Ohio State ends Connecticut’s streak
SEATTLE — UConn’s record streak of reaching 14 straight Final Fours ended when third-seeded Ohio State beat the No. 2 seed Huskies 73-61 on Saturday.
Cotie McMahon scored 23 points and the Buckeyes (28-7) forced UConn (31-6) into 25 turnovers, ending the Huskies’ season before the national semifinals for the first time since 2008.
UConn hadn’t been eliminated this early since 2006.
The Buckeyes stopped their own Elite Eight drought. Ohio State hadn’t made a regional final since 1993. The Buckeyes went on to lose in the title game that year.
They’ll play top seed Virginia Tech on Monday night in the Seattle 3 Region final with a trip to Dallas at stake.
Ohio State, which had to rally from a doubledigit deficit in the first round against James Madison, used full-court pressure to wreak havoc on the Huskies’ offense.
“We picked the worst day to actually be doing the things that we’ve been struggling with all year long,” UConn coach Geno Auriemma said in a sideline interview during the game.
Georgia Amoore scored a career-high 29 points and the top-seeded Hokies advanced to the Elite Eight for the first time in school history with a win over the fourth-seeded Vols.
The Hokies (30-4) won their 14th straight game overall and advanced to a matchup with No. 3 seed Ohio State in the Seattle 3 Regional final on Monday night.
Jordan Horston led Tennessee (25-12) with 17 points. Rickea Jackson scored 15.
GREENVILLE 1
SOUTH CAROLINA 59 UCLA 43
Kamilla Cardoso had 10 points while the reigning national champion Gamecocks turned in their latest overwhelming defense-and-rebounding-first performance to beat the Bruins on Saturday.
Aaliyah Boston had eight points, 14 rebounds and two blocks for the Gamecocks (35-0), the top overall tournament seed and the headliner in the Greenville 1 Region. It marked South Carolina’s 41st consecutive victory, securing the program’s sixth trip to the Elite Eight under Dawn Staley.
The Gamecocks will play for their fifth trip to the Final Four in Monday’s regional final against 2-seed Maryland in a rematch from the season’s opening week. South Carolina won that game 81-56.
It wasn’t an easy offensive operation for South Carolina, with UCLA sagging defensively to pack the paint in hopes of negating the Gamecocks’ size advantage behind Boston. But South Carolina dominated the glass from start to finish and used its length to turn every look into a difficult one for the fourth-seeded Bruins (27-10).
Charisma Osborne scored 14 points to lead UCLA, which was in the Sweet 16 for the eighth time. The Bruins were trying to reach the regional finals for the first time since 2018 and only the third time in program history.
But in a sign of what was to come, the Bruins kept missing shots that they needed to position themselves for a stunning upset. Worse, they failed to grab even a few of those misses to keep possessions alive early, with South Carolina going on to finish with a 15-8 edge on the offensive glass.
MARYLAND 76 NOTRE DAME 59
Diamond Miller scored 14 of her 18 points in the final two quarters to lead second-seeded the Terrapins to the Elite Eight for the first time in eight years.
Shyanne Sellers also had 18 points for the Terps, who’ll play defending champion South Carolina, the top overall seed, on Monday night for a trip to Dallas for the Final Four.
Maryland (28-6) used a third-quarter burst to put away the third-seeded Fighting Irish (27-6), who played once again without injured leading-scorer Olivia Miles after her knee injury at the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament earlier this month.
Miles and guard Dara Mabrey, both starters, were injured spectators for Notre Dame, which hung tight with Maryland for 25 minutes before Miller and Shyanne Sellers took over.
Miller, the first-team All-American, shook off a poor first half as Maryland gained control.
Tied at 44-all, Lavender Briggs hit a 3-pointer and Miller followed with a 3-point play as the Terps closed the third quarter on a 13-1 run.