Super Bowl Sunday was one to remember for the Northwestern Wildcats.
The Wildcats pulled off a 74-68 victory over the Ohio State Buckeyes, making it the first time in 14 years Northwestern beat Ohio State in Columbus. The win also guaranteed the Wildcats their second consecutive winning season after going 7-23 in the 2008-2009 season. Northwestern is 16-8 with five regular season games remaining.
"It was a great game, a great road win for our team and our program," Northwestern coach Joe McKeown said in the Daily Northwestern on Monday. "Ohio State has won six straight Big Ten championships. They've been the dominant team in our league for a long time. It's just a really great feel for our players who really hung together when things got tough."
Senior Amy Jaeschke scored a game-high 29 points for Northwestern, which came back from an eight-point deficit in the second half to complete the season sweep over the Buckeyes. The Wildcats beat Ohio State 64-53 on Jan. 13 at Evanston.
Northwestern also wrapped up a Super Sunday for women's college basketball. A total of 41 games were played and 22 road teams, including Northwestern, picked up a victory.
The Northwestern-Ohio State game overlapped the beginning of Super Bowl 45 between the Packers and Steelers. The game, which started at 5 p.m. EST, ended 30 minutes after kickoff.
All of the Big Ten teams except Minnesota played on Sunday. Penn State took a one-half game lead in the league standings at 9-2 with an 82-75 win over Iowa. Michigan State, Michigan and Wisconsin also celebrated victories.
Vanderbilt scored the most points on Super Bowl Sunday. The Commodores improved to 16-7 with a 103-97, double-overtime victory over Florida, their first overtime game since 2005.
"I'm really proud of our mental toughness," Vanderbilt coach Melanie Balcomb said in the Tennessean on Monday. "We just kept talking about the Kentucky game and what we have done to fix our issues, which were mental and physical toughness and communication and check-out, and I believe that is what we did down the stretch to win this game."
The closest game came in Arkansas, where South Carolina edged the Razorbacks 64-62 in overtime. South Carolina's LaKeisha Sutton hit two free throws with five seconds left in the extra period and finished with 21 points.
Maryland was the first team to win on Super Bowl Sunday. The seniorless Terrapins improved to 20-3 with an 88-59 win over North Carolina State after trailing by 12 in the first half.
"You've got to play 40 minutes," Maryland coach Brenda Frese said in the Diamondback on Monday. "In ACC play, everytime you step on the court, you're going to face great competition."
Also, UCLA beat USC 74-67 in the crosstown showdown between Los Angeles schools. It was the only game played on the West Coast on Sunday.
"It was a heck of a basketball game," USC coach Michael Cooper said in the Daily Trojan on Monday. "UCLA proved why they're the No. 10 team in the country. I have to commend our team. These young ladies were playing their hearts out. If nothing else, we made (UCLA) shake a little bit."
Houston improved to 9-0 in Conference USA play with an 85-70 win over Tulane. The Cougars join Connecticut (Big East), Boston University (America East), Xavier and Temple (Atlantic-10), Baylor (Big 12), Chicago State (Great West), Green Bay (Horizon), Harvard (Ivy), Marist (MAAC), Stanford (Pac-10), Tennessee (SEC), Oral Roberts (Summit League), Gonzaga (West Coast), Arkansas-Little Rock (Sun Belt), Louisiana Tech (WAC) as the only undefeated teams in their conference.
Niagara scored the fewest points on Sunday. The Purple Eagles, who have just one win this season, lost 57-35 to Siena on the road.
Siena was one of four New York schools which celebrated wins on Sunday. The others were Marist, Manhattan and Binghamton.
Big jump: The city of Green Bay has another reason to celebrate besides the Packers' Super Bowl win on Sunday -- Wisconsin-Green Bay made the biggest jump among the top 25 teams this week, moving three spots to No. 18 this week.
The Phoenix improved to 22-1 with wins over Cleveland State and Youngstown State last week. Green Bay plays at Illinois-Chicago on Thursday and Loyola (Ill.) on Saturday.
Welcome aboard, Lions and Foxes: Penn State and Marist are the new teams in this week's poll.
After getting wins over Michigan and Iowa last week, the Nittany Lions earned a No. 23 ranking. Penn State is 20-5 and is in first place in the Big Ten standings at 9-2. The Nittany Lions play Michigan State on Thursday and Indiana on Sunday.
"Penn State is a good team," Iowa coach Lisa Bluder said in the Iowa City Press-Citizen on Monday. "They showed why they're No. 1 in our conference. They can just score at will. They're very, very hard to defend because of their quickness and athleticism."
Marist, which is 21-2 and will play Iona on Friday, is at No. 25 after beating Siena, Niagara and Fairfield last week. The Red Foxes are ranked in the top 25 for the first time this year.
"It's a nice accomplishment and a nice honor," Marist coach Brian Giorgis said in the Poughkeepsie (N.Y.) Journal on Tuesday. "But you don't get anything for that. It doesn't get us to the NCAA tournament. It doesn't win us any gold ball like you win in the MAAC tournament. It doesn't win the glass diamond you get for the MAAC regular-season championship."
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