Women's Sweet 16: Raegan Beers has game to go with name; officiating takes 'L' by a nose

From Sweet to Elite, the first half of the regional finals are set. Oregon State upset Notre Dame, South Carolina survived a scare from Indiana, NC State used a monster third quarter to come back against Stanford and Texas dispatched Gonzaga.

But it wasn’t all fun and games Friday. There were too many game stoppages, way too many turnovers and one big blown lead. Madness, indeed.

Read on for more winners and losers from Friday’s games.

WINNERS

Raegan Beers, Oregon State

It’s not just that the Oregon State All-American has a great last name – ESPN’s Elle Duncan quipped after the Beavers' 70-65 win over Notre Dame, “Forget the champagne toast or the Gatorade, crack open a Beers!” – but that she’s bringing lots of attention to that name.

A sophomore standout who leads the nation in field goal percentage (66.4%), Beers scored 18 on 9-of-12 shooting, also grabbing 13 rebounds in helping her team to an upset. The 6-foot-4 bruiser was unstoppable in the paint, helping Oregon State to a 40-28 advantage there. Can she be similarly efficient against top-seeded South Carolina on Sunday?

Raven Johnson 

Just a year ago, South Carolina guard Raven Johnson went viral for all the wrong reasons. In the Gamecocks' semifinal loss to Iowa, Caitlin Clark famously waved off Johnson, implying she wasn’t a threat from the outside.

Oh, how times have changed.

Johnson nailed a crucial 3 in the final minute, helping lift South Carolina past feisty, fourth-seeded Indiana. The Gamecocks won 79-75, earning a trip to the Elite Eight, where they’ll meet Oregon State.

“Nobody can sag off me this year,” said Johnson, who scored 14 points, grabbed five rebounds and handed out five assists. “I take that very personal. And I get in the gym every day and put up reps and I think that’s where it comes from, the confidence.”

Fashion designers

Prada and Louis Vuitton got some free advertising, thanks to South Carolina coach Dawn Staley and Notre Dame coach Niele Ivey.

Staley, who is known for her game-day fits, wore a blue, patterned zip-up Louis Vuitton jacket made of cotton and leather for South Carolina’s win over Indiana. Fans quickly discovered it was the Damier Blouson, to be exact, and it retails for $3,150.

Ivey, meanwhile, wore a Prada denim jacket to Notre Dame’s game, a loss to Oregon State. She paired the jacket, which sells for a little over $2,300, with mahogany leather pants.

NC State guards

It took them a full half to remember how good they were, but when the Wolfpack’s perimeter players got going, they were unstoppable.

NC State starting guards Aziaha James, Saniya Rivers and Madison Hayes combined for 49 points on 14-of-31 shooting (45%), including 6-of-11 from 3. To say they outplayed Stanford’s starting guards would be a massive understatement. Hannah Jump, Talana Lepolo and Elena Bosgana combined for just 21 points — Lepolo was a miserable 0-for-6 from the field and didn’t score a single point — on 3-of-14 from deep.

James was especially dominant, scoring 16 in an explosive third quarter where NC State took over. James said NC State felt momentum in the third and players kept telling each other “keep your head up, keep going” in every timeout.

Rivers, who took her defender off the dribble for a sweet layup to end the third, said the second half was when it “definitely clicked.” “It was so cluttered down there (the first half),” Rivers said, acknowledging the foul trouble Stanford got in, which helped free up the lane. “Going into that one, I knew I was going to score.”

Aaliyah Moore, Texas

Everyone in the Longhorns section held their breath late in the third quarter when Moore, one of the starting forwards, went down holding her knee.

The junior forward, who already wears a brace on her left knee, was in obvious pain and had to be helped off the floor.

But by the time she returned in the fourth she must have been feeling fine, because she finished with 16 points, five in the final period. She also grabbed 10 rebounds and handed out six assists in Texas’ 69-47 beatdown of Gonzaga, helping the Longhorns to their third Elite Eight in the past four years.

LOSERS

Dry eyes

Mackenzie Holmes and Sydney Parrish ignored some last instructions from Indiana coach Teri Moren.

Moren had warned her seniors about getting emotional in the news conference after the Hoosiers lost a heartbreaker to South Carolina. Then the two were asked, with Women’s History Month drawing to a close, who has inspired them.

“The person sitting to my right and the person sitting to my left,” Holmes said. “Coach Moren has exemplified what a strong woman looks like, what a fearless leader looks like. She's the most competitive person I've ever met in every aspect of her life.

“I've never had a female head coach before coming to college,” Holmes added, fighting tears, “and the fact that Coach Moren has been able to guide all of us and lead all of us, there's really no one better, and I'm very, very thankful.”

Then it was Parrish’s turn.

“I completely agree with Mackenzie,” Parrish said. “I told Coach Moren last year when I transferred and came to IU, she made me fall in love with the game again, and I thank her every single day for that because she makes me enjoy playing basketball, whether that's in game, in practice. She trusts us, she loves us, she wants to win for us, and then Mackenzie …”

That’s when Moren jumped in. “We said we weren't going to do this,” she said, her own eyes welling.

Parrish said her emotions were heightened because it was her last time playing with Holmes, who she said has become like “a sister” in her time at IU.

Officiating 

Who can blame Hannah Hidalgo for being mad? Late in the first quarter the freshman phenom got sent to the bench, told by officials she had to take her nose ring out despite playing all season with a diamond stud in. Hidalgo said after the game that when an official told her during warmups she’d need to take the piercing out, she asked if she could cover it instead and was told that would be OK.

But clearly not, because Hidalgo spent about four minutes on the bench as a trainer tried to pry the jewelry out of her nose. It looked painful, and stalled any momentum Hidalgo might have had. Add Oregon State’s stifling defense, and the ACC freshman of the year had a pretty miserable night, finishing with 10 points on 4-of-17 shooting, including 0-for-3 from 3.

But isn’t this something the officials should have done pregame? Or even earlier in the season? Coaches have complained nonstop about the inconsistency from refs. It’s hard to argue with them.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Raegan Beers has game to go with name; officiating takes 'L' by a nose