No. 1 seed Duke and No. 2 seed Louisville went to OT on Sunday before deciding who would take home a title in the 2026 ACC Women’s Basketball Tournament. Behind the hot hands of Taina Mair and Delaney Thomas who both poured in 19 points the Blue Devils fought their way to a second consecutive conference title defeating the Cardinals, 70-65.
Duke fans had a stomach full of butterflies as Louisville was ahead of the Blue Devils for 35 of 40 minutes and then Thomas tied the game up at 60 with a layup with just 4 seconds left. That score pushed the game into overtime.
ACC Basketball | Women On Fire, Men Blast Off Tuesday
With overtime Duke used that momentum to ease ahead as once again Thomas delivered a layup at a critical point. Riley Nelson delivered the deal closing score with a trey with 6 seconds left in OT. Nelson finished with 12 points overall. Taina Mair, in addition to her 19 points grabbed 12 rebounds. Mair’s performance earned her MVP of the Tournament.
ACC Basketball Tournament
For Louisville, Imari Berry and Mackenly Randolph were key to the Cardinals offense. Berry put up 18 and Randolph added 17 with 11 rebounds and played all 45 minutes of the game.
NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament
ESPN’s Charlie Creme in his latest (03/08/26) bracket for women’s basketball has a total of 9 ACC teams projected. Duke moves up from a No. 3 to a No. 2 with their win of the conference title. Louisville is No. 3, North Carolina No. 5, Notre Dame No. 6, NC State No. 8, Virginia Tech and Syracuse No. 9, Clemson (Last 4 Byes) No. 10 and Virginia is among the Last 4 In dropping to No. 12.
Creme has Stanford just missing the cut for the tournament.
The NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament Selection Committee release show will be on Sunday, March 15 at 8pm ET on ESPN.
The First Four will play March 18-19 and the First/Second Rounds will be March 20-23.
2026 ACC Women’s Basketball All-Tournament Team
First Team
Taina Mair, Duke (MVP)
Riley Nelson, Duke
Imari Berry, Louisville
Mackenly Randolph, Louisville
Hannah Hidalgo, Notre Dame
Second Team
Toby Fournier, Duke
Delaney Thomas, Duke
Ashlon Jackson, Duke
Laura Ziegler, Louisville
Uche Izoje, Syracuse
