Sweet 16 games from Friday’s women’s tournament

The horn sounded and Miami coach Katie Meier turned to start jumping and hugging her staff as players and cheerleaders sprinted past for a meet-at-midcourt celebration. She soon made her way into the crowd to embrace players hollering with delight, then emerged through the other side to trade hugs and high-fives with the main front-row section of Hurricanes fans.

An improbable and emotional ride to the program’s first Elite Eight appearance in the women’s NCAA Tournament was worth sharing with as many people as she could.“I can’t believe it,” Meier said afterward. “I’m not going to act cool. This is awesome.”

Jasmyne Roberts scored a career-high 26 points — including a stick-back for the go-ahead, three-point play with 38.8 seconds left — to help Miami overcome blowing a 21-point lead and beat Villanova 70-65 on Friday, pulling the program to within a win of the Final Four.

The ninth-seeded Hurricanes (22-12) looked dominant in building a huge lead, wobbly in blowing it. But they hung on down the stretch after Villanova made its push back behind the latest big-scoring effort from Associated Press first-team All-American Maddy Siegrist.

“I can’t even explain the feeling really,” guard Haley Cavinder said.