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ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Mila Holloway and Syla Swords each had seven points in a dominant opening quarter and combined to score 33 points, leading second-seeded Michigan to an 83-48 win over 15th-seeded Holy Cross in the first round of the women's NCAA Tournament on Friday.
Holloway finished with 20 points, eight rebounds and seven assists to show she's a talented sophomore on the team along with third-team All-American Olivia Olson and Swords, an All-Big Ten guard.
"Mila is a great player," said Swords, who scored 13 points. "I think she goes under the radar a lot. She was on triple-double watch."
Olson had 12 points and eight rebounds, Brooke Daniels had 12 points and Te'Yala Delfosse added 10 points for the Wolverines (26-6).
Michigan will be back on its home court against N.C. State or Tennessee on Sunday with a chance to advance to the Sweet 16 for the third time in school history.
The Crusaders (23-10) earned a bid for the third time in four years and entered March Madness with a nine-game winning streak and exited with just their second loss in two months.
"Really impressed with our team and how we competed," coach Candice Green said. "Obviously, Michigan is a fantastic team."
Kaitlyn Flanagan scored 11 points as the only double-digit scorer for Holy Cross.
The beginning of the end came early for the Patriot League team.
Michigan scored the first 10 points of the game and later went on a 12-0 run, leading to a 27-6 advantage after the first quarter.
"We've been working on our defense and transition," Olson said. "That was kind of our game plan of getting out right away and pushing the pace."
Holy Cross was competitive the rest of the game, but it was too late.
The Wolverines, fired up to play in front of their fans, were relentless at both ends of the court early.
Michigan started strong with a stop, Holloway's jumper, a turnover off its zone press and compelled Green to call a timeout less than two minutes after the opening tip.
That didn't slow the Wolverines down.
When Holy Cross did get the ball up the court, a block sealed a shot-clock violation. When the Wolverines missed a shot, they grabbed offensive rebounds with muscle and hustle to score 10 second-chance points in the pivotal opening quarter.
"Their pace is something that we haven't played against, even against some of the big names we played like Iowa, UConn and Duke this year," Flanagan said.
The Wolverines will hope home-court is an advantage against the Wolfpack or Lady Vols as it was when they hosted first- and second-round games in 2022 and went on to the Elite Eight for the first time in program history.
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AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-womens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness
