Huskies grind out Final Four victory over Stanford
MINNEAPOLIS — The UConn women’s basketball team has never lost a national championship game, but the Huskies have had trouble getting there the last few years.
It’s been a long drought since 2016 for a program that has won 11 titles.
But Friday night, UConn was back. The Huskies held off defending champion Stanford 63-58 in front of 18,268 at the Target Center to advance to the national championship game Sunday, where the Huskies will face South Carolina at 8 p.m. Paige Bueckers led UConn (30-5) with 14 points, Evina Westbrook had 12 and Christyn Williams had 10.
“I said the other day, points are hard to come by in this tournament,” UConn coach Geno Auriemma said. “Today was no different. You’re going to have to win some other way. You just have to tough it out. You have to rebound
the ball better, play defense better, get to the loose balls, make the free throws.
“We did the things we needed to do when we had to do them. We came up big. It was pretty remarkable, to be honest with you.”
The UConn seniors — Westbrook, Williams and Olivia Nelson-Ododa — simply didn’t want their careers to end. Each struggled in their own way at times, but each also came up with big plays to fuel the win.
“We knew it was going to be a tough one,” Westbrook said. “Stanford’s a great team. They put up a great fight, it was a great game. But at the same time, in the back of our minds, we knew what we needed to do to win this game and I think our defense was the biggest emphasis for us, especially in that second half.”
Westbrook had nine points in the first half. Williams, who struggled to shoot much of the game, going 3 for 13 from the field, hit a 3-pointer at the end of the third quarter and another early in the fourth. NelsonOdoda, who picked up her fourth foul with 4:22 left in the game, had a big basket and free throws early in the fourth quarter. She ended up with 10 rebounds and eight points.
“I thought Nelson-Ododa was extremely aggressive,” Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer said. “She had five O-boards. She played really well for them and she was extremely physical.”