No. 25 Arkansas takes down No. 15 Texas A&M for right to play top-ranked Gamecocks

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GREENVILLE, S.C. (AP) - Kiara Williams grabbed a pair of offensive rebounds and was fouled on a putback, sinking two free throws with 8.6 seconds left to lift fifth-seeded Arkansas to a 67-66 win over fourth-seeded Texas A&M on Friday in a battle of Top 25 teams in the Southeastern Conference tournament quarterfinals.

The 25th-ranked Razorbacks never led until Williams made her free throws. She grabbed a rebound of an Amber Ramirez miss but her putback was partially blocked. She went back up and grabbed the loose ball and was fouled.

The 15th-ranked Aggies went to top scorer Chennedy Carter but her floater in the lane was blocked by Rokia Doubia and time ran out.

Arkansas (24-7) faces league champion South Carolina, the No. 1 team in the country, in the first semifinal Saturday night.

Makyala Daniels led the Razorbacks with 13 points, Chelsea Dungee added 12 and Williams and Alexis Tolefree 11 each.

Carter had 23 points and Kayla Wells 19 for the Aggies. N'dea Jones scored 10 points and grabbed 11 rebounds.

Texas A&M (22-8) scored the first 12 points of the game and led 38-26 behind Carter's 17 points. The Aggies shot 52% and the Razorbacks 23%, going 3 of 18 on 3-pointers. Dundee, who had one point in the first half, opened and closed Arkansas' scoring in the third quarter, when the Razorbacks got as close as one.

Arkansas cut the deficit to a single possession three times, the last on a Ramirez jumper that made it 66-65 with 1:07 to play. Texas A&M got an offensive rebound after a missed 3-pointer but turned the ball over with 26.8 seconds to go.

ACC TOURNAMENT

FLORIDA STATE 76

WAKE FOREST 47

GREENSBORO, N.C. (AP) - Nausia Woolfolk and Kourtney Weber each scored 15 points and No. 22 Florida State beat 13th-seeded Wake Forest for the third time this season, 76-47 in the quarterfinals of the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament on Friday.

Florida State (23-7), the No. 4 seed, will play top-seeded Louisville on Saturday in the Seminoles' second trip in three years to the semifinals.

Nicki Ekhomu added 12 points with six assists and Kiah Gillespie, leading the team with 15.5 points and 8.7 rebounds, scored 10 for Florida State. The Seminoles had a double-digit lead by the 2:47 mark of the first quarter.

Weber made three of Florida State's 10 3-pointers, while Wake Forest was 1 of 10. The Seminoles were 8 of 10 from beyond the arc in the first half en route to a 42-25 halftime lead.

Ivana Raca continued her strong play for Wake Forest (16-16) with 18 points. She had 27 points and 13 rebounds in the tournament opener.

LOUISVILLE 71

SYRACUSE 46

GREENSBORO, N.C. (AP) - Dana Evans scored 23 points and fourth-ranked Louisville dominated the second quarter to beat Syracuse 71-46 in Friday's quarterfinals at the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament.

Jazmine Jones added 11 points and 10 rebounds for the top-seeded Cardinals (28-3), who had no trouble avenging their last loss from nearly a month ago at Syracuse. Louisville blew the game open by allowing just one field goal in the second quarter while dominating the glass.

The combination allowed coach Jeff Walz's Cardinals to turn a six-point lead after the first quarter into a 34-13 lead by halftime despite their own 38% shooting in the opening 20 minutes.

Louisville finished the game shooting 43% and 12 of 23 from 3-point range, while its 53-31 domination of the boards led to a 25-5 edge second-chance points.

Kiara Lewis scored 18 for the eighth-seeded Orange (16-15), who couldn't repeat the success they had managed against the Cardinals in two meetings - which included a close road loss in late December.

Syracuse shot just 27% this time, including 5 for 23 from behind the arc.

And everything unraveled amid that awful second-quarter performance, with the Orange making 1 of 14 shots - and that was a banked-in straightaway 3-pointer from Lewis - while grabbing only four rebounds amid all those misses as Louisville steadily increased its lead.

The Cardinals entered Greensboro as the unquestioned headliner after winning the regular-season race outright for the first time since joining the league before the 2014-15 season. They had their troubles with Syracuse this year, winning the first meeting at home 62-58 and then trailing for nearly 36 minutes of the 59-51 loss in the Carrier Dome on Feb. 9. But they took care of this in stress-free fashion - well, other than Walz picking up a technical foul with Louisville up 24 midway through the fourth quarter after being irked by a foul call.