Alexa Philippou
SPOKANE, Wash. — Huskies star Paige Bueckers came to UConn with the goal of winning a national championship.
That title proved elusive in her previous three NCAA tournament appearances, but she’ll have one final shot over the coming week at making that dream come true.
Behind 31 points and six assists, Bueckers lifted the No. 2 seed Huskies to a 78-64 win over No. 1 seed USC in the Spokane 4 Regional final, clinching the team’s 16th Final Four appearance in 17 years and 24th overall. Bueckers, the presumptive No. 1 overall pick in next month’s WNBA draft, has led UConn to the Final Four each season she’s played for them.
The Trojans — playing without national player of the year front-runner JuJu Watkins, who tore her ACL in their second-round NCAA tournament game last Monday — put up a valiant effort without their superstar but fell just short of their first Final Four appearance since 1986. They were led by a 23-point, 15-board performance from senior Rayah Marshall.
UConn will face No. 1 overall seed UCLA in a national semifinal Friday evening in Tampa, Florida. UConn opened as an 8.5-point favorite, per ESPN BET odds.
Bueckers’ 31 points pushed her past Napheesa Collier and into third on UConn’s career scoring list. She also, according to ESPN Research, is just the second player since 2000 to record 30 points on 50 percent shooting in three straight NCAA tournament games, joining Jackie Stiles (Southwest Missouri State) in 2001.
UConn’s defense made USC uncomfortable for large swaths of the game, forcing 10 turnovers in the first half and holding the Trojans without a 3-pointer until the 6:44 mark of the third. USC’s 14-point halftime deficit was its largest since the start of last season.
The Huskies’ 10-for-22 effort from beyond the arc, on the contrary, marked the first time this season USC allowed an opponent to reach double digits on 3-pointers.
Freshman Sarah Strong became the first freshman in UConn history with a 20-point, 10-rebound game in the Elite Eight or later. She kept the Huskies afloat early with 10 of their 14 first-quarter points, helping them take the lead after trailing 11-5 early and jump ahead by as many as nine.
The Huskies mostly dominated the first half behind star Strong and Bueckers, who combined for more first-half points (28) than USC (25).
But the Trojans made things interesting heading into the fourth, cutting a 19-point deficit to five behind 10 third-quarter points from Talia von Oelhoffen.
Graduate student Azzi Fudd, who started the game 0-for-9 shooting, helped UConn pull away down the stretch, scoring eight points in the fourth, including a pair of 3-pointers.
A pair of layups from Kaitlyn Chen in the second-to-last minute helped put the game out of reach. Chen’s 15 points were her third most in a game this season, her first in Storrs after transferring from Princeton.
