SPOKANE, Wash. — The celebration after the ultimate buzzer sounded Monday night time, and the rating confirmed that UConn beat USC 78-64 to advance to a different Closing 4 felt virtually anti-climatic.
Like this was what was imagined to occur all alongside.
Certain, there was some pleasure, smiles and hugs between gamers. Loads of photographs and tossing confetti at each other.
However Connecticut — because it hasn’t completed for so long as Geno Auriemma can bear in mind — didn’t partake within the custom of reducing down the nets to have fun a Closing 4 berth.
The Huskies are saving that for Tampa, Fla., the place they hope to win a nationwide championship.
“We’ve cut down a bunch of those,” Auriemma mentioned.
This can be Connecticut’s sixteenth Closing 4 journey previously 17 NCAA Tournaments — a powerful run that probably by no means will likely be replicated. However opposite to standard perception, none of that is simple.
Monday’s recreation is a major instance of that.
The sport received dicey for Connecticut within the second half after the Huskies had their 19-point lead lower to 5 on the finish of the third quarter.
It was a powerful struggle again for the Trojans, who had been with out high participant JuJu Watkins after she suffered a season-ending knee damage final week.
However on an evening when one among school basketball’s largest stars was noticeably absent, Paige Bueckers, the extra senior celebrity, shined shiny and stored her group’s hopes of ending Connecticut’s practically decade-long title drought.
Bueckers, who performed all the 40 minutes, scored 11 of her team-high 31 factors within the fourth quarter to maintain the Trojans at bay.
However Bueckers’ affect went far past scoring
She helped Azzi Fudd, who had been 0-for-9 getting into the fourth, get going. All eight of Fudd’s fourth-quarter factors got here on Bueckers assists.
UConn didn’t want fairly one other signature efficiency by Bueckers, who dropped 40 factors within the Candy 16 simply two nights earlier.
Freshman Sarah Sturdy had scored 10 of Connecticut’s 14 first-quarter factors and completed with 22 factors and 17 rebounds.
If we discovered something about this USC group over the previous week, although, it’s that the Trojans are brave and never quitters. They may’ve performed the “oh-woe-is-we” recreation when Watkins went down with a season-ending knee damage.
However USC didn’t.
They gained two video games and superior to their second straight Elite Eight.
The Trojans trailed by double digits however didn’t surrender. They stored chipping away on the Huskies, who received just a little too snug with their double-digit lead.
Talia von Oelhoffen scored 10 factors within the third quarter, together with the basket that made it a five-point recreation heading into the fourth.
USC battled till the very finish. However UConn is simply too deep, too star-studded for the Trojans to take down with out its motor.
“People probably thought, ‘Oh, we’re going to win by 35,’ ” Auriemma mentioned. “But it’s not supposed to be like that. It’s supposed to be hard. This is really, really hard. And I give a lot of credit to USC for what they were able to do given what they had to endure with JuJu. It’s not easy. … We had to show some grit.”
Whereas the Huskies advance to their sixteenth Closing 4 in 17 NCAA Tournaments, USC must reside with the what ifs and what might have been.
Connecticut subsequent heads to Tampa, the place they’ll play UCLA, the No. 1 total seed of this yr’s event, Friday for a shot at enjoying within the nationwide championship recreation.
