<\/p>\n
Michigan players celebrate a three-pointer by Olivia Olson (1) in the second half in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA college basketball tournament against Louisville, Saturday, March 28, 2026, in Fort Worth, Texas.<\/p>\n
LM Otero\/AP<\/p>\n
Louisville guard Imari Berry (2) and Michigan guard Brooke Q. Daniels (5) dive to the floor competing for control of a loose ball in the first half in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA college basketball tournament, Saturday, March 28, 2026, in Fort Worth, Texas.<\/p>\n
LM Otero\/AP<\/p>\n
Louisville forward Elif Istanbulluoglu (11) works to the basket against Michigan guard Olivia Olson (1) in the first half in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA college basketball tournament, Saturday, March 28, 2026, in Fort Worth, Texas.<\/p>\n
Tony Gutierrez\/AP<\/p>\n
Louisville forward MacKenly Randolph (4) makes a pass in front of Michigan guard Mila Holloway (3) in the first half in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA college basketball tournament, Saturday, March 28, 2026, in Fort Worth, Texas.<\/p>\n
LM Otero\/AP<\/p>\n
Louisville forward Laura Ziegler (0) looks to make a pass as Michigan guard Olivia Olson, right, defends in the first half in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA college basketball tournament, Saturday, March 28, 2026, in Fort Worth, Texas.<\/p>\n
LM Otero\/AP<\/p>\n
FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) \u2014 Olivia Olson and the Michigan Wolverines already had weathered a six-minute scoring drought to start the game when they scored 17 consecutive third-quarter points in their Sweet 16 meeting with Louisville.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we just take a breath and relax, we have so much fun,\u201d Olson said. \u201cSo just that third quarter we were just really playing loose and having fun, and I think that\u2019s what ignited our run.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Olson scored 19 points, fellow sophomore Syla Swords added 16 and No. 2 seed Michigan overcame a sluggish start for a 71-52 victory over the Cardinals in March Madness on Saturday.<\/p>\n
The Wolverines had a 16-0 run in the second quarter to erase an 11-point deficit, their biggest, then broke a tie in the third with the 17-0 burst that let them cruise to their second Elite Eight, both in the past five seasons.<\/p>\n
Michigan (28-6) tied a school record for victories and will play top-seeded Texas on Monday night for a spot in the Final Four.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt took us a minute to settle,\u201d coach Kim Barnes Arico said. \u201cBut then once we did, I think our confidence exploded and we just were really disruptive on the defensive end, which we pride ourselves with being, and that allowed the floodgates to open on offense.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Elif Istanbulluoglu scored 18 points but was the only player in double figures for the third-seeded Cardinals (29-8), who shot 35% and were outscored 49-16 over a two-quarter stretch from midway through the second to the middle of the fourth.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was not a good performance at all by us. It was actually the worst we\u2019ve had all year,\u201d said Louisville coach Jeff Walz, who has overseen all 13 of the program’s Sweet 16 trips during his 19 seasons. \u201cIt\u2019s what they did, but a lot of it was because what we didn\u2019t do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Olson, the top scorer among a bevy of sophomores leading both teams, missed four of her first five shots, and the Wolverines didn’t score until Swords’ bucket made it 8-2 with 3:46 left in the first quarter.<\/p>\n
Te’Yala Delfosse, who had 10 points, eight rebounds and two blocks, had a 3-pointer during the second-quarter run that she capped with a three-point play for Michigan’s first lead at 28-25.<\/p>\n
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Swords and Olson connected on consecutive 3-pointers late in the 17-0 run that put Michigan in control for good. The sophomore standouts combined to go 9 of 16 from the field in the second half.<\/p>\n
Louisville had won both of the previous meetings in the NCAA Tournament, including a victory four years ago that sent the Cardinals to the Final Four.<\/p>\n
\u201cEarly in my career, it seemed like we got them in every bracket,\u201d Barnes Arico said. \u201cI\u2019m not up here complaining. I know there\u2019s been a lot of coaches come through that said they get the same. So I was not looking forward to playing them at all, but heck, it feels so great to be on the other side of that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shooting struggles<\/p>\n
Louisville’s three double-figure scorers \u2014 Tajianna Roberts, Laura Ziegler and Imari Berry \u2014 combined to make just eight of 34 from the field. They were 2 of 12 from 3-point range as the Cardinals finished 3 of 14 (21%) from deep.<\/p>\n
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\u201cI think you definitely have to stay present and trust the work that you put in all year, because the work you put in is going to show,\u201d Roberts said.<\/p>\n
Coaching jersey<\/p>\n
Barnes Arico was wearing a maize No. 11 softball jersey on the sideline, and her staff members also had on baseball or softball jerseys.<\/p>\n
She said she wore a similar jersey the other time the Wolverines reached the Sweet 16 four years ago, a squad featuring Naz Hillmon, Michigan’s first Associated Press All-American. Barnes Arico said 11 was the number for both her late brother and her father, who died this year.<\/p>\n
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\u201cIt just gives us a different look,\u201d Barnes Arico said. \u201cIf we keep this thing going, it will be our Sweet 16 thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
AP March Madness bracket: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/ncaa-womens-bracket and coverage<\/a>: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/march-madness<\/a>\n<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Michigan players celebrate a three-pointer by Olivia Olson (1) in the second half in the Sweet 16 of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":225540,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[116,118,117,87446,87444,87443,87442,3116,87445,86893,23681,202,196,42838,42094,1721,87447,942],"class_list":["post-225539","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-worth","tag-fort-worth","tag-fort-worth-headlines","tag-fort-worth-news","tag-jeff-walz","tag-kim-barnes-arico","tag-laura-ziegler","tag-march-madness-louisville-michigan-score","tag-michigan","tag-naz-hillmon","tag-olivia-olson","tag-package-100024-ap-online","tag-package-100502-member-choice-sports-option","tag-product-30599-ap-sports-news-s-wire-only","tag-product-32556-ap-online-college-game-stories","tag-product-32562-ap-online-other-sports-news","tag-product-40788-ap-kentucky-sports-only","tag-product-40792-ap-michigan-sports-only","tag-product-40815-ap-texas-sports-only"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225539","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=225539"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225539\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/225540"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=225539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=225539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=225539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}