How’s your women’s March Madness bracket doing? If you picked chalk, you should be in prime position.

The 2025 women’s NCAA Tournament officially tipped off Friday and aside from a couple of upsets — like No. 7 Vanderbilt falling to No. 10 Oregon in overtime or No. 10 South Dakota State defeating No. 7 Oklahoma State — higher-seeded teams have taken care of business against lower-seeded teams in the opening round.

All four of the No. 1 seeds in the tournament — UCLA, South Carolina, Texas and USC — comfortably cruised to the second round after defeating their first-round opponents by an average margin of victory of 47 points.

And a total of six teams — South Carolina, Notre Dame, Tennessee, UConn, Texas and LSU — surpassed 100 points in the first round, a tournament record for a single round, according to ESPN.

The largest blowout in the first round belonged to No. 2 UConn, which tied the seventh largest margin of victory in women’s March Madness history with a 103-34 win over No. 15 Arkansas State. (More on that later.) The tournament record was set in 2017 when No. 1 Baylor defeated No. 16 Texas Southern by a whopping 89 points in a first-round matchup that ended 119-30.

Before we set our sights on the second round of this year’s tournament, lets that a look at the biggest blowouts in the opening round of 64:

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69 points — No. 2 UConn vs. No. 15 Arkansas State

UConn is in pursuit of its first national championship since 2016 and the Huskies got off to a great start in the first round with a rout of Arkansas State. Azzi Fudd dropped 27 points (10-for-13 FG, 6-for-9 3PT) in her first tourney appearance since 2023 and had a career-high seven assists. Freshman Sarah Strong recorded her fourth straight double-double with 20 points, 12 rebounds, five assists and five blocks, the first player in 25 years to record that stat line. The Huskies scored 35 points off turnovers alone and held Arkansas State to 12-of-70 from the field.

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61 points — No. 2 Duke vs. No. 15 Lehigh

The Blue Devils recorded their largest margin of victory this season, while holding Lehigh to the second-lowest point total in NCAA Women’s Tournament history. Duke did so with both their offense and defense. Three Blue Devils scored in double digits, led by sophomore Oluchi Okananwa’s 15 points (6-of-10 FG, 2-3 3PT), seven rebounds, three steals and two assists. The Mountain Hawks were held to single digits in each quarter in the game. “This is March. Doesn’t matter who your opponent is. You address each and every one with the same intensity,” Okananwa said after the win.

60 points — No. 1 South Carolina vs. No. 16 Tennessee Tech

South Carolina entered Friday’s first-round matchup with extra motivation after being snubbed for the No. 1 overall seed. The Gamecocks came out and made a statement with a 60-point victory over Tennessee Tech. Freshman Joyce Edwards had a team-high 22 points (9-of-12 FG), while MiLaysia Fulwiley added 15 points. South Carolina leads the nation in bench points per game (42.2) this season and showcased its depth on Friday. The Gamecocks’ 66 bench points Friday marked the most in NCAA Tournament history.

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52 points — No. 3 Notre Dame vs. No. 14 Stephen F. Austin

Notre Dame entered the NCAA Tournament losing three of its last five games, but the Fighting Irish corrected course with a dominant first-round win, which marked the second time in program history that Notre Dame surpassed 100 points in March Madness. Five players scored in the double digits, led by Sonia Citron (24) and Hannah Hidalgo (24). Notre Dame placed an emphasis on defense, swiping 18 steals and forcing 28 turnovers. It wasn’t all smiles for Notre Dame — Olivia Miles’ night ended early due to an ankle injury.

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46 — No. 1 USC vs. No. 16 UNC Greensboro

• Final score: USC 71, UNC Greensboro 25
• Largest lead: 46 points

The Trojans held the Spartans to the second-lowest point total in NCAA Women’s Tournament history and their 46-point margin of victory marked the program’s largest in a March Madness game. Sophomore JuJu Watkins led the way with a game-high 22 points, eight rebounds and three steals. She’s scored double digits in every game this season. Senior Kiki Iriafen added a double-double with 13 points and 13 rebounds, marking her 12th of the season. The Trojans scored 32 points off of 23 turnovers and held the Spartans to 7-of-54 from the field.

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44 — No. 5 Kansas State vs. No. 12 Fairfield

Kansas State soundly defeated Fairfield by 44 points following the return of star center Ayoka Lee, who put up a double-double with 17 points (7-of-10 FG) and 10 rebounds in her first game in nearly a month. Guard Serena Sundell flirted with a double-double with 18 points (8-of-10 FG), nine assists and two steals. Kansas State out rebounded Fairfield 44-19 and held the Stags to 15-of-51 from the field.

44 — No. 1 Texas vs. No. 16 William & Mary

Madison Booker showed exactly why she’s the SEC player of the year following a 20-point, 14-rebound double-double performance. The Longhorns pulled away from William & Mary in the second half and led by as many as 45 points in the win. Texas outscored William & Mary 56-22 in the paint and out rebounded the Tribe 51-26.

38 — No. 1 UCLA vs. No. 16 Southern

• Final score: UCLA 84, Southern 46
• Largest lead: 38 points

The No. 1 overall seed opened the NCAA Tournament by setting a program record for the largest margin of victory in March Madness history. Six Bruins scored in double-digits, led by Lauren Betts’ 14 points, six blocks, four assists, three blocks and one steal. Will this be the season UCLA women’s basketball breaks through? The Bruins have advanced as far as the Elite Eight twice (1999, 2018) and Sweet Sixteen nine times, most recently last season, but have never made it to the Final Four. 

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The South Carolina Gamecocks dominated in their round game of the NCAA women’s bracket.

The South Carolina Gamecocks were heavy favorites coming into their first round game. Not only to advance but to potentially go and win the whole thing for a second year in a row. Right now though, Dawn Staley and her team are having to take it one game at a time and the Lady Gamecocks dominated.

South Carolina defeated Tennessee Tech by a final score of 108-48. Joyce Edwards was the leading scorer for South Carolina with 22 points off of the bench. MiLaysia Fulwiley had a solid game as well with 15 point off of the bench.

The Gamecocks (31-3) improved to 17-1 in the past four women’s tournaments, winning in 2022 and 2024. The lone defeat came to Caitlin Clark and Iowa in the national semifinals in 2023.

With Edwards, named to the all-Southeastern Conference first-team this season, leading the way, the top seeds of the Birmingham 2 Regional looked poised for another title in a few weeks.

“Everything comes at you, you don’t know what to expect,” Edwards said. “Once you get your first rebound, the nerves settle down.”

Tennessee Tech coach Kim Rosamond was impressed with the Gamecocks overall skill and discipline. South Carolina made 43 of 67 field goals.

“If they shoot the basketball like that the rest of the way, they’re going to be almost impossible to beat,” Rosamond said.

South Carolina will face ninth-seeded Indiana on Sunday for a spot in the Sweet 16. The Hoosiers outlasted eighth-seeded Utah 76-68 earlier Friday.

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They went into a hornet’s nest, and ended up with the result most opponents do.

South Carolina baseball lost 12-2 in its series opener against No. 3 Arkansas at Baum-Walker Stadium, falling behind 7-0 and eventually losing in seven innings on the run rule after Wehiwa Aloy hit a walk-off three-run home run to extend the lead to 10 in the seventh inning.

Arkansas (20-2, 3-1 SEC) got a strong start from ace Zach Root, an outing which ended up being a complete game after the offense ended the evening early. Root allowed just two runs in seven innings on 92 pitches, striking out seven batters while only issuing one walk and giving up six hits.

His own offense gave him a second inning lead when Justin Thomas Jr. hit an RBI single off South Carolina (17-6, 1-3 SEC) starter Brandon Stone. The damage continued in the third inning, but this time with self-inflicted wounds. Stone got himself in trouble with four free passes — three walks and a hit batter — after a lead-off double, the latter two walks both coming with the bases loaded.

Then Arkansas second baseman hit a grounder to short, which should have ended the inning and kept the Gamecocks down three. But shortstop Henry Kaczmar could not field it cleanly, and it rolled into the outfield to score two more runs. Kaczmar did not return to the game, replaced by Will Tippett at shortstop.

Matthew Becker took over for Stone, but the former Friday starter struggled again. Becker surrendered five earned runs on eight hits in just 3 ⅓ innings, raising his season ERA to 6.65.

South Carolina’s offense could not do much with Root all night, only picking up its two runs thanks to a Jordan Carrion RBI groundout in the fifth and a wild pitch with a runner on third in the sixth. No Gamecock had more than one hit, and the only extra base hits came via three doubles from Ethan Petry, KJ Scobey and Talmadge LeCroy.

The closest South Carolina got was a 7-2 game in the seventh, but the Razorbacks responded with five runs in the bottom half of the frame off Becker and Aydin Palmer to end the game early and preserve their entire bullpen for the final two games of the series.

South Carolina will send Jake McCoy to the mound to try to even the series in a 3 p.m. ET first pitch on Saturday.

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