Notre Dame 84, Vermont 66

Skylar Diggins flashed a smile as she went in for a fastbreak layup for the opening basket against Vermont, as if she knew what was coming.

After making just one basket from the field in Notre Dame's first-round NCAA tournament game, Diggins had a season-high 31 points, seven steals, and six assists to lead second-seeded Notre Dame to a victory over 10th-seeded Vermont Tuesday night at South Bend, Ind., in the second round.

Diggins set the tone for the Irish (29-5) and their pressing defense as they finished with 19 steals and forced the Catamounts (27-7) into a season-high 25 turnovers. The first was in the opening seconds, when Lindsay Schrader stole the ball from Alissa Sheftic and Diggins scored the first basket.

Diggins also helped slow down Vermont's two high scoring guards as May Kotsopoulos finished with 12 points and Courtnay Pilypaitis had 11, but also turned the ball over 10 times.

The game was a big turnaround for Diggins, who was just 1-of-4 shooting for seven points in Notre Dame's 87-58 victory over Cleveland State in the opening round.

Schrader had 14 points and 11 rebounds and Melissa Lechlitner added 12 points as Notre Dame advanced to the Kansas City Regional semifinal, their eighth trip to the round of 16 in last 14 years.

Alissa Sheftic and Kendra Seto added 14 points each for Vermont and Sofia Iowbi added 11 as the Catamounts shot 49 percent for the game, but couldn't overcome its turnovers.

Xavier 63, Vanderbilt 62

No watching and wincing this year. Amber Harris is taking Xavier places in the NCAA tournament.

The Atlantic 10's player of the year led the Musketeers' last-minute comeback, and made a go-ahead layup with 12.3 seconds left that gave third-seeded Xavier a pulsating victory over Vanderbilt at Cincinnati in the second round of the NCAA tournament.

The Musketeers (29-3) will take a 20-game winning streak into its Sacramento Regional semifinal against Gonzaga on Saturday, their season extended by an improbable comeback that ended with sweet tears at midcourt.

Down by 10 midway through the second half, Xavier let its unstoppable player lead the way to a breakthrough win. The Musketeers hadn't been to the round of 16 since coach Melanie Balcomb led them to the Elite Eight in 2001, before moving to Vanderbilt.

Back in the building, Balcomb almost led the Commodores (23-11) to a big upset. Instead, it rattled off the rim.

Vanderbilt led most of the game behind the steadying play of All-SEC point guard Jence Rhoads, who had 20 points and seven assists. Harris missed last year's tournament while recovering from knee surgery, and wouldn't let this season come up short again - Xavier had three straight early NCAA flameouts.

The 6-foot-5 forward scored Xavier's six points in the final 1:22, all on point-blank shots off moves to the basket. After her layup put the Musketeers ahead, Vanderbilt had two shots to win it.

Mississippi State 87, Ohio State 67

Alexis Rack drove through and around Ohio State's slow-to-react defense for 30 points and seventh-seeded Mississippi State upset the second-seeded Buckeyes at Pittsburgh to reach the round of 16 for the first time.

The Lady Bulldogs trailed by as many as eight points in the first half, only to use their quickness, adept ball movement and outside shooting to seize control with an 18-0 run that turned a 32-26 deficit into a 44-32 lead. They never looked back in avenging a second-round loss to the Buckeyes a season ago.

Mississippi State (21-12) plays Florida State (28-5) on Sunday in Dayton.

Ohio State star Jantel Lavender, harassed all night by Chanel Mokango, scored 17 points - many after it was far too late. The 6-foot-4 Lavender repeatedly had trouble posting up as the 6-5 Mokango used her long reach and quickness to deny passes or, when Lavender handled the ball, to pressure her into taking hurried or off-balance shots.

Mokango scored 19 points herself, Armelie Lumanu added 17 and Mary Kathryn Govero scored 15 by making 5 of 6 from 3-point range.