Skylar Diggins dominates as Notre Dame advances; Duke tops Nebraska

NORFOLK, Va. -- Skylar Diggins was already having such a great day, her coach figured she might as well make it historic. The Notre Dame point guard scored 22 of her 27 points by halftime Sunday and became the career scoring leader for the school's women's program in leading the top-seeded Fighting Irish to a 93-63 victory over Kansas in a Norfolk Region semifinal.

Notre Dame will play No. 2 Duke tomorrow for a berth in the Final Four.

Coach Muffet McGraw had forgotten all about Diggins' pursuit of the school scoring mark until the game was well in hand and she was told the senior was just two points away from passing assistant coach Beth Cunningham.

"I told her, 'You're coming out in 30 seconds. You might as well get one more,' " McGraw said she told Diggins.

With 7:48 to play, the lefthander in her trademark white headband swished a 12-foot jumper. "Coach told me to score two more. I didn't really know why, but I was like, 'OK,' " Diggins said.

It was that kind of day for Diggins, who heard talk beforehand that the Norfolk Region was full of great point guards. She quickly showed, though, that she might not have a peer, especially at this time of year with the stakes so high.

"We play in games that are so much like Sweet 16 or Elite Eight kind of caliber games in our conference," Diggins said. "That helps all of us."

So does having a leader that makes it all look so easy. Diggins added nine assists and three steals, scored nine straight during a 16-2 first-half run that put the Irish (34-1) ahead to stay, and six more to cap a 10-2 run into halftime.

"She's what everyone says," said Kansas point guard Angel Goodrich, who finished with seven points and 13 assists. "She's the whole package. She can create for herself and she can create for her teammates."

The victory was the 29th in a row for Notre Dame, and left the Irish one victory shy of a third consecutive trip to the Final Four. They have lost in the title game each of the past two years.

Carolyn Davis led the upstart Jayhawks (20-14) with 25 points on 11-for-17 shooting, but the second No. 12 seed ever to get this far in the women's tournament since the seeding format began in 1994 didn't stick around long.

Duke's 'D' too much for Nebraska. Tricia Liston scored 17 points and Duke shook off a slow start to beat Nebraska, 53-45, in the other semifinal.

Alexis Jones added 14 points for the second-seeded Blue Devils (33-2), who advance to Tuesday's Norfolk Region final against top-seeded Notre Dame with a Final Four berth on the line.

"We don't want to be pretty, we want to advance," Duke coach Joanne P. McCallie said after the Blue Devils struggled offensively but used a solid defensive effort to hold on. "We want to advance. We want to find a way to keep going."

Duke used 12-0 run to take a 23-18 lead by halftime and the defense did the grunt work. "Somebody mentioned that we haven't played a great game yet," McCallie said. "It's about time we do. I'm kind of looking forward to that. We've had to gut some things out, handle some things differently."

The sixth-seeded Cornhuskers (25-9), in the round of 16 for just the second time in school history, shot just 30.3 percent and were 3-for-24 from three-point range. -- AP