UConn, Notre Dame punch tickets to women’s Final Four
UConn coach Geno Auriemma and the Huskies are headed back to a familiar spot — the Final Four.
Crystal Dangerfield led the way as top-seeded Huskies routed No. 2 seeded and defending champion South Carolina 94-65 on Monday night to reach the national semifinals for a record 11th consecutive year.
UConn will face former Big East rival Notre Dame on Friday night in Columbus, Ohio.
While the Huskies are regular participants in the Final Four, they are not the defending champions this time around. Their 111-game winning streak and run of four straight national championships were stopped by a last-second overtime loss to Mississippi State in last year’s semifinals.
“Every team starts the season saying that’s our goal to go to the Final Four. For us, it’s an opportunity to go back to where we felt like we didn’t really give our best effort,” Auriemma said. “We lost to a really good team. Happened in a way that was really, really disappointing. I know that we were anxious to go back and put ourselves in that same situation and see how much we’ve changed since last year.”
The Albany Regional final featured the past two NCAA champions meeting for the first time since 1997 when UConn lost to Tennessee. The Huskies (360) quickly turned it into a mismatch with stellar 3-point shooting.
Dangerfield scored 19 of her 21 points in the first half. Gabby Williams had 23 points as UConn scored the most points in school history for this round of the NCAA Tournament.
UConn went right at South Carolina in the first half, connecting on 9 of 10 3-pointers — including a perfect 5 for 5 by Dangerfield. Her last 3 of the second quarter made it 52-31 and delighted a crowd that included former UConn greats Tina Charles and Breanna Stewart, who helped the Huskies to four consecutive national championships. Stewart grew up 2 hours west of Albany.
Katie Lou Samuelson scored 17 points and Napheesa Collier had 16 as UConn shot 59 percent (37 for 63) from the field. Williams was named most outstanding player of the region.
“I think we definitely have something to prove,” Williams said of the Final Four. “Not only to the rest of the world, but to ourselves as well.”
The loss ended the stellar career of South Carolina post A’ja Wilson. The unanimous AP All-American, who grew up a few miles from the Gamecocks’ campus, helped the school win its first national championship last season and guided the team to two Final Fours in her four years. She did all she could to make it a third trip to the national semifinals.
Wilson had 27 points for South Carolina (29-7), but it wasn’t nearly enough. Coach Dawn Staley took her star out with just over 3 minutes left in the game and her team down 31 points.
• Albany had the best attendance of the four regionals, with over 10,000 fans coming on Friday night for the semifinals and 9,522 showing up Monday night. That two-day total easily eclipsed the 15,949 from 2015 when Albany last hosted the regional. NOTRE DAME 84, OREGON 74 >> Kathryn Westbeld scored 20 points, Jessica Shepard added 18 and Notre Dame reached the Final Four for the eighth time in school history.
Westbeld came up with the biggest game of her Notre Dame career despite being slowed by an ankle injury from the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Westbeld had scored a combined 12 points in the previous four games, but she teamed with Shepard for an inside attack that hurt the Ducks.
Notre Dame (33-3) outscored Oregon 52-38 in the paint and outrebounded the Ducks 51-29 in the Spokane Regional final.
First-team all-American Sabrina Ionescu of Walnut Creek led Oregon (335) with 26 points, but the Ducks struggled offensively over the final 20 minutes. Oregon shot 8 of 31 in the second half and Ionescu had just seven points after the break.
Notre Dame’s defense was a big reason why Oregon shot so poorly.
After a first half that was an offensive showcase, Notre Dame did a better job of pressuring Ionescu and getting the ball out of her hands. When she did get a shot attempt, it was often a challenged look.
Notre Dame took full advantage, starting the half on a 15-4 run, including three second-chance baskets and Jackie Young’s jumper with 30 seconds left in the quarter that gave the Irish a 61-55 lead. ALL-AMERICAN TEAM >> South Carolina’s Wilson became the seventh player to earn Associated Press All-America team honors three times. She was a unanimous choice from the 32-member national media panel. Wilson was joined on the All-America team by Ionescu of Oregon, UConn’s Samuelson, Louisville’s Asia Durr and Mississippi State’s Victoria Vivians.
Stanford’s Brittany McPhee was honorable mention.
Wilson is the seventh player to be a three-time All-American. Baylor’s Brittney Griner, Tennessee’s Chamique Holdsclaw, Duke’s Alana Beard, Oklahoma’s Courtney Paris and UConn’s Stewart and Maya Moore are the only other players to earn first-team honors at least three times.
Bay Area product Paris and Moore were All-Americans all four years.
Ionescu was honored for the first time. Only a sophomore, Ionescu led Oregon to one of the best seasons in school history averaging 19.4 points, 7.8 assists and 6.6 rebounds. She’s the first Duck to earn first-team All-America honors.
The second team consisted of Baylor’s Kalani Brown, Ohio State’s Kelsey Mitchell, UConn’s Williams, Iowa’s Megan Gustafson and Notre Dame’s Arike Ogunbowale.