College basketball in Dallas, in March: Sadly, the Mustangs weren’t playing. But they were represented. SMU, along with Conference USA, is hosting the Dallas Regional in the Women’s NCAA Tournament at Reunion Arena.

Purdue 78, Georgia 65

The first match-up in the Sweet 16 was the No. 2 seed Purdue Boilermakers against the No. 3 seed Georgia Lady Bulldogs.

The Boilermakers looked dazed and confused in the first three minutes of the game, allowing Georgia to get off to an 8-0 start. But even after getting on the board at the 17:17 mark of the first half the Lady Bulldogs still appeared to have the upper hand.

With just over 10 minutes left in the half, Georgia snagged its biggest lead of the game at 13 points.

With five minutes left in the half, Purdue made its final run to halftime.

A layup by FahKara Malone with 5:11 left in the half cut the lead to just nine. Finishing the half outscoring Georgia 10-4, Purdue cut the halftime lead to just one point, 36-35.

The second half was all about the Purdue offense – more specifically, Katie Gearlds.

After going 1-4 from the three-point line in the first half, Gearlds found her stroke. She made three of four second half attempts and went 5-5 from the free-throw line in the second half. Gearlds went on to be the high scorer of the game, just missing a double-double with 30 points and nine rebounds.

Twenty-one seconds into the second half a jumper by Lindsay Wisdom-Hylton gave the Boilermakers a lead they would hold to the end.

Wisdom-Hylton joined Geralds at the top of both rebounds and points, finishing the game with 24 points and nine rebounds. Leading the Lady Bulldogs was Tasha Humphrey with 20 points.

North Carolina 70, George Washington 56

North Carolina proved that they were the No. 1 seed for a reason with their play on the court and the class on their bench.

After each call or non-call the George Washington coach was yelling at someone. Whether it was a referee, the player on the court or the players on the bench, head coach Joe McKeown had something to say.

The Tar Heels never gave the Colonials a chance. UNC jumped out to an early 6-0 lead that GW impressively got right back to tie it up.

Scoring runs of nine, six, nine and four points gave the Heels a 19-point lead with just 1:12 left in the half. But it got even worse for the Colonials, who did not have an answer for the high-powered UNC offense that had a 22-point lead with 11:30 left in the game, never allowed GW to have a lead, and allowed a tie only three times.

Running the dominating offense for the Tar Heels is Ivory Latta. The senior guard averaged 16.3 points and 4.3 assists and started all 35 UNC games of the season. Even with a less-than-stellar game – nine points and three assists – head coach Sylvia Hatchell was still impressed with the way Lotta led the team.

“When Ivory’s running our team and she’s setting them up, pushing the tempo – that’s a pretty good game” said Hatchell. “That’s what I want her to do.”

LaToya Pringle picked up the offensive slack scoring 16 points, grabbing 14 rebounds and blocking four shots.

Elite Eight Match-up

North Carolina and Purdue will battle for a chance to travel to Cleveland, Ohio, for the Final Four tonight at 8 at Reunion Arena.