1991 NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Tournament
| 1991 NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Tournament |
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| Teams | 48 | ||||
| Finals site |
Lakefront Arena New Orleans, Louisiana |
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| Champions | Tennessee (3rd title) | ||||
| Runner-up | Virginia (1st title game) | ||||
| Semifinalists |
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| MOP | Dawn Staley Virginia | ||||
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The 1991 NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Tournament began on March 13 and ended on March 31. The tournament featured 48 teams. The Final Four event was hosted by the University of New Orleans, and held at the Lakefront Arena in New Orleans. The Final Four teams consisted of Tennessee, Stanford, Connecticut, and Virginia, with Tennessee defeating Virginia 70-67 (OT) to win its third NCAA title. Virginia's Dawn Staley was named the Most Outstanding Player of the tournament.
This tournament was the first to adopt the FIBA's 10ths-second clock during the final minute of each period, unlike whole seconds as in past seasons.
James Madison earned an 8 seed and beat the 9 seed, Kentucky in a first round match-up. This set up a game between the Dukes, and the number 1 seed in the East Regional Penn State, with the game played on the Penn State home court. The game started out in favor of the home team, as they scored the first eleven points of the game, forcing JMU coach Sheila Moorman to call a timeout. The lead extended, with the Nittany Lions pulling out to a 24–9. The coach decided to stress defense and it helped, but Penn State held a 41–29 lead at halftime. The team continued to stress defense in the second half, and the Dukes held Penn State to six points in the first eight minutes of the second half. The Dukes took a lead, and were up by four points with under twelve minutes to go. Penn State cut the lead to two points, and with 19 seconds to go attempted a three-point shot for the win, but the shot was blocked, and JMU would upset the top seed. It was only the second time in the ten-year history of the NCAA tournament that a number 1 seed had failed to advance to the regional. Coincidentally, first time was in 1986 when number 1 seeded Virginia failed to reach the regional when they were defeated by James Madison.
10th seeded Vanderbilt upset 7th seeded South Carolina, then went on to defeat the second seeded Purdue 69–63, to advance to the regional, where they would lose to Auburn. 10th seeded Lamar upset 7th seeded Texas, then went on to a 20-point victory over second seeded LSU. Oklahoma State faced Michigan State in a game that would go to three overtimes. Oklahoma State won 96–64.
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