Louisville 76, Tennessee 64

Hailey Van Lith and Emily Engstler knew Louisville had allowed far too many leads to slip away in the fourth quarter this season, including the disheartening loss to Miami in the quarterfinals of the ACC Tournament.

Van Lith and Engstler refused to let it happen again in the NCAA Tournament.

Van Lith poured in 23 points with six assists and was solid at the foul stripe down the stretch, while Emily Engstler had 20 points and 10 rebounds to help the top-seeded Cardinals withstand Tennessee's frantic comeback for a 76-64 victory on Saturday that sent coach Jeff Walz's bunch back to the Elite Eight for the fourth straight time.

Kianna Smith also had 12 points for the Cardinals (28-4), whose 15-point lead was whittled to two in the fourth quarter before they pulled away to set up a date with third-seeded Michigan on Monday.

“We just kept reminding each other that as long as we get stops and rebounds, we’ll be up no matter what,” Van Lith said afterward, “no matter if we score or not. We were able to execute that. All of our players stepped up and got rebounds and made good plays on defense and we were able to pull away.”

The Cardinals have become one of the nation's dominant women's programs under Walz — much like the Lady Vols were for so many years under Pat Summitt — but they are still chasing their first national championship.

“It's been a really long journey,” said Engstler, a transfer from Syracuse, “and I just think sometimes you have a feeling. I feel really good about this team, and I think we're going to get there.”

Rae Burrell led No. 4 seed Tennessee (25-9) with 22 points, but she didn't get a whole lot of help from the rest of her team, which had 18 turnovers and was 5 of 21 from beyond the arc. Jordan Walker had 10 points but also had five turnovers.

“Louisville is tough. They're so tough on both ends of the court,” Lady Vols coach Kellie Harper said. “We needed to play with a few less mistakes at both ends of the court. But we don't have any quit in us. We cut it to two, we gave ourselves a chance in the fourth quarter. Love 'em for that.”

The Cardinals asserted control midway through the first, taking advantage of too many unforced errors by the Lady Vols. Kaiya Wynn's turnover led to Van Lith's easy transition layup, then Wynn missed a pair of foul shots and Burrell missed an open 3-pointer from the corner in the waning minutes that allowed Louisville to stretch the lead.

The trouble for Tennessee really began in the second quarter.

The Lady Vols turned the ball over on four of their first six possessions, often resulting in easy baskets at the other end, and the Cardinals seized on the momentum swing by slapping on a full-court press, too. The lead ballooned to 27-13 before Harper called a timeout to rescue her team trapped in the backcourt.

The biggest reason Tennessee hung around, down 38-29 at the half, was decent defense of its own.

The Lady Vols finally got going on offense out of the break, with Burrell and Tess Darby as the catalysts. Darby was scoreless in the first half but hit three 3s in the third quarter, and Burrell also had nine points over that stretch, including a 3 that barely beat the buzzer to get the Lady Vols within 55-50 heading to the fourth.

The turnovers finally did them in, though.

Tennessee had closed within 55-53 on Burrell's three-point play to begin the fourth quarter but coughed it up on three straight trips down floor. Engstler scored after the first turnover, Smith drained a 3-pointer after the second and Louisville quickly stretched the lead again, building a big enough cushion to coast into the regional finals.

“We're going to have a heavyweight fight,” Walz said. “It's going to be a fun day Monday. It's nice to still be playing.”

Louisville reached the 70-point mark with 2:18 to go and that was a bad sign for the Lady Vols, who were 24-2 when holding opponents under that total. The Cardinals struggled from the field most of the way — Van Lith was just 7 of 21 from the field and 0 for 5 from beyond the arc.

Tennessee fell to 0-3 against Louisville in the NCAA Tournament, including a loss five years ago in the Sweet 16. And while the Lady Vols are making strides under Harper in their return to prominence, they still haven't reached the Elite Eight since 2016 and their last Final Four appearance came in 2008.

The center-hung video board inside INTRUST Bank Arena went dark about the same time the game tipped off, preventing both fans and coaches from seeing any replays. It finally came back on midway through the first quarter.

Michigan 52, South Dakota 49

Naz Hillmon had 17 points and 10 rebounds and Laila Phelia scored the go-ahead layup in the final minute for No. 3 Michigan, which beat No. 10 seed South Dakota to reach the Elite Eight for the first time.

Phelia scored 14 points and Leigha Brown added 10 for the Wolverines (25-6).

Michigan will play No. 1 seed Louisville on Monday with a trip to the Final Four at stake. Louisville defeated No. 4 seed Tennessee 76-64 earlier in the day.

South Dakota (29-6) was trying to become just the fifth double-digit seed to reach the Elite Eight, but fell short. Hannah Sjerven had 17 points and eight rebounds before fouling out, while Chloe Lamb, the Summit League Player of the Year who averaged 16 points per game, was held to just six points.

With the crowd overwhelmingly on its side, the Coyotes held the Wolverines without a field goal for 3:40 to start the game, and led for much of the first half.

Back-to-back 3-pointers by Grace Larkins put the Coyotes ahead 25-23 in the second quarter, and they led 26-24 at the break thanks to 11 points from Sjerven. Phelia, who had averaged just under nine points per game for the season, scored 12 in the first half to keep Michigan in the game.

Michigan took a 39-38 lead into the fourth quarter, with Hillmon scoring nine points in the third.

A mid-range jumper by Lamb rattled in to tie the game at 48 with 48.5 seconds remaining.

Phelia made a layup with 22 seconds remaining, and Brown later made two free throws to put the Wolverines up by four.

South Dakota's Maddie Krull made the first of two free throws to cut Michigan's lead to 52-49 with 7.5 seconds left. But she missed the second free throw, and there was a scramble for the ball before it went out of bounds. It wasn't immediately clear who the ball last touched, but South Dakota got it after the referees' review.

The Coyotes couldn't get a clean look, with Kyah Watson missing a 3 as time expired.