line, finishing just 2 points short of matching her career high in points. She was pulled with 5:50 left.
Brianna Freeman scored 15 and Sasha Weber added 14 for New Mexico State.
Tennessee 72, Boise State 61 — Bashaara Graves recorded a career-high 24 points and the second-seeded Lady Vols (28-5) outlasted the pesky Broncos (22-11) in Knoxville, Tenn.
Tennessee advances to a second-round game Monday with No. 10 seed Pittsburgh. Tennessee had a much tougher time than expected against the 15th-seeded Broncos.
Tennessee was clinging to a 63-58 lead after Boise State’s Camille Redmon made the front end of a one-and-one with 2:51 remaining. But Redmon missed her second free throw, and Tennessee’s Ariel Massengale sank a 3-pointer 13 seconds later to spark a game-clinching 8-0 run.
Tennessee is the only program to appear in all 34 NCAA Tournaments and has reached at least the regional semifinals in all but one of them. Boise State was in the NCAA field for only the third time and was seeking its first tournament victory.
Pittsburgh 51, Chattanooga 40 — For the second straight year, the start of the NCAA Tournament was the end of a 25-game win streak for Chattanooga. Stasha Carey registered 16 points and had 13 rebounds and the 10th-seeded Panthers (20-11) stopped the No. 7-seeded Mocs (29-4) in Knoxville, Tenn.
Chattanooga had won 25 straight games since a 57-52 loss at Arkansas State on Dec. 1, but shot a season-low 26.2 percent and never led against Pittsburgh.
Greensboro Regional
Arkansas-Little Rock 69, Texas A&M 60 — Taylor Gault scored a season-high 25 points, Kiera Clark added a career-best 22, and the 11th-seed Trojans (29-4) upset the sixth-seeded Aggies (23-11) in Tempe, Ariz. UALR led almost the entire game in career victory No. 700 for coach Joe Foley.
It was the second NCAA tournament victory for the Trojans. In 2010, also as a No. 11 seed, they beat Georgia Tech.
Courtney Williams scored 23 for the Aggies, who were without point guard Jordan Jones, SEC defensive player of the year the last two seasons, who tore an ACL against Missouri on Feb. 26. The Aggies lost that game and three of the four after that.
Arizona State 74, Ohio 55 — Katie Hempen scored a career-high 23 points, helping the third-seeded Sun Devils (28-5) roll over the Bobcats (27-5) in Tempe.
Arizona State dominated at both ends in its first home NCAA Tournament game in a decade.
The Sun Devils hounded No. 14 seed Ohio into 18 turnovers and held one of the nation’s most prolific 3-point shooting teams to 4 of 16 behind the arc.
Sophie Brunner added 14 points for the Sun Devils, who will play 11th-seed Arkansas-Little Rock in the Round of 32 on Monday.
North Carolina 71, Liberty 65 — Allisha Gray scored 17 points and the fourth-seeded Tar Heels (25-8) held off the Flames (26-7) in Chapel Hill, N.C.
Latifah Coleman added 15 points for North Carolina, which shot 49 percent, led by 14, and withstood Liberty’s late push to give Hall of Fame coach Sylvia Hatchell a victory in her return to the NCAA Tournament.
Ashley Rininger had 19 points and 13 rebounds for the Flames, who were trying to become the second No. 13 seed to win a tournament game.
Ohio State 90, James Madison 80 — Ameryst Alston scored 28 points and the fifth-seeded Buckeyes (24-10) held off the No. 12 seed Dukes (29-4) in Chapel Hill.
Big Ten co-player of the year Kelsey Mitchell added 23 points for the Ohio State. They shot 58 percent in the second half and scored on seven consecutive possessions down the stretch to earn a second-round matchup against host North Carolina, the No. 4 seed, on Monday night.
Precious Hall had 28 points on 10-of-30 shooting for James Madison.
Florida State 91, Alabama State 49 — Freshman Shakayla Thomas scored 17 points and three teammates joined her in double figures as the second-seeded Seminoles (30-4) breezed past the No. 15 seed Lady Hornets (17-15) in Tallahassee, Fla.
Maegan Conwright added 16 points and Leticia Romero had 14 points, 10 assists and eight rebounds, narrowly missing her second triple double of the season. Ivey Slaughter also finished in double figures with 13 points.
Britney Wright scored 14 points and Ashanti Spencer added 12 for Alabama State which turned the ball over 32 times.
Florida Gulf Coast 75, Oklahoma State 67 — Kaneisha Atwater had 26 points and Whitney Knight added 19 points and 10 rebounds to help the seventh-seeded Eagles (31-2) top the Cowgirls (20-12) in Tallahassee for their 26th straight win.
It was a sweet win for the seventh-seeded Eagles, who were eliminated in last year’s first round of the NCAA tournament, 61-60, in overtime by Oklahoma State. The Cowgirls were led by Roddricka Patton’s career-high 23 points.