Top seeds UConn, UCLA advance to women’s Final Four

Top-seeded UConn is back in the Final Four, but it wasn’t the two All-Americans and Naismith finalists who carried the Huskies when things were shaky.

Freshman Blanca Quiñonez, who scored 20 points, was the difference-maker in UConn’s 70-62 Elite Eight win over Notre Dame. The victory assured UConn its 25th Final Four trip in program history, including making 17 of the last 18.

Blanca scored 14 first-half points while Azzi Fudd and Sarah Strong got off to another slow start, combining for a season-low 10 first-half points. Quiñonez’s hot shooting kept the Huskies in front of sixth-seeded Notre Dame, which was seeking its first Final Four trip since 2019.

For Quiñonez, though, her big first quarter wasn’t a major deal.

“As always, I just try to bring something to the court, impact the game, as coach says,” Quiñonez said. “I just go there and just try to do the best for the team.”

Strong, who finished with a team-high 21 points, and Fudd, who added 13 points, struggled early because of Notre Dame’s defense and physicality. That was a focus for the Irish, who had lost 85-47 to the Huskies in February and recognized they’d need to be more physical this time around.

“I thought we were physical,” Notre Dame coach Niele Ivey said. “I have always talked about us having toughness, and I feel like we were tough. We struggled to score, but I thought physically we matched them a lot better than we did the first time around.”

But the Fighting Irish couldn’t find enough offensive help for star guard Hannah Hidalgo. The junior led Notre Dame with 22 points and 11 rebounds, but no other Irish player scored in double figures, while UConn’s depth shined throughout the game.

Quiñonez wasn’t the lone UConn bench player to step up in big moments. Kayleigh Heckel played a major role by giving point guard KK Arnold some rest and being a primary defender on Hidalgo, who did not score in the first quarter.

“Both of them had very difficult assignments trying to guard, I think, probably the best point guard in the country,” UConn coach Geno Auriemma said. “I think she’s, as we’ve gone along in this tournament, become even more comfortable and more sure of herself.”

Still, keeping Hidalgo in check all game wasn’t going to be possible. She scored on an and-one layup to cut UConn’s lead to seven points with 2 minutes, 31 seconds left in the third quarter, but Strong and Fudd took over from there.

Strong scored 10 points in the fourth quarter, and Fudd scored seven points in the final frame to help seal another Final Four trip for the Huskies, who are aiming to repeat as national champions.

It’s good for UConn to learn to battle when Strong and Fudd are off, but two slow starts in a row are concerning for an offense that has been scoring with ease this season, averaging 88 points per game. Strong and Fudd combined for just four points in the first quarter of their Sweet 16 win against North Carolina.

The Huskies will play on Friday in Phoenix against Monday’s Elite Eight winner between top-seeded South Carolina and third-seeded TCU.

“This team, no matter what I throw at them, they always just go, ‘All right, we got this,’ ” Auriemma said. “That’s why I’m happy for them, because they put up with a lot every day in practice, and it’s made them who they are right now. It might all fall apart next Friday night, who knows? So far, so good.”

UCLA comes back to beat Duke

Cori Close put her hands on her hips and allowed herself to take a minute just by herself. She looked out at her UCLA players on the floor. Then she started beaming, soaking it all in.

UCLA is on to the Final Four for the second time in program history but also the second consecutive year under Close, whose Bruins beat Duke 70-58 on Sunday to win the Sacramento 2 Region at Golden 1 Center. No. 1 seed UCLA will take on the Elite Eight winner of top-seeded Texas and second-seeded Michigan in Phoenix on Friday.

As the confetti fell and her players celebrated together, Close wasted no time perching a Final Four hat on her head as she waved to the UCLA faithful.

Getting to the Final Four isn’t easy to begin with. And Duke, especially in the first half, tested the Bruins.

The Bruins looked out of sorts in the first half, committing two shot-clock violations and turning over the ball a glaring 12 times. They struggled with Duke’s swarming defense – which made sure to make shots difficult for 6-foot-7 center Lauren Betts, who didn’t score her first point until about the 1:20 mark of the first quarter. On defense, meanwhile, the Bruins couldn’t consistently stop Duke, which didn’t seem to care that Betts was in the paint and attacked the Bruins (and their four guards) down low with regularity.

But before the Bruins even got to the locker room at halftime, Close was already workshopping solutions with her two ball handlers, Kiki Rice and Charlisse Leger-Walker.

Just two days after Close’s halftime adjustments were the difference in UCLA’s eventual Sweet 16 blowout of Minnesota, the Bruins flipped the page in the final 30 minutes of Sunday’s Elite Eight game, too.

Betts got far more involved, finishing with 23 points – including 15 in the second half. With about a minute left and after a tough layup on the left side, she stuck her tongue out toward the UCLA faithful, as if to start the eventual party that was quickly to come. UCLA’s defense clamped down on Duke’s offense in the second half, too, and limited the Blue Devils to just eight third-quarter points. Forward Angela Dugalic gave the Bruins quite the boost with some big-time rebounds and putbacks en route to earning All-Regional honors behind 15 points, six rebounds and four assists.

Despite committing a whopping 18 turnovers – nearly six more than their usual average of 12.4 – the Bruins got the job done by scoring 54 points in the paint to Duke’s 32 and outrebounding the Blue Devils 38-26. Betts’ 23 points led all scorers, though Duke guard Taina Mair wasn’t far behind with 21.

As UCLA looks ahead to the Final Four, the Bruins no doubt have some cleaning up to do. Getting those shot-clock violations and turnovers remedied will likely be Close’s top priorities.

But at least for Sunday, it was all about celebrating and TikTok dances.