On Thursday, March 19, in the Division III Final Four semifinals in Salem, Virginia, the NYU women’s team snapped its second-longest winning streak in college basketball history.
NYU (31-0) and Scranton (29-0) have been in conflict all season. NYU, the NCAA Division III national champion after three consecutive undefeated seasons, fell to a 60-52 record, having their 91-game winning streak snapped.
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More: UConn’s reluctant superstar Sarah Strong might let her ‘Diana side’ come to the fore this March Madness
The University of Connecticut women’s basketball team holds the NCAA winning streak with 111 consecutive games. The Huskies also have the second-longest winning streak at 90 games.
Meghan Lamanna led Scranton with 18 points. Kelly Romanowski had a double-double with 14 points and 16 rebounds. Scranton held NYU to 28 percent of the ball and outrebounded the Violet team 47-34.
Players to watch in the 2026 NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament
UConn’s Azzi Fudd and Sarah Strong are among the top players heading into March Madness. Here are the best players in women’s college basketball:
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Players to watch in the 2026 NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament
It’s hard to believe that Sarah Strong was able to break the record her freshman season, but she’s already outdone herself. Strong set career highs in points (18.5), assists (4.1), steals (3.4), field goal percentage (60.1%) and free throw percentage (87.3%). She leads UConn in nearly every static metric, including points, rebounds, steals and blocks. Look forward to Strong’s outstanding performance in the NCAA tournament. Last season, she set the freshman scoring record (114) in the NCAA tournament.
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Players to watch in the 2026 NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament
UCLA Bruins center Lauren Bates’ numbers are down slightly from last season, but she’s no less dominant. She leads UCLA in points (16.4), rebounds (8.6) and blocks (1.9) per game and has 11 double-doubles. Her efforts earned her Big Ten Player of the Year and Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year honors, becoming the first player in Big Ten history to win both honors in the same season.
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Players to watch in the 2026 NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament
Texas Longhorns forward Madison Booker is reaching new heights this season, setting career highs in points (18.9), steals (2.3) and field goal percentage (51.6%), which she improved from last season’s 46.1%. Booker leads the Longhorns in scoring and has scored in double figures in all but two games this season. She’s just a junior, but entering March Madness, she’s already jumped to sixth on Texas’ all-time scoring list with 1,873 career points.
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Players to watch in the 2026 NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament
UConn Huskies senior guard Azzi is shooting from beyond the arc. She averaged a career-high 44.6% three-point field goal percentage per game and ranked second in the nation with 104 three-point field goals made. She also set a career high in field goal percentage (48.9%). Forde also helped anchor UConn’s No. 1 scoring defense. She is one of three Huskies with at least 85 steals this season, joining Sarah Strong (111) and KK Arnold (93). Ford is also flirting with a 50-40-90 stat line — 50 percent shooting from the field, 40 percent from the three-point line, and 90 percent from the free throw line.
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Players to watch in the 2026 NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament
Vanderbilt’s Mikayla Blakes was named SEC Player of the Year after leading Vanderbilt to its first 27 regular-season wins in program history. Blake leads the nation in scoring with 27.0 points per game and has 12 games of 30 points or more. Ten of those 12 games are conference games. Blakes has scored in double digits in every game this season and has now scored in double digits in 50 consecutive games, the longest active streak in the SEC and the third-longest streak in NCAA Division I women’s basketball. Blakes is the second Vanderbilt star to win SEC Player of the Year and the first sophomore player to win the award since South Carolina’s A’ja Wilson in 2016.
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Players to watch in the 2026 NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament
If you look at Olivia Miles’ statistics, her transfer from Notre Dame to TCU was seamless. Myers is the centerpiece of the Horned Frogs’ offense, as her scoring average improved from 15.4 points last season to a career-high 19.6 points per game. Myers leads the nation with five triple-doubles and is efficient, setting career highs in field goal percentage (48.7) and free throw percentage (84.4%).
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Players to watch in the 2026 NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament
Iowa State Cyclones center Audie Crooks finished the regular season efficiently with 41 points and 13 rebounds on 16-of-19 shooting against Kansas State. It was Crooks’ fourth 40-point game this season and his 12th double-double. Crooks has scored in double figures in every game this season, extending her career streak to 97 consecutive games to the longest active streak in the nation. On January 28, she became the fastest player in Big 12 history to reach 2,000 points and was a unanimous first-team All-Big 12 selection.
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Players to watch in the 2026 NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament
Ohio State’s Jaloni Cambridge is here! The second-year guard is having a breakout season. She increased her scoring average from 15.4 points last season to 22.8 points per game, ranking seventh nationally. Her field goal percentage also increased nearly eight percentage points to 49.0 percent. She has scored in double figures in every game this season and became the 40th Buckeye player to score 1,000 career points on Feb. 8 against Oregon. She is the fifth Ohio State player to score 700 points in a season.
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Players to watch in the 2026 NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament
South Carolina Gamecocks forward Joyce Edwards has taken a big step forward this season. The 6-foot-3 forward stepped into the starting lineup after power forward Chloe Kitts was lost for the season with an anterior cruciate ligament injury in her right knee. Edwards helped lead South Carolina to the nation’s fourth-highest scoring offense (86.3 points per game). She averaged a team-high 19.6 points in 34 starts, up from 12.7 points as a freshman. Her statistics are 6.3 rebounds, 2.4 assists and 1.7 steals per game.
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Players to watch in the 2026 NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament
Notre Dame Fighting Irish linebacker Hannah Hidalgo has been a walking highlight. Hidalgo set career highs in points, steals, rebounds, and field goal percentage, and made ACC history by winning Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year in consecutive seasons. Hidalgo set an NCAA record with 16 steals in a game and scored a school-record 44 points in Notre Dame’s 85-58 victory over Akron on Nov. 12. She led the nation in steals (173), which also set an ACC single-season record.
Caroline Peper added 19 points and Yasmene Clark had 15 rebounds for NYU.
Coach Ben O’Brien went 116-6 in his fourth season in Scranton. Earlier this year, he became the fastest coach in NCAA history to reach 100 wins.
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Scranton is participating in the NCAA Tournament for the 38th time in NCAA Tournament history and for the 13th consecutive season, the longest active streak in Division III.
In November, the Lady Royals embarrassed Pitt in front of a home crowd in an exhibition game. Scranton entered the Elite Eight with a 30-0 record and defeated Concordia-Moorhead by 25 points on Thursday. NYU scored just five points in the first quarter and trailed Scranton 30-18 at halftime.
This article originally appeared in USA Today: NYU women’s basketball’s 91-game winning streak ends in DIII Final Four
