Back to the Final Four
UConn holds off USC to set up clash with Iowa
PORTLAND, Ore. — Piles of confetti covered the floor. Players cried in between hugs with each other and with team staff members. A still sizable crowd stood in the stands of the Moda Center.
A faint: “Paige. Paige Paige.” chant could be heard among the celebration coming from a crowd of young kids across the court.
Paige Bueckers walked away from her UConn women’s basketball teammates and took a seat on its now empty bench along the sideline. She lifted off the new “Final Four” hat she’d just help her team earn and brought it down to cover her face. A rush sound of camera clicks began popping off as a swarm of 20-plus photographers knelt before her.
The Husky star, peaked down below her hat, made direct eye contact with the lenses in front of her and smiled. A big, endless grin.
“Man, I was just tired like I just wanted a second,” Bueckers said. “It’s really unreal to be in this position right now with everything that’s happened throughout the year. All the adversity and tough times and I mean, I felt just a rewarding sensation of
just overcoming adversity and just gratefulness and gratitude. I’m just so proud.”
UConn women’s basketball is back in the Final Four. And thanks to Bueckers, the No. 3 seeded Huskies pulled out the unimaginable by stunning No. 1 USC 80-73 in Monday’s Elite Eight to advance to the program’s 23rd appearance in the national semifinals.
After falling short of the Final Four last season, the 2021 National Player of the Year was UConn’s missing and most important piece and she did so in her first year back from a 2022 ACL injury.
The Huskies will face No. 1 Iowa and Caitlin Clark (41 points in the Hawkeyes’ Elite Eight win over LSU) on Friday at 9:30 p.m. (ESPN) in Cleveland for the chance to play in Sunday’s national championship game. No. 1 South Carolina will face No. 3 NC State in the other Final Four at 7 p.m. Friday.
“Today was one of the most rewarding feelings
I’ve ever felt in my life, just seeing where I was a year ago, today, doing individual workouts, starting to feel the basketball again, get the ball in my hands again and play,” Bueckers said. “Now I’m here with my teammates and coaching staff and going to the Final Four.”
Bueckers scored seven points within a five-minute span in the fourth quarter, including fivestraight, to save UConn’s season. She was the only Husky player to finish with a double-double of 28 points, 10 rebounds, six assists, three steals and two
blocks. The redshirt junior was named the Most Outstanding Player of the Portland 3 Regional.
She remained poised when her teammates got in foul trouble. And she made her own shots when her team needed the boost. Bueckers found good looks for herself, but also distracted defenses effortlessly to get her teammates open too. She knew when to crash into the lane and when to shoot it from deep. Even on defense, she was a menace — especially when it came to slowing down freshman sensation JuJu Watkins.
Watkins entered Monday’s game ranked No. 2 in the country at 27.0 points per game. She was named the Pac-12 and ESPN Freshman of the Year and is in the running for national Player of the Year awards as well.
And the Huskies made life difficult for her from tipoff to the final buzzer. Bueckers and Nika Muhl traded off on the defensive assignment, getting in Watkins’ face and pushing her out of easy passing lanes.
The two limited Watkins to just three points and 1-of-7 shooting in the third quarter. The freshman ended with a game-high 29 points, but even she couldn’t build enough run to stop UConn.
“I think that was probably the toughest matchup that any of those guards had throughout the entire season — maybe since they’ve gotten to Connecticut,” Huskies’ coach Geno Auriemma said. “I think JuJu is probably as difficult a matchup as there is, or has been, for our players.”
On offense, Bueckers got help from unexpected places.
Freshman Qadence Samuels sat on the bench for the entire 40 minutes against Syracuse and against Duke. Auriemma opted to only use six players in both his team’s second round and Sweet 16 wins.
But on Monday, with Ashlynn Shade and KK Arnold both in early foul trouble, he had no option and used Samuels as his first sub of the day.
Samuels checked in around the four-minute mark in the first quarter and made an immediate impact. Her length helped defend the Trojans by swarming players with the ball and outstretching her arms in their faces to make good looks suddenly bad.
Her 3-pointer at 6:17 in the second quarter gave UConn its first lead of the day and capped an 8-0 run for the Huskies.
Ice Brady, who averaged 17.3 minutes across UConn’s first three games of the NCAA Tournament, checked into the game with five minutes remaining in the first half. That marked the first time Auriemma used seven of his eight available players since UConn’s 86-64 first-round win over Jackson State.
The Huskies led by as much as six before USC kicked into another gear. At halftime, both Watkins and McKenzie Forbes were in double digits as a 6-0 run from USC tied the game for the third time at intermission.
With Shade and Arnold back on the floor to start the third, UConn strung together a 17-7 run in four-and-ahalf minutes to lead by 10 thanks to a 3-pointer from Shade.
But that’s when UConn’s momentum began to deflate. Arnold was called for her fourth foul at 3:47 in the third and took a seat on the bench. Mühl was called for her third one-and-a-half minutes into the third quarter before getting her fourth five minutes later.
The Trojans pounced on the shift and began pressing. UConn got flustered and made four turnovers within a 31⁄2-minute span. A 3-pointer from Kayla Padilla at the third-quarter buzzer capped an 11-3 run for USC and shrunk UConn’s lead to four.
A 3-pointer from Forbes at 7:32 in the fourth tied the game for the fourth time. And about two minutes later, UConn’s once doubledigit lead was down to three.
Bueckers, like she’s done all season, came to UConn’s rescue. She drained a jumper at 4:13 in the fourth before making a 3-pointer 30 seconds later at the very top of the arc to resuscitate UConn’s momentum and confidence.
And even when the Huskies missed sevenstraight free throws in the final minute, the Trojans failed to take advantage on the other end.
“It was one of the better games that I’ve been associated with at this level,” Auriemma said. “Two terrific teams. Great competitors playing their hearts out for a dream that each kid has when they go to college . ...
“I’m so proud of them and their sense of belief in themselves never wavered, no matter what happened, no matter who we lost (to injury), one after another after another. They never gave up on their dream. Now here we are.”