Women’s conference tournament takeaways: Duke ties ACC record, makes claim for No. 2 seed

More teams are punching their tickets to the NCAA Tournament on Sunday as the major conference’s compete for championships. Other teams will be left sweating it out until Selection Sunday — wondering about their seedings, whether their bubbles burst or whether another team will slip up and provide them an opportunity.

Here’s the teams who have claimed bids for the tournament field.

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NCAA automatic qualifiers

Automatic qualifier

Conference

Duke

ACC

Samford

Southern

UCLA

Big Ten

Western Illinois

Ohio Valley

Follow along for the highlights of the day:

Duke ties Maryland’s ACC championship record

Duke made history on Sunday.

With Sunday’s 70-65 overtime win over Louisville, the Blue Devils tied Maryland for the most ACC tournament championships, with 10.

They had to do it in dramatic fashion, much like the first meeting between the Blue Devils and Cardinals in February.

Down two points with 14 seconds left, Delaney Thomas converted a layup to tie the game and send it to overtime. Duke, with star forward Toby Fournier on the bench with five fouls, continued to watch Thomas come up clutch. She had a team-high 19 points and nine rebounds, with four of her points and three rebounds in overtime.

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Her final rebound of the game might’ve been her biggest. Leading by two points, with 25 seconds left, her seventh offensive rebound of the game gave Duke an extra possession and ended in the game-sealing 3-point shot by Riley Nelson. Guard Taina Mair also had 19 points and led Duke with 12 rebounds.

This championship caps a remarkable turnaround for Duke, which will enter the NCAA Tournament with a 24-8 record. Six of those losses came before Christmas, playing into the fact that the selection committee likely will favor recent strength when evaluating teams for seedings. The Blue Devils began the season 3-6, with losses to South Carolina, South Florida, LSU, UCLA, West Virginia and Baylor.

Since then, Duke has been one of the most consistent teams in the country, running…

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Publish date : 2026-03-08 20:31:00

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