Manhattan ? The opponent will be better and the setting more hostile when Notre Dame seeks its second straight victory against a higher-seeded team in the NCAA women’s basketball tournament.

At No. 11, Notre Dame is the lowest-seeded team left in a tournament that went almost strictly to form in the first round. The Irish will try to take the next step tonight in a second-round East Regional game at third-seeded Kansas State (29-4), which will have the home court and 10,000-plus purple-clad fans on its side.

“I like purple,” said Notre Dame coach Muffet McGraw, who quickly added, “Green would be No. 1.”

Blue would describe how Notre Dame (20-10) left sixth-seeded Arizona feeling in the first round Sunday night. The Irish overcame shooting just 19 percent shooting in the first half with sticky defense and beat Arizona 59-47 on Kansas State’s court.

They’ll need a similar effort on the defensive end to contain a Kansas State team that has the Big 12 Conference’s player of the year, 6-foot-4 Nicole Ohlde at center, and surrounds her with outstanding three-point shooters in Laurie Koehn, Kendra Wecker and Megan Mahoney.

“We have to get out on every shooter and we’re going to have to shut down all five players because they can all score,” Notre Dame guard Megan Duffy said. “Good defense is definitely going to be the key again.”

It also will be important for TCU, the No. 9 seed in the East.

TCU (20-13) was the only other lower-seeded team to win in the first round, beating No. 8 Michigan State 50-47. The Horned Frogs will be looking for a much bigger win tonight when they play top-seeded Connecticut (32-1), the defending national champ, at UConn.

Kansas State's Kendra Wecker, right, and Megan Mahoney reach for a rebound against Harvard. The Wildcats won Sunday at Manhattan and play host to Notre Dame tonight in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

Connecticut overwhelmed Boston University 91-44 in the first round, showing no sign of a hangover from the loss to Villanova that broke the Huskies’ 70-game winning streak.

“We’ll have to play better, we know that,” TCU coach Jeff Mittie said. “They are the best passing team in the country that I have seen.”

Tonight’s games will conclude the second round of the tournament, which moves to the regional semifinal level next Saturday and Sunday.

One of the more entertaining matchups could be at State College, Pa., where fourth-seeded Penn State (25-8) plays host to fifth-seeded South Carolina (23-7). Penn State’s Kelly Mazzante is fourth nationally in scoring with a 24.2 average.

South Carolina’s Jocelyn Penn is right behind at 24.0.