Texas Tech, Virginia Tagged Visiting ‘Dogs Huskies, Vols Entertain Home Crowds In Final Four Countdown

How do you topple a giant in her backyard? To earn spots in next weekend’s NCAA women’s Final Four?

Texas Tech and Virginia will have to figure out answers to that problem.

All the Red Raiders and the Cavaliers must do to reach the national semifinals in Minneapolis next Saturday is beat Tennessee and Connecticut, the respective top seeds in the Mideast and East, on their home courts in today’s regional finals. Tennessee and Connecticut have won a combined 99 straight at home.

Good luck.

The task is only slightly easier for Purdue in the West and Georgia in the Midwest. There are no homecourt favorites to conquer in either place, but significant obstacles to hurdle, in Stanford and Colorado, respectively.

Here’s a look at each regional championship game:

Mideast Regional

No. 5 Texas Tech (33-3), the region’s second seed, can count on at least one edge in tonight’s title game against the Lady Volunteers (32-2). Four Red Raiders starters were members of the team that won the national championship two years ago, and that experience will be vital when an estimated crowd of 15,000 turns out at Thompson-Boling Arena.

But Tennessee’s distinct height and size advantages, combined with the power of a 63-game home winning streak, make Texas Tech a formidable underdog, at least in the minds of the Red Raiders. Texas Tech beat Washington 67-52.

East Regional

No. 10 Virginia (27-4), the third seed in the regional, will have a nice wake-up call when it tries to beat No. 1 Connecticut (32-0) at the Harry Gampel Pavilion in Storrs, Conn., where the Huskies have won 36 straight.

The Cavaliers, who swept through the Atlantic Coast Conference regular season unbeaten before losing to Duke in the ACC tournament semifinal, nipped Louisiana Tech 63-62 Thursday on a drive from point guard Tora Suber with 3.7 seconds left.

The game matches former Virginia assistant Geno Auriemma, now the head coach of Connecticut, against his former boss, Cavaliers coach Debbie Ryan.

Midwest Regional

Second-ranked Colorado (30-2), which set a goal to get coach Ceal Barry to the Final Four by her 40th birthday next week, can deliver, especially with another strong performance by senior point guard Shelley Sheetz, who helped the Buffaloes fend off George Washington at Des Moines, Iowa.

Colorado, which swept through the Big Eight and has won 25 straight, has reached a regional final for the second time in three years.

To do so, the Buffaloes will have to get by No. 12 Georgia (27-4), which pounded North Carolina State in the other Midwest semifinal, behind 28 points from sophomore La’Keshia Frett. The Bulldogs will be looking for their first Final Four trip in 10 years.

West Region

Fourth-ranked Stanford (29-2) can extract a measure of revenge in tonight’s title game in Los Angeles, by beating No. 16 Purdue (24-7), the fourth seed in the regional and the lowest seed left in the tournament.

The Boilermakers knocked off the Cardinal 82-65 at Stanford’s Maples Pavilion in last year’s West final to snatch a Final Four berth, but second-seeded Stanford, which knocked out defending champion North Carolina, is playing better now than last year.