13th straight Final Four appearance for UConn
Huskies rally to edge Baylor; Arizona earns first Elite 8 win
SAN ANTONIO, Texas — Paige Bueckers scored 28 points and top seed UConn used a huge run spanning the final two quarters to beat No. 2 Baylor 69-67 on Monday night and reach a 13th consecutive Final Four in the women’s NCAA Tournament.
“Each year that we do it, I still can’t believe it,” UConn coach Geno Auriemma said.
UConn has made the national semifinals every season since 2008 and won six titles during that span. The Huskies will face Arizona on Friday night. The Wildcats , who defeated Indiana on Monday, have never played in a Final Four.
It took a last-second stop and a disputed non-foul call to keep UConn’s streak going.
The Huskies (28-1) trailed 55-45 late in the third quarter before scoring 19 consecutive points, including 10 by the freshman phenom Bueckers, who became the third first-year player to make first-team
All-America.
“Paige got that look in her eye, started getting some buckets. And when Paige is scoring, the rest of the team really gains a lot of confidence,” Auriemma said. “Our defense got just really good at the end, and we got some great stops.”
Baylor (28-3) wouldn’t go away as Bueckers went cold in the final minutes. Trailing 64-55, NaLyssa Smith, an All-American herself, ended the Lady Bears’ drought with 6:47 left and sparked a 12-4 burst that got Baylor within one after Dijonai Carrington converted two free throws with 19.3 seconds left.
After a timeout, Baylor fouled Christyn Williams, who missed both free throws to give the Lady Bears one last chance.
Carrington, who finished with 22 points, drove the lane to the left and missed a contested jumper from the baseline where a foul could have been called, but wasn’t.
“I personally don’t see it as a controversial call. I’ve seen the replay, and one girl fouled me in my face and one girl fouled me in my arm,” Carrington said. “So, at that point you can’t do anything else. We drew up a play, (Smith) got fouled posting up and I got fouled driving. Nothing we could really do about that situation in particular. But, you know, turn the page.”
LeBron James even tweeted that a foul should have been called.
Williams corralled the rebound and was fouled with 0.8 seconds left. She hit one of the free throws before Bueckers stole the inbounds pass at the buzzer.
No one has played UConn tougher over the last decade than Baylor, with each team winning four of the matchups. The Lady Bears (28-3) had won the previous two, including a 74-58 win at Connecticut in January of 2020.
They were supposed to meet this past January, but Baylor coach Kim Mulkey came down with COVID-19 around Christmas and the game was canceled.
The game got off to a fast start for UConn, which jumped out to a 16-4 lead behind Bueckers. But Baylor was just getting going. The Lady Bears closed the action-packed first quarter with a 20-10 run and trailed 26-24 after one.
Baylor went on a 10-2 run in the third quarter to push ahead 55-45. Then UConn took over, scoring the final eight points of the period after Lady Bears point guard DiDi Richards injured her hamstring when dribbling down the court and exited the game.
ARIZONA 66, INDIANA 53: Aari McDonald scored 33 points and No. 3 seed Arizona beat No. 4 Indiana to earn its first trip to the Final Four.
McDonald, the Pac-12 player of the year, did everything for the Wildcats, from slashing drives to a banked-in 3-pointer. She briefly left the game with a twisted ankle with 2:35 left, but limped back on and scored six more points. Her three-point play with 34 seconds left put the exclamation point on the victory.
Arizona (20-5) advanced to Friday’s national semifinal against top-seeded UConn, which reached its 13th straight Final Four when it beat No. 2 seed Baylor earlier Monday night..
Arizona made consecutive 3-pointers in the middle of the fourth quarter, the latter from Helena Pueyo off a bullet pass from McDonald, for a 57-50 lead in what had been a tight, basket-for-basket game. Pueyo made two 3-pointers in the final quarter.
The Hoosiers never led and went scoreless for nearly four minutes after pulling even at 48-48 in the fourth.
Mackenzie Holmes scored 20 points for Indiana (21-6), which was playing its first Elite Eight game.