The Sweet 16 is set and March Madness is returning to Portland this week.

The third round of the NCAA women’s basketball tournament will be played on Friday and Saturday at the Moda Center. (The other half of the Sweet 16 games will be contested the same days in Albany, New York, with a slate of teams that includes No. 3 seed Oregon State.)

Friday’s semifinals in the Portland 4 Regional begin with third-seeded North Carolina State taking on No. 2 seed Stanford at 4:30 p.m. (ESPN) in a game that will see a homecoming for former Oregon high school star Cameron Brink. Brink played for Southridge and Mountainside high schools in Beaverton and is expected to be the second pick in the WNBA draft.

Later Friday, top-seeded Texas will face No. 4 Gonzaga at 7 p.m. (ESPN). The No. 4 seed is the highest the Bulldogs have ever had in the women’s NCAA tournament. The last time the Bulldogs were in the Sweet 16 was in the 2015 season, the first with Lisa Fortier as coach, who is now in her 10th season.

Saturday’s games feature the Portland 3 Regional, with fifth-seeded Baylor going up against JuJu Watkins and No. 1 seed USC (2:30 p.m. on ESPN) and No. 3 UConn squaring off with No. 7 Duke (5 p.m. on ESPN). Watkins has been one of the fastest-rising stars in college basketball this season, making waves with a 51-point outing against Stanford in February and more 30-point games than any other freshman in NCAA women’s basketball history.

The Elite Eight games will follow, with Friday’s winners meeting on Sunday and the Saturday winners clashing on Monday. The Sunday and Monday winners will advance to the women’s Final Four in Cleveland.

— The Oregonian