The Madness Continues: Hurricanes Women’s Basketball Team Upset 4th-Seed Villanova 70-65, Heading to their First Elite 8 in Program History

Jasmyne Roberts would have an all-time performance to remember, a career-high 26 points and nine rebounds. Roberts would convert the go-ahead, three-point play with 38.8 seconds left. She would also put the game on ice by knocking down ‘two’ crucial free throws in the closing seconds of the contest to help Miami overcome blowing a 21-point lead and upsetting Villanova 70-65 on Friday. A sports moment forever immortalized, the Canes’ women’s basketball program for the first time in history punched their ticket to the NCAA Tournament’s Elite 8.

“We had some really special performances but Jas [Jasymyne] Roberts, thats 26 points on 16 shots. ‘Cool Hand Luke’ is her nickname, okay. She doesn’t even know that movie but that’s ‘Cool Hand Luke’ and her efficiency numbers are incredible and when the team is like feed Jas, let her eat, she’s beasting, she’s bullying, I mean the whole team was on the Jas train. And that’s what’s special about our team, we’ll find the matchup, Destiny was a great matchup for us too, 15 [points] and 9 [rebounds]… I thought Lashae Dwyer was special for us off the bench and that might have been the difference for us,” Hurricanes head coach Katie Meier said.

Miami Hurricane fans from all over would burst with excitement over social media platforms, celebrating the historic victory meanwhile; the men’s team is waiting in the wings this evening in hopes of capturing their second consecutive and second overall Elite 8 appearance in program history against the first-seed Houston Cougars in the Sweet 16.

The Lady Canes would hold on down the stretch after Villanova made its comeback rally from a frame of the third to fourth quarter, that would be highlighted by a 21-2 run from the Wildcats.

When it was over, longtime Miami head coach Katie Meier turned and started jumping to hug her staff, meanwhile players and cheerleaders sprinted to midcourt to celebrate school history. Meier would make her way over to the sideline nearby a group of celebrating Hurricanes fans and gave the crowd two thumbs-up amid the cheering.

“I can’t believe it, I mean I’m not going to act cool. Like, this is awesome you know, somebody asked me yesterday was the ‘Indiana’ win the biggest of your career? I just wouldn’t answer the question because I just thought, no because ‘est’ is final and we still have another big win ahead of us. So, I’m not going to say this is the biggest win either, I’m just not. We’re gonna keep pushing, we’re gonna keep plugging and we’re gonna keep preparing to win,” said Meier.

Miami had only reached the Sweet 16 once before, in 1992. Now the Hurricanes will play on Sunday for the Greenville Region 2 title in the Elite 8 against the winner of today’s ongoing LSU Tigers and Utah Utes matchup for a ticket to the Final Four.

Maddy Siegrist, the nation’s scoring leader and All-American (averaging 29.2 points-per-game), would have 31 points and 13 rebounds for the fourth-seed Villanova Wildcats.

“They [Villanova] are an awesome program, very, very difficult team to defend obviously. They did a great job surprising us with that pressure, we were in some foul trouble so they picked a good time to do it but all the credit in the world to them. Maddy [Siegrist], is everything she’s been advertised and we really pride ourselves on our defense. Only thing that I can brag about is it took 29 shots for her to get 31 points and I think at the end, she missed some shots that she normally doesn’t but maybe it’s something that we wore her down a little bit,” said Katie Meier.