UConn women’s basketball is heading to Phoenix. On Sunday, the Huskies vanquished arch-rival and 6-seed Notre Dame, 70-52, to advance to their 25th Final Four in program history.
Sarah Strong claimed Fort Worth 1 Most Outstanding Player honors after battling for 21 points, seven rebounds, five steals and three assists. Blanca Quiñonez (20 points, eight rebounds, three assists) and Azzi Fudd (13 points, four assists, three steals) each made the all-tournament team.
Jana El Alfy only played seven minutes
— all of which came in the third quarter — but made a big impact off the bench with four offensive rebounds and four points.
Notre Dame’s Hannah Hidalgo finished with 22 points, but needed a 7-19 shooting performance to get there. Nobody else on the Irish reached double-figures.
The Huskies led for the final 37:13 of the contest.
For the third time in four NCAA Tournament games, UConn’s offense struggled out of the gates. The Huskies were stagnant in the half-court and made just two of their first seven shots. Strong didn’t take her first attempt until 1:45 remained in the opening quarter.
Then came Quiñonez. The freshman came in off the bench and took over, scoring 12 of the team’s final 16 points in the frame to put UConn ahead by nine. Quiñonez had as many points as Notre Dame through the first 10 minutes.
In the second quarter, Hidalgo heated up while the Huskies went cold. The Irish superstar scored her team’s first 11 points of the period while UConn failed to find the basket in the opening 3:35. The Huskies gained some separation with a 10-0 run that pushed the lead to double-digits for the first time, but the Irish responded with five straight themselves.
Kayleigh Heckel hit a circus shot just before the buzzer to send UConn into the locker room ahead, 32-25.
Out of the break, the Huskies began to execute their offense better. They moved the ball and created open shots but couldn’t knock them down. Despite grabbing six offensive rebounds in the first five minutes of the second half, they went just 2-12 to start the second half.
Hidalgo went on a 7-2 run by herself to cut UConn’s lead down to seven, but a 7-0 burst from the Huskies pushed the gap back out to 14.
In the fourth quarter, the Huskies did just enough to stay ahead. A 3-pointer from Quiñonez gave UConn its largest lead to that point at 15. Fudd followed that up with an old-fashioned three-point play to extend the advantage to 18 with 6:10 left, which proved to be a dagger. Notre Dame never got back within 15 as the Huskies came away with an 18-point victory.
UConn improves to 38-0 on the season and advances to the Final Four for the third straight season. The Huskies are the first team to punch its ticket to Phoenix and will take on the winner of 1-seed South Carolina and 3-seed TCU in the national semifinal on Friday, Apr. 3.
