Daily Briefing — March 17, 2022: HIGH FLYERS — Dayton crushes DePaul in Greensboro play-in

Happy Thursday — the workweek’s almost passed! Welcome to The Next’s Daily Briefing, featuring the W Roundup, daily Watch List, and Yesterday’s Recap. Day 125 of college basketball is here, following the first-ever play-ins in NCAA women’s basketball history. Howard trumped Incarnate Word in our first match, before Dayton got wet from three to cruise past DePaul. Now that the Bison and Flyers are in, let’s do it all again.

W Roundup

Indiana: Waived Jantel Lavender. The veteran big had two full protected years left on her contract, and so is being partially bought out, per Rachel Galligan. The Fever will pay money they have little need for in order to clear playing time and a roster spot for, probably, one of their seven draft picks, while also ensuring the coaching staff doesn’t give minutes to a player who has played well below WNBA-level for the past three years.

Visit our offseason trackers page to see all the other free agent moves and how they affect team’s caps, other front-office changes, and more — in neat, colorful fashion!

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Watch List, Thursday, March 17

(All times in Eastern, all rankings reflect tournament seeding)

Must-watch

None

Good games

#11 Missouri State v. #11 Florida State, 9 p.m., ESPN2

Also watchable

None

Thursday, March 16 recap

(All rankings below reflect tournament seeding)

Greensboro

#11 Dayton beat #11 DePaul, 88-57. The Flyers shot 56.5% from three while holding the Blue Demons to 27.1% from the field and 25.0% from deep; Dayton notched 15 blocks. Off-ball guard Erin Whalen led with a career-high 28 points on 10-for-17 from the field and 7-for-12 from three and two assists; center Tenin Magassa had eight points on 4-for-10 FG, 14 rebounds, and seven blocks against four fouls in 24 minutes.

#16 Howard beat #16 Incarnate Word, 55-51. Bigs Brooklynn Fort-Davis and Krislyn Marsh led respectively with double-doubles of 15 points (6-17 FG) and 11 rebounds (six offensive) and 14 points (6-10 FG) and 16 rebounds (six offensive).