UConn once again in familiar territory ALBANY REGION CONNECTICUT 72, DUKE 59

ALBANY, N.Y. — Geno Auriemma and the UConn Huskies are in a familiar place — the Elite Eight.

Napheesa Collier had 16 points and 11 rebounds to help top-seed Connecticut beat Duke 72-59 on Saturday and advance to the regional finals for the 13th consecutive season.

The Huskies’ senior duo of Gabby Williams and Kia Nurse was key on the defensive end to help UConn to the victory.

“We’re fortunate that our two seniors are two of the better defensive players in the country,” Auriemma said. “We can count on those two every game. Gabby’s going to play great every game. She plays at a certain level every game. Kia’s one of the toughest competitors we’ve had at Connecticut.”

UConn (35-0) will face defending national champion South Carolina on Monday night to try and advance to a record 11th consecutive Final Four.

“Last time we played them we got out to an early run so I don’t think any of us are expecting it to be easy (Monday),” said Williams, who had 15 points, 7 rebounds and 6 assists. “A’ja (Wilson) doesn’t want her college career to be over on Monday. We know they are going to put up a fight and it will be a battle.”

The Huskies scored the first seven points of the game beginning with a banked-in three-pointer from Nurse and they were off and running.

Duke had only given up an average of 49 points in its first two games of the tournament. UConn had that by the end of the third quarter, much to the delight of the partisan crowd of 10,658 that took in the Albany Regional.

Fifth-seed Duke (24-9) was only down seven early in the second quarter when the Blue Devils went cold from the field, going scoreless over the next 5½ minutes. UConn extended its advantage to 30-16.

The Blue Devils cut their deficit to 12, but UConn scored the final eight points of the half, including a pullup by Williams just before the halftime buzzer to give UConn a 40-20 lead.

Duke closed its gap to 4431 midway through the third quarter, but didn’t score for the rest of the period and UConn rebuilt the 20-point advantage.

“You’ve got to be prepared for the whole 40 minutes,” Duke Coach Joanne P. McCallie said. “UConn is good at responding to that. You’ve got to keep going and have immediacy and smarts. … We did in circumstances, but we couldn’t get it across the board. They have too much experience not to, especially with Gabby and Nurse, they have too much experience.”

The game also featured Huskies center Azura Stevens going against her former team. She transferred to UConn after her sophomore season. Stevens had eight points and 12 rebounds.

ALBANY, N.Y. — Alexis Jennings scored 20 points, A’ja Wilson added 20 points and 13 rebounds, and South Carolina beat Buffalo to keep alive its quest to defend its title.

Second-seeded South Carolina (296), whose only losses this year have come against ranked teams, will face Connecticut, the winner of the other Sweet 16 matchup in the Albany Region on Saturday.

Upstart Buffalo (29-6), just the third Mid-American Conference school to reach the Sweet 16, was among the final four teams to earn an at-large berth. It was the program’s second tournament appearance after a first-round exit two years ago.

The Gamecocks, who have won six consecutive, defeated North Carolina A&T and Virginia by double digits in the first two rounds, holding both to under 60 points as they stayed on track to make a third Final Four in four seasons. But those performances had flaws — 19 turnovers in one — that Coach Dawn Staley focused on correcting. They didn’t on Saturday — South Carolina had 26 turnovers — but in the end it didn’t matter.

Cierra Dillard led Buffalo with 29 points, the only player in double figures.