Hailey Van Lith poured in 26 points, 18 of them in the second half, as No. 2 TCU came from behind to beat No. 3 Notre Dame 71-62 on Saturday afternoon in an NCAA Women's Championship regional semifinal in Birmingham, Alabama. The Horned Frogs (34-3) advance to the Elite Eight to square off on Monday (time to be announced) against No. 1 Texas, which defeated fifth-seeded Tennessee 67-59 in Saturday's second semifinal. It is TCU's first trip to an NCAA regional final in program history. Notre Dame led by two points at halftime and by as many as nine early in the third quarter before the Horned Frogs rallied to take a 58-52 advantage on a jumper by Van Lith two minutes into the final period. From there, TCU rode Van Lith's hot hand and savvy ball handling to finish off the victory. Sedona Prince added 21 points, six rebounds and six blocked shots for the Horned Frogs while Madison Conner hit for 13 points. Liatu King led Notre Dame (28-6) with 17 points and 10 rebounds. Hannah Hidalgo added 15 points and Olivia Miles had 10 for the Fighting Irish in the loss. Notre Dame trailed by a point after one period before jumping to the front at 24-20 after a jumper by Miles with 8:49 to play in the second quarter. Notre Dame held the lead the rest of the half but never by more than four points, with the margin trimmed to 35-33 when the Horned Frogs' Donovyn Hunter converted two free throws with 33 seconds to play until halftime. Prince, Conner (nine points each) and Van Lith (eight) combined for all but seven of TCU's points in the first half while King led the Fighting Irish with eight points and five rebounds before the break. Notre Dame expanded its advantage to 46-37 when Hidalgo hit a pair of free throws with 5:51 to play in the third quarter. King's layup at the buzzer gave Notre Dame a one-point lead heading into the fourth. --Field Level Media

Cameron Hildreth scored 28 points and Hunter Sallis added 13 of his 17 in the second half as Wake Forest eked out a 74-71 victory over Atlantic Coast Conference opponent Notre Dame in Winston-Salem, N.C., on Saturday. The Demon Deacons trailed for most of the second half, but Sallis' jumper put them ahead 62-61 with 4:03 left. He entered with a team-leading 18.6 points per game, but was 5-of-17 from the floor and 0-for-3 on 3-point attempts. Wake Forest (20-9, 12-6) began the day clinging to shaky NCAA Tournament hopes despite losing three of its previous four games and also knowing it must contend with No. 2 Duke on Monday. Notre Dame stayed within three points after surrendering the lead and was within a point with 1:20 left. Then Hildreth was fouled on a 3-point attempt and sank all three free throws with just under a minute left to push Wake Forest's lead to 72-68. J.R. Konieczny split two free throws, and Markus Burton hit two from the line with 13 seconds left to trim the deficit back to one. The Fighting Irish immediately fouled Sallis, who hit both free throws for a 74-71 lead with 13.3 seconds left. With a last chance, Notre Dame came out of a timeout with 10 seconds left and missed three attempts for the tying basket. Burton scored 29 points to carry Notre Dame (12-17, 6-12), which missed eight of its last nine shots from the field. The Fighting Irish, who are scrambling to make sure they can qualify for the ACC tournament, had made 12 of 14 prior to that slump. Tae Davis added 15 points and seven rebounds for Notre Dame. Notre Dame led 30-25 at the break, outshooting Wake Forest 45.8 percent to 33.3 percent. Wake Forest made only three of its first 15 shots and trailed 13-6 with 11:19 left in the first half. The Irish extended their lead to 20-10 thanks to four straight points from Davis. The Demon Deacons then erupted for 10 straight points, capped by buckets from Sallis after steals by Ty-Laur Johnson and Hildreth, the latter with 5:01 left. Burton and Hildreth led their teams with 11 and 10 points in the half. --Field Level Media

Now that it's March, there are a lot of teams across America that need a win this weekend to boost their NCAA Tournament hopes. Wake Forest is certainly among the most needy. With losses to second-tier Atlantic Coast Conference teams Florida State, North Carolina State and Virginia staining their February resume -- and a visit to No. 2 Duke scheduled for Monday -- the Demon Deacons (19-9, 11-6 ACC) must handle Notre Dame (12-16, 6-11) Saturday in Winston-Salem, N.C., if they have any March Madness intentions. Considering Wake Forest sits in the 70s in the NCAA's NET rankings as well as KenPom, it might already be too late. "It's not the way you want it to be," Wake Forest coach Steve Forbes said. "But, you know, here it is. Like anything in life, you have to face adversity and face it head-on and overcome it. That's what we're going to have to do. Nobody's going to feel sorry for us." Speaking of adversity, Forbes would like his defense to get back to more adversarial ways. Per KenPom, Wake Forest boasts the ACC's fourth-best defense at 98.7 points allowed per 100 possessions. But NC State (85) and Virginia (83) just scored the most points the Demon Deacons have allowed all year. The Wolfpack shot 50 percent from the field and the Cavs hit 55.8 percent, which negated more good offensive work by Hunter Sallis (18.6 ppg) and Cameron Hildreth (15.0 ppg). Wake Forest isn't the only team with incentive Saturday. The Fighting Irish are tied for 13th in the ACC standings with Syracuse and the top 15 teams get invites to Charlotte for the ACC tournament. A win over Wake Forest would all but clinch Notre Dame's spot. Alas, Notre Dame has been missing two starting guards: Braeden Shrewsberry (14.0 ppg, 72 3-pointers) is done for the year with a lower abdominal strain and Matt Allocco (9.0 ppg, 3.0 apg) has been out six of the last seven games with a shooting wrist injury. Sophomore point guard Markus Burton (20.8 ppg) stepped up with 30 points Wednesday in a loss at Clemson -- and the ACC's leading scorer will likely need to do it again. "Right now, (Markus) is driving the ball and there's a dude on him and four other (defenders) standing around him," Notre Dame coach Micah Shrewsberry said. "And he continues to keep scoring, keep going, keep playing. He's doing his part, right? We just need more." --Field Level Media

Backup guard Brandon Rechsteiner converted seven of eight free throws in the final 32 seconds as Virginia Tech rallied for a 65-63 win over Notre Dame Saturday afternoon in South Bend, Ind. Tobi Lawal produced 15 points and 10 rebounds to pace Virginia Tech (11-13, 6-7 Atlantic Coast Conference), which trailed by 11 points with just over 12 minutes to play. Rechsteiner added 12 points stepping in for foul-prone Ben Hammond and Ben Burnham posted 10 points off the bench as the Hokies won their third straight road game. Markus Burton led Notre Dame (10-13, 4-8) with 23 points and three steals but he missed a key four-minute stretch of the second half with an injury above his left eye. Tae Davis added 18 points and eight rebounds while Braeden Shrewsberry, the team's No. 3 point-producer at 14.3 per game, was held scoreless on 0-for-8 shooting. When Burton cashed his only 3-pointer of the day with 14 minutes to play, he lifted the Irish to a 42-32 lead. But less than 30 seconds later, Burton subbed out and walked into the team's locker room with a towel over his head. Notre Dame went up 46-35 with 12:12 to go and still led by nine when Burton returned to the bench at the 10:59 mark holding an ice pack above his left eye. Virginia Tech then scored five straight points to close within 48-43 and prompt a Fighting Irish timeout to get Burton back in the game. Burton hit a 14-foot pull-up for the game's next basket, but the Hokies kept closing in. Lawal's putback dunk with 3:06 to play gave Virginia Tech a 55-54 edge - its first lead since Lawal's alley-oop slam to open the game. Burnham added a corner 3 with 2:01 left before Rechsteiner preserved the lead from the free throw line. The Hokies made just two of their first 15 field-goal attempts as Notre Dame's man-to-man defense limited the visitors' open shots and forced four turnovers. Meanwhile, the Fighting Irish reeled off a 12-0 run to build an 18-4 lead as freshman Sir Mohammed supplied a basket and two assists. Virginia Tech responded with eight straight points to cut its deficit to 18-12 at the 8:24 mark. Tyler Johnson sank the game's first 3-pointer with 6:40 left to help the Hokies pull within 20-15. Burton scored six points in the final three minutes of the half as the Irish seized a 33-26 lead at the break. --Field Level Media

Markus Burton and Notre Dame hope to keep their hot streaks going against Miami on Saturday in Coral Gables. Fla. The Fighting Irish (10-10, 4-5 Atlantic Coast Conference) are coming off a 71-68 home win against Georgia Tech on Tuesday, when Burton scored a game-high 26 points. He hit 9 of 17 shots from the field, including 4 of 5 from the 3-point arc. Burton has been coming on strong after missing all of December with a right knee injury. He is contributing 20.4 points per game on the season, but over the past three games, he has averaged 25. "He's fun to coach, because he has great energy and he gives off great energy to his teammates," Notre Dame coach Micah Shrewsberry said. "He's learning how people are guarding him, what the situation is, what it calls for, and you can see him start to read the game, start to read defenses, set himself up, setting his teammates up, and he's doing it all efficiently right now." Notre Dame has won three of four, and it is one game into a five-game run of matchups against sub-.500 ACC teams. Miami (4-17, 0-10) took an 82-71 home loss to Virginia on Wednesday to remain winless in conference play. Matthew Cleveland led the Hurricanes with 27 points on 10-of-17 shooting from the field, but he was 0-for-4 from 3-point range. "Obviously, a very disappointing loss for us," Miami interim coach Bill Courtney said. "Same problem for us on the defensive end we've had several times, couldn't get key stops. We scored enough to win the game against a very good defensive team." The Fighting Irish may be licking their chops over their immediate schedule, but Shrewsberry is determined to keep it simple for his players. "I told our guys after we won (Tuesday), our next game on Saturday is our Super Bowl," he said. "Every single game is for us, whatever is right in front of us, I think we have to focus on that. I think we can be a good team, but we're still a young team." --Field Level Media